January 8, 2011 Humpback Whales - Lanai Lookout or "A Whale's Tail"

Whale watching is a lot like fly-fishing! Some days, no matter what you offer, the trout just ignore it and are simply not feeding. Other days, they are vigorously feeding and jump clear out of the water while capturing insects, both real and imaginary. And then there are days when they subtly sip insects from the surface film with hardly a ripple to give them away.

At Lanai Lookout, we have experienced all three kinds of days. Our first, and a very few others have been the boisterous, jumping, frolicking kind. We have had a lot of the "not interested in anything" days.

Today was the third type - quiet, but eventful. Lots of whales, even fairly close to land, but just quietly showing their backs and every-so-often a fluke to wave goodbye as they dove.




























Wave those pectoral fins!











As deeply as these two humped up in preparing to dive, I was sure that we would get the best fluke shots ever since they were so close to shore!

However, they simply sunk out of sight without ever raising a fluke!

In the middle of all the whale action, we were entertained by a couple of Red-Crested Cardinals.