This afternoon all three of our boats were out exploring southern gulf islands.

In Trincomali channel we came across Anvil (KEZ0002), a female humpback whale with her brand new calf, born this year. Humpback whales have lots of tubercles (little bumps) on their head, as seen in the photo below. These tubercles are part of their sensory system and each tubercle center has a pit-shaped hole which generally contains 1 hair. Tubercles are formed early in fetal development and each tubercle contains approximately 10,000 nerves, some scientists believe these hairs help them detect their prey, the temperature of the water, and even possibly their speed. Though more research is needed to determine the use and/or reason for these tubercles.

We got a great look at these tubercules from our little calf today as they were doing chin slaps and breaching. Most of the time we see them, our humpbacks are travelling and we see their blowholes, back, and tail flukes as they go to dive again. When we are lucky though they can be playful and start doing more surface activity like we saw today.

After seeing our humpbacks we stopped at the Gabriola bluffs to view some cormorants when we noticed some small birds darting around and flying into one of the crevasses. After viewing them for a bit it was determined they were Cliff Swallows. Cliff swallows live in large colonies and build their nests using mud. Both the males and females help build the nests which can be on cliff sides, under bridges, caves, or large trees and each pair can lay between 1 - 6 eggs during the breeding season. Cliff swallows will protect their nests by sitting at their entrances preventing any other swallows from taking their nests as their own. Though some swallow species mate for life, these species will only associate with their mate during the breeding season, but after the breeding season ends they go their separate ways. These fast-flying birds eat insects and feed on the wing, meaning that they catch these insects while they are in flight. Their prey includes flies, moths, mayflies, bees, lacewings, and various other insects.

Enjoy these photos taken by our marine naturalists Rebeka Pirker, Vanessa Vereschahen, and Janine Van Der Linden.