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Wednesday, August 31, 2011

The dance of Stalagmite and Tmain (28/08/11)

L-R: Rafal setting off in search of whales; Humpback diving; Humpback fluke; Flipper slapping - you can see Stalagmite's other flipper underwater.

L-R: Top left side of Stalagmite's fluke; Spyhop; Hug me;
Bottom: Perfect ending to a fabulous day.
And so it happened....the ride out to the whales was long and very bumpy but no sooner we found two we found 11. We had a successful tag and were treated to the wonderful dance of Stalagmite and her friend Tmain. They were both very curious and circled our boat (which is apparently unusual for such BIG animals) and displayed a number of behaviours including spyhopping (poking head out of water as if to have a look), flipper slapping (turning onto the side and slapping a flipper repeatedly), tail slapping (launching the whole peduncle out of the water and slapping the water), breaching (launching the whole body out of the water), double breaching (both breaching simultaneously) and rolling (lying on their back and sticking both flippers upwards as if in praise).

What a day...and tomorrow is our day off as we await the arrival of Hurricane Irene.

(P.S: Click on the collage to zoom in)


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