American Princess whale watch from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, NY (8/20/22)

    Humid air with temps in upper 80s. Billowing cumulonimbus loomed in the north/northeast sky. A steady southeast breeze pushed in from the southeast. In the four hours we were on the water, the naturalist crew counted 7 individual humpback whales. 

    On the way out of Jamaica Bay we saw a few terns and cormorants decorating each buoy and one butterfly flying. The beaches of Breezy Point were crowded with great black-backed gulls. Where the bay and ocean converged there were mostly laughing gulls, one or two ring-billed and one herring gull. 

    On the ocean, heading south along the Jersey shore, a few barn swallows flew around the boat and one warbler-sized bird flew by, bouncing over the bow. 

    Out in the ocean we saw mostly great black-backed gulls. Dozens of common terns were plunge diving into the shadowy baitfish bowls that flickered on the surface with hopping fish. The baitfish lured two osprey which hovered for a bit out in the ocean. We saw one least tern as we approached Breezy Point on the return. No dolphins. 
















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