New things I saw today

While waiting for passengers on the whale watch boat, there was a group of ravens going through the back deck of a commercial fishing boat on the other side of the dock from me to see what morsels they could find. Then it happened. One of the ravens scratched the side of his head with his foot. Exactly like a dog scratches its ear. Never seen that before.

Then we were out whale watching. A humpback whale was lopping its lonnnnnnng pectoral fins over and back, smacking them on the water. Then it started doing these short surfaces that sort of looked like a bucking bronco, with its back arched and its head down. I realized later I think it was doing some sort of one whale bubblenet feed, and when it came up through the herring at the surface, it was dragging its wide open mouth through the water, with the top jar barely above the surface and the lower jaw below. Most times a single whale lunge feeding just comes up to the surface with its mouth open, then closes it above the surface. This one did that technique later, but this bucking bronco was a brand new thing after 6 years watching from the wheel.

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