Every year, without fail, Southern Right Whales come to the same stretch of coastline to give birth and nurse their young, before returning to more productive Antarctic waters. Logan’s Beach, in Warnambool, is one of the most reliable places to see Southern Right Whales in Victoria, so it is exactly where I decided to spend a sunny winter weekend.
Its important to realize that even though the whales are in the area, you might not see them as the ocean is a big place. However, shortly after arriving Warnambool and the Logans Beach Whale Watching platform I saw whales! It was pretty spectacular to see them so close to shore, in fact the whales were cruising not far from where the surfers were enjoying the waves. The first day of watching provided great views of a mother and calf, slowly cruising up and down in front of the platform for a few hours.
Towards the end of the day a second pair came into view in the distance to the east. Rumour has it that the whales are a bit more active early in the morning, so I returned to the platform early the next morning. In this case the rumours were true – there were at least 4 individuals close by, and they were busy doing barrel rolls so flukes out of the water.
Mother calf pairs came together, perhaps to socialize, and then separated again. It was really amazing – I took far too many pictures! While it was a great sunny day, my fingers were frozen after a few hours in the cold wind [Australia, who knew?!]. After a few hours, I reluctantly left the whales – both in an effort to warm up and explore the coastline. Overall, a pretty spectacular weekend with great views of whales.
-Michelle
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