Saturday, March 13, 2010

Happy Baby on the Silver Bank



photos by Mike Murphy

Dancers on the Silver Bank


photos by Mike Murphy
The humpback whale courtship display is one of the most spectacular in nature. The female is almost always the active one (the "dancer" or "valentine") while the male watches passively - a reversal of the usual norm in the animal kingdom. Occasionally the male begins to join in, which started to happen at the end of the this encounter on the Silver Bank two weeks ago, but I don't believe we got a picture of that part alas.