Whale watching today at Stellwagen Banks, a vast marine sanctuary off the Massachusetts coast.  Whales come here to dine before heading south, a long trip with no decent restaurants.  Most we saw were Humpbacks, feeding in pods of 5 or 6, and in mother-and-calf pairs.  Also a few Minkes and several dolphins.  They were feeding on schools of sand lance; the pale green pools in the picture are bubbles the whales are making to confuse the sand lance.  Suddenly a whale surfaces in the pool of bubbles with his mouth wide open.  We saw this repeat dozens of times, and it never got old. The guide finally gave up calling out locations- we were just surrounded by feeding whales.

more pix