Fruitless pursuits

This has been a strange year when it comes to whale watching. February and March is usually the time the humpback whales are in my local waters just off the cliffs, but I've only seen one and that was just as I arrived at the shoreline and before I had a chance to get the camera ready. I've been hearing them at night though, so know they're still around, but even their calls are becoming rarer, after all, it's time for them to head back to the Arctic for food after breeding and giving birth around the Hawaiian Islands.

I'm going to try for the next month to see if I can take a photo of one - hopefully breaching but a fin or tail slap would do just as well - they do that in the bay around here but never when I have a camera with me...

Unfortunately my favourite whale watching spot was taken by fishermen, so not wanting to disturb them I went back to my sunrise photo spot. The site taken up by the shore-anglers is great because I can look into the bay to spot whales, but the other spot is right in the middle of the bay's shoreline, so there's a huge expanse of ocean to scan and it's easy to miss a whale on the surface. Oh well, my fellow whale watcher in the picture above gave up shortly after I took the picture and I gave up half an hour later when it started to rain.

Still, it's a wonderful place to just sit down and watch and listen to the ocean. Nothing relaxes me more.