Transcontinental Musings: Whale Watching

The morning I woke up to go Whale Watching, was just as exciting as the Christmas mornings of my childhood. I jumped out of bed, suited up, grabbed the binoculars that Steve-O procured and I was off to Newport.

As I was in a happy mood, the hour long drive was quite loverly. Although I miss snow, I do love the lichen on the trees in the winter. I’m starting to get used to trees being covered in green rather than white.

I made it to Don Davis City Park just before 10am, my scheduled time. I had known that a volunteer was already there since the Whale Watching Spoken Here sign was already set out at the entrance to the park. I met my fellow volunteers in the park’s enclosed gazebo.

Here is the view from the Gazebo at Don Davis. You can't really see due to the fog, but the Yaquina Head Lighthouse is out there.

Mike, Virginia and Rhonda were very nice people to work with. Rhonda had been volunteering with the program for nearly 18 years and Mike for over 10. Virginia and I were the noobs. She was given the clicker to count the visitors and I was given the clicker to count the whales. I was excited to have the honor of whale counter.

I didn’t get to click my counter ONCE.

Due to the fog and choppiness of the water, we did not see one spout for the entire three hours that I was there. I was very disappointed. It wasn’t a total loss. I did see some great birds flying along the coast. Luckily Rhonda brought a bird watching guide too. I had no idea how many different kinds of gulls there were so that was fascinating to learn. Not only did I see a variety of seagulls, but I saw some Pelicans too. That was a wonderful treat.

At 1pm, we packed up. I bid farewell to my fellow volunteers and decided to play tourist on the coast a bit. I discovered the Yaquina Bay State Park where I checked out the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse and played on the beach. I was hoping that maybe I’d catch a whale, but I didn’t. I took pictures with my phone until I exhausted my battery.

View of the ocean from Yaquina Bay. I thought this tree was neat.

I was pretty exhausted from running around the beach and climbing up and down dunes, so I decided to make my trek back to Corvallis.

Having had a wonderful day at the coast, I look forward to my next volunteering time on New Year’s Eve. I really hope the weather cooperates and I actually get to see a whale spouting. It would be really amazing to see a whale breach or fluke, but that’s highly unlikely. I’ll most likely sign up for more spots in the spring when the whales start making their way north from Mexico. There's not an organized whale watching event in the summer, but I plan on doing my own whale watching now that I think I've discovered a new hobby.

Now some whale videos for your enjoyment!