WHALES GALORE

BACK IN DUNSBOROUGH 

We are now living in Dunsborough,which is on the Southern edge of Geographe Bay, south of Perth.   We are again in Niki's holiday home - see past posts (here and here) and see the link for next door-but-one for a tour of the exact same layout - and most of the fittings.

Our (I mean Niki's!) house seen from the bay

WHALE WATCHING

After being hunted almost to extinction until the 1970’s, (see my previous blog about the whaling station in Albany and its history here) the whale population has recovered to such a level that an estimated 35,000 whales migrate from the Antarctic to these warmer waters every year.

Humpback, Southern Right, Minke and Blue Whales all make the epic journey. Their first port of call is Flinders Bay in Augusta, where the best time to see them is June to August. Augusta is one of the few places where you’ll see the Southern Right and Humpback whales interact. Humpbacks, renowned for their agility, gather in groups of males and engage in breaching, spy-hopping, lob-tailing and tail-slapping. Acrobatics play out during courtship. Southern Right whales will often calve in the bay and sometimes can be seen doing so in the shallows.

The Humpback whales then head directly up north, where the pregnant females who mated last year have their calves (babies). They then return to Geographe Bay near Busselton and Dunsborough where they rest and nurse their young from September to early December.

You can watch the action unfold on the horizon from the shore, along the Cape to Cape Track or from the top of a lighthouse, or get up close on a whale watching cruise departing from Augusta, Dunsborough and Busselton throughout the season.

So we did - first 2 days we walked our favourite local trails around the lighthouse (famous for our walk in 2016 when we saw deadly snake eating deadly snake - for snake lovers see the post here) and track from house - but no luck, apart from the usual greeting that drives twitchers and wildlife spotters to distraction "you just missed 3 whales close to the shore"!

So booked on cruise and had brilliant 3 hours tracking alongside female humpbacks and babies.  Saw around a dozen in total.  We have learnt that taking photos of dolphins and such like just means you miss the action, and thus the memories, and only get black blobs in a lot of water.  But Graham had a go, after an hour or two enjoying the experience, and with 5 or 6 shots got these:-

Amazing luck and amazing tail photo - puts him in pole position for photographer of the year on this trip.

And just while we were enjoying our own whales, I read this heartbreaking description from the hiker who discovered the huge pod of beached whales in New Zealand and spent the night with them on her own.

AND BIRDS TOO

Also on the same trip we saw a big bird flying in - a wandering albatross!  And he/she very kindly posed for us.

And we had a motor home for 2 Welcome Swallows on board - the nest was near the toilets and the pair flew all around the boat and in and out whilst at anchor near the boat ramp - then they had to wait on the tender until the boat and nest returned 2-4 hrs later.  Not sure how that will affect any young!

Nest above the white box parallel to Toilet sign