Site Report: Bahia de Semana

Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae)
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Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae)
Bay full of whales.
Visits
- 2014-01-25: We joined on with a boatload of Polish folks to go look for Humpback Whales. Of course, rum was served at 10 in the morning. After a while in the boat, we arrived at a flotilla of about 8 boats. The boats all took turns to crowd in on three whales that it seems would otherwise be hanging out peacefully in the bay. Our boat, thankfully, was not too aggressive in pursuing the whales, but I could not say that about some of the other boats in the area. Some people are saying that the cruise ships in the area are scaring the whales away with their sonar. But, if I were a whale trying to hook up, and I was being shadowed by eight boats all day, I would probably look for a new place to hang out. Anyway, just as we were about to leave, one of the whales did a major tail slap just a few feet from our boat. For lunch, we stopped at some island with a bunch of chairs set up on the beach.
Species Seen
Kingdom: Animals (7 records)
Phylum: Chordates
(7 records)
Class: Birds
(6 records)
- Order: Doves and Pigeons
(1 record)
- Family: Pigeons and Doves
- White-winged Dove (Zenaida asiatica)
- Order: Pelicans
(2 records)
- Family: Frigatebirds
- Magnificent Frigatebird (Fregata magnificens)
- Family: Pelicans
- Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis)
- Order: Perching Birds
(1 record)
- Family: Tyrant Flycatchers
- Gray Kingbird (Tyrannus dominicensis)
- Order: Shorebirds and Allies
(2 records)
- Family: Gulls, Terns, and Skimmers
- Royal Tern (Thalasseus maximus)
- Family: Plovers
- Semipalmated Plover (Charadrius semipalmatus)
Class: Mammals
(1 record)
- Order: Cetacea
(1 record)
- Family: Balaenopteridae
- Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae)