Sunday was a full day to savor. Beautiful, including some “Good” observation quality. It was warm enough. Yes, there was some wind, but that helped keep the birds aloft, and they were scattered throughout our vantage. Sometimes they were diving, but mostly they were flying or gliding above our Gray whales: 16, including 8 calves.

It was interesting because the whales were spaced out over the day that started with a pair right in front as we were setting up. Our first few pairs were in a hurry. “Hi ‘n‘ bye.” No waves except the wet ones.

Our third pair, after bouncing in kelp pools at Campus Point, tried to sneak by, surfacing just a little bit and not very often. Later pairs were completely different; even though, they, too, liked the kelp at Campus Point. One pair liked is so much the mom and calf continued all the way through the IV kelp and popped out through the channel we used to call Slip Stream. The mother is in the image above as she cruises inside the kelp by us and close enough to hear some gasps from passers-by.

Our last pair was seen at Campus Point bobbing heads in the kelp ponds. They were there for more than one half hour before they slowly — very slowly — made there way blowing every half-minute past us for more than an hour. They were still visible, blowing into the sun after we had evacuated the Point. They might make Alaska by Labor Day.

Gray whales northbound (all) 16 | Calves 8 — 2015 Count 1240 | 158

Hours 8:05