BODEGA BAY — Pairs of gray whale mothers and calves bringing up the rear of the spring migration to northern feeding grounds have created something of a spectacle off the Sonoma Coast in recent days, much to the delight of whale watchers lucky enough to spot them.
Hugging the shoreline for protection, the cows and calves have been numerous, and in especially still, warm weather Wednesday and Thursday were readily on display, regular observers said.
"It was really exciting," said Larry Tiller, a well-known fixture on Bodega Head, where he sits each day with his camera, hoping to capture the magnificent mammals and add new pictures to his ever-present photo album.
"The calves were jumping over the mothers and doing 'spy hops,'" bobbing just above the surface, he said.
The cetacean acrobatics have delighted other regulars at the popular whale-watching spot jutting out into the ocean north of Bodega Bay.
"We had a show — mothers and calves breaching and carrying on very close to shore," Bea Brunn, a docent with the Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods, said of her last coastal visit.
The annual spectacle draws a steady stream of onlookers on weekdays and hundreds of gawkers on clear spring weekends.
A couple of cow/calf pairs were seen off Bodega Head on Friday afternoon, as well, though heavy fog, wind and whitecaps may have allowed some to pass unseen.
Many visitors who stopped for a quick look were driven back to their vehicles by the chill without having seen any whales among the plentiful sea lions right off shore.
"Every day is something different," said Ernie Halbert of Santa Rosa. "I've been out here when two kayakers came out and they played tag with the calves."
An estimated 18,000 of the massive gray whales — the adults can reach 50 feet long and weigh 40 tons — generally pass off the North Coast twice a year, each time as part of a two-to-three-month journey between Baja California where they mate and calve, and summer feeding grounds in the Bering and Chukchi seas off Alaska.
About 2,000 calves are believed to be among them every season, generating the most excitement for viewers.
But spectator reaction runs the gamut, Tiller said.
"Some people will almost start crying," he said. "And some people will say, 'Oh, there's a whale,' and just walk off."
Juvenile gray whales have been known to linger off the North Coast through the summer in the past several years, as well, apparently finding ample food supplies without completing the full trek north, Brunn and Tiller said.
"Not so much last summer," said fisherman Rick Powers, who runs a charter boat out of Bodega Bay, sometimes for whale watching. "But the two before that, we had up to 15 gray whales that were kind of resident whales, that were here throughout the summer and you could find them any time of day."
But it's the cows and their newborn calves who stay especially close to shore, seeking safety from their natural predators, the orca or "killer" whales, amid the rocky outcrops and seastacks believed to interfere with the orcas' use of sonar to hunt.
Generally born in January and February, the calves are given a few months to fatten up before their mothers prod them northward, the last groups to leave on the spring migration, Brunn said.
The round trip, some 10,000 to 14,000 miles, may be the longest by any mammal on the planet.
Powers had a few East Coast residents among his passengers a few days ago when they came within about a thousand yards of two cows and their calves just off Bodega Head.
"We got the show of our lives," he said. "They were rolling over, and the calves were rubbing up against their mothers."
Powers said he's seen some humpback whales, as well.
The gray whale migration usually continues through May and, sometimes, into the first week of June, Brunn said.
Even the adults are close enough to shore that the National Oceanic and Atmopheric Administration has warned boaters to be alert to avoid injuring any of the creatures.
You can reach Staff Writer MaryCallahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com.
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: