wildlife Archives - Page 17 of 38 -

Whale Relationships–Part IV Humpback Adventure

By Simone Lipscomb | March 2, 2016

Wednesday–After pre-dawn yoga on the deck, I went up to the flying bridge and danced to the Ocean Mother, to whales and to life as the sun rose. I feel the sea living through me more each day. I sometimes feel like the wild, baby humpback yesterday. Antsy, funny, just learning what it means to be alive in a body. Playful yet not quite sure how to proceed in life. But I’m going to sing and dance and be One with the Ocean.

The group of whales at the old wreck were active early in the day, their exhalations golden in the early morning light. Joyful, joyful are they!

All morning on our small boat we watched mother humpbacks and babies quite near our moorings. Everywhere we looked there were mothers and babies and it appeared to be boot camp for babies. Moms were teaching their newly born how to fin slap, tail lob and breach. There is only a small window of opportunity to build the strength of their young before they begin their migration to northern feeding waters. As I observed today, it seemed there was a common theme of training their offspring.

*Mother fin-slapping while baby watches from her side*

Once again I was struck with the tenderness and attention the mothers give the juveniles. Yesterday I watched a mother follow her baby as he rose to the surface to breathe. Not with her body but with her eyes. Every move he made she watched, ready to assist if he needed help or if danger threatened. One of the biggest mistakes humans have ever made is to assume that any creature not in human form is somehow less intelligent, less caring, less sentient.

Juvenile attempting to fin slap...note her eye in the far right of the image — *Juvenile attempting to fin slap…note her eye in the far right of the image*

The mothers were far too busy training their young to be distracted by our desire to be in the water with them. One of the rules of the sanctuary is that only when whales are settled can human visitors enter the water. When they are fin slapping, tail lobbing or breaching it’s simply unsafe for all concerned. An adult pectoral fin is 15 feet in length…the force involved when it slams into the water’s surface is significant and can be heard from far away.

*The babies have far less control of their floppy tails but try hard to mimic mom with tail lobs..mom is in foreground watching from beneath the surface*

After lunch and a squall that moved across the area, we went back out for more searching. There were many whales but none interested in us. As strange as that sounds, after this trip I am convinced that they choose the interactions we have. It’s always on their terms. There were many times when all small boats would be tied to their respective mother ships and the whales would be all around, watching us. As soon as the tenders would head back out, the whales would disappear and come up far away or stay just out of reach, as if toying with us and leading us further into rougher water. They have a wicked sense of humor I suspect.

At the very end of the day, after hanging with and following a rowdy group for a while we were invited to our sister boat’s encounter with a mom and baby. The water was rough and the visibility not good so I didn’t take my camera into the water. Second time I regretted that decision.

At the very end of the encounter the frisky baby came incredibly close to our group of seven…within ten feet of us…cruising by and making eye contact. Truly an amazing experience; however, there will be no photo memories of it. Sometimes the imprint on my heart is much bigger than a photographic image on paper could ever be.

But still…..

Baby humpback's head at the surface — *Baby humpback’s head at the surface*

Each day was different and the first two days of the trip were better than the entire week last year. There is no predicting what the whales will do or where they will be or if they will allow close proximity. I think they have learned the behaviors of the small boats and humans who visit and as mentioned above, I truly believe they choose who they wish to interact with, when and where. I hold no doubts of this.

*Beautiful mother whale laying on her back fin slapping with baby nearby*

My final journal entry for the day, “I’m so tired I can scarcely write anything. Only in reviewing images do I actually realize what great experiences I had each day. I. Am. Grateful.”

*****

Part I–Begin at the Beginning

Part II–Meditating with Whales

Part III–Tender & Gentle

Tender & Gentle–Humpback Whales Part III

By Simone Lipscomb | March 1, 2016

Tuesday--The day begin with more moon, stars and sea yoga. Practicing with the elements is transformational. I wonder if that’s how it was done long ago…in the beginning. As I practiced I heard to allow the Divine Feminine to shine through me and to come from love. Always come from love in all that I do.

Sunrise found me dancing on the flying bridge in celebration of the day. There is something to be said for dancing with wild abandon with the sunrise after ‘working’ with moon, star and sea energies during yoga practice.

Breakfast, preparing for a day on the Ocean….check dry camera and telephoto lens, check underwater housing…a quick dunk in the camera tank to insure it’s watertight. Fins, mask, snorkel, wetsuit, dry bag with dry camera and other dry stuff….ready to go!

Our day with whales began with a sweet couple. A female and male escort allowed us to view their dreaming. Once again I had the opportunity to meditate with whales for an extended period of time. At-one-ment. This was happening while a complete rainbow arched overhead. I reached a point where I was beyond, beyond blissed-out and so just floated in meditation…rainbow overhead, whales below.

Again I was convinced that whales are not sleeping. Not really. I think it is whale dreaming. When they ‘slept’ I joined them in their whale dreams, in the whale dreamtime. I went into that perfect energy of stillness and silence and connected to that vast mind known as whale.

During my time with this couple, I spent time conveying the messages people sent to them through me. I threw them kisses from Jean. I gave them air hugs from Glenda. I shared Michelle’s message…”Free, I am!” I told them Roxanne sends her love and concern. Jaime’s message asking for forgiveness from them for our abuse of Mother Earth and for communal insight and empathy was shared. Helena’s message of love, love, love, love, love, love and gratitude was shared. I gave them Kolek’s message…and Fran’s. I shared Michael’s message and Debbie’s and asked them to stay away from nets and to accept apologies for human behaviors. And Debbie A’s message of thanks for unknown blessings and Pat’s message of love for the ocean, planet and all life. And Debbie H’s message of love. And Barb’s message of apology for human behavior and our love for them. And Barbara’s message of “Love, love, LOVE!”

Tears flowed into my mask as I remembered and shared these messages. I felt receptive hearts and minds listening carefully.

Going into the Vastness of the Whale Mind…I felt gifted with an energetic pattern that will assist me in many ways. Communing with sentient, aware beings through the heart and mind is powerful Medicine.

After a couple rounds of dreaming and coming up for air, the couple swam off touching pectoral fins…tip to tip…side by side. So gentle and sweet were they. And just as they glided away, another couple of humpbacks glided past us. (Where did they come from!?!?).

Holy cow Batman!

Then after a long period with not many whales in sight, we were invited over by the other small boat in our group to a mother, baby and escort who allowed us to get close several, several times. Very close. At one point I was hovering over her fluke so close I could see barnacle scars lining her tail.

The baby was the most amazing whale I’ve ever met. He laid sideways on mama’s head, upside down on her head, rolled off her head and found every other position imaginable to balance on her head. Such magnificent joy! He also surfaced and practiced his tail lobbing and fin slapping. Then, after tiring, he would rest under her chin.

If we drifted too close, the escort would slowly and gently guide the mom and baby away from us. He didn’t appear upset but was very keen on keeping a certain distance between us and his gal and her babe. The magnetic personality of the baby seemed to draw all of us forward without kicking or swimming. As our hearts opened more we seemed to levitate through the water toward this delightful being.

The trio of whales allowed us and two other groups to take turns observing them for over five hours. Our group went in for lunch at 4.15pm and hurriedly ate and had another beautiful in-water encounter with the same whales. The only time I saw the whales intentionally leave the group of humans was when a person on another trip/small boat did a very loud and splashy entry. The whales moved away from that boat and settled again near our group.

Tender and gentle describes the day. Mind blown apart is also a good description of the day. My note at the end of the day said this: “I want to write more but I’m so tired and want to do morning moonlight yoga because it’s been freaking amazing! I love you whales! I love you Universe! I am grateful!”

Thus ended the day. I drifted off to sleep with blue water and a baby humpback filling my mind and heart.

Part I–Begin at the Beginning

Part II–Meditating with Whales

Meditating with Whales–Humpback Adventure Part II

By Simone Lipscomb | February 29, 2016

*Each of us gets lost in our own inner process as we prepare to enter the water.*

Monday--I walked up from my cabin below deck to the dive deck and then climbed the set of stairs to the sundeck at 5am. The nearly-full moon surprised me and stars overhead sparkled their good light on me as I stepped onto my mat to begin my yoga practice. It felt as if my entire being opened to the moon and stars and sea. So open and at-one was I that there was no noticeable difference between ‘me’ and the elements.

After breakfast and loading our tender (small boat), our group of ten and crew of three left the mother ship. After a short distance we did a practice entry and direction-following session for when we would actually see a whale and have an in-water experience. We got back on board our small boat and immediately the tour operator said, “Okay, get ready. There’s a mother and baby in the area. She hasn’t really settled but you might get lucky and get a fly-by.” In what reality does this happen? Usually it takes hours of riding the bumpy waves to get such an opportunity.

I left my camera on the boat and must say…’oh, well’ because on the last of many fly-bys, the mother and baby came within 10 to 15 feet of our group. Mom was surfacing slowly and baby was riding on mom’s head. The youngster’s eyes were closed in pure and perfect whale bliss. The absolute bliss filled me with profound and uncontainable joy. Had I been holding my heavy camera in front of my face concentrating on framing a shot, I would have missed the moment. Sometimes it’s really okay to miss a photograph. Truly okay. I now have the imprint, the pattern of what baby humpback bliss is and wouldn’t trade it for anything. When I close my eyes now, as I write this, I feel the perfection of peace and contentment and total trust.

Such sweetness I have never experienced before…ever.

Mother humpback fin slapping...part of educating and training her youngster. — *Mother humpback fin slapping…part of educating and training her youngster.*

As I sat on the flying bridge writing this after lunch, humpbacks on either side of our large boat are fin slapping. A gentle tap on my shoulder pointed it out…the engineer of the boat who rarely says anything wanted me to see the whales. Mama seemed to be encouraging a baby to fin slap…one way the mothers help babies build strength for their long migration back north to feeding waters.

Mother and baby...so sweet is the relationship between them. — *Mother and baby…so sweet is the relationship between them*.

There is nothing more sacred than a mother humpback’s love for her baby. It makes my heart so wide open I feel as if it contains the Universe. These beings are as aware and sentient as any human. They are loving and tactile and teach their babies with such care. Humans are only one species, in many, that are consciously aware and mindful.

For the past year I have been meditating envisioning a grandmother humpback. The potency of this journey, this trip to see them, is amplified by many months of preparation….to learn, to grow, to heal on a deeper level.

The willingness to expand into our own potential is magnified by the effort we put into it.

My camera wouldn't focus on the whales due to cloudy water...so I focused on my fins and like the outcome of the shot. — *My camera wouldn’t focus on the whales due to cloudy water…so I focused on my fins and like the outcome of the shot.*

After lunch and the restful time on the top deck, it was time for whale searching once more in the tenders. It didn’t take long and we were in the water with two sleeping whales for about an hour. They surfaced twice to breathe but gently sank below us to ‘sleep’ after breathing. The male and female appeared to be sleeping but when I hovered over them and went into meditation, I sensed that whales don’t sleep as we know it but rather enter a dream-state, the dreamtime. Somehow their presence and their dreaming seems vital to the balance of the Ocean, the planet. Scientists would laugh at this, but I’m no scientist. What am I then? A sea priestess? Mermaid? One who listens on a deep level…no doubt.

Meditating with whales today may be the most profoundly moving experience I’ve ever had. It will most likely takes months to understand everything I learned during the experience. I managed to take photographs when I finished the more important task of connecting with them on a deeper level.

Meditating with whales….a continuation of last year’s trip and the many months of meditation at home. I felt a real connection, a real solidifying of the work we’ve been doing together in a formless realm. Today’s experience was a mind connection on a deeply spiritual level. It felt like a working relationship that was strengthened by physical proximity.

There is no doubt that I will continue dreaming with whales…here and when I return to that place I live. Home, however, is here with the humpbacks…where I feel most alive and in-tune with life.

*****

Part I

Begin at the Beginning–Humpback Whale Journey Part I

By Simone Lipscomb | February 29, 2016

Humpback mothers and babies, dreaming whale couples, a mama and baby and male, a singer, rowdy groups of humpbacks, meditating in the water with humpbacks, yoga under a full moon on deck….nice people, good food….a wrecked sailboat. So many stories to share, so many experiences to treasure. The best place to begin to share my journey with humpback whales is at the beginning.

Saturday, February 20th–After arriving early and having an afternoon and all day the next day to explore around the marina, I boarded our vessel. The 124 foot boat was designed as a live-aboard dive boat so its not roughing it but it’s not fancy either. So bare feet, shorts and tee shirts when not in wetsuits is the norm. The weather had been producing very high winds and I was dreading the 92 mile crossing to the offshore reef, the Silver Bank. Between the reef and the north shore of the Dominican Republic is open ocean and with 20 knot winds that’s no joke, even in a stable craft like the Turks & Caicos Explorer II.

Thankfully the captain and trip leader decided not to leave port and put us through a rough night of ten foot seas. At almost 10pm, our usual departure time, I felt only relief that we would wait until morning to leave the marina. Being a light sleeper doesn’t help when it’s rough enough to throw me off the bunk. Nobody complained about the decision to wait.

Sunday, February 21st–Last ties to land cast off and steadily we moved through choppy waters toward the Silver Bank. As we pulled out of the harbor early in the morning, the silver sunrise glistened on the white surf that was breaking onto a lush, green shore. The beauty of the mist-covered shoreline aglow with soft, quicksilver star fire wrapped me in a loving embrace.

Slowly moving through green water toward the indigo blue–that purple blue that calls to my depths–we made our way onward. Out, out to sea. To freedom. To humpback whales.

I sat perched on the flying bridge gazing into clouds and sea, surrounded by elements of water and wind. Occasionally beams of light would pierce the heavy clouds and illuminate distant water…golden fingers of heaven reaching down to connect with the sea. Such divinity in that moment. Sea touched by sky. Sacred touch. Sacred connection.

While all around is cloudy with a gray blue sea, the moment light touches the surface it glows indigo and silver and gold. Our hearts are like that…when we allow the light of our own being to shine through, it changes everything.

As we were traversing the crossing, I connected deeply with the Ocean and wrote the following:

Love Song for the Ocean

Gazing into your deep, blue depths I feel my heart open with wild abandon.

Beloved, your beauty fills my life with joy and light like no other.

Your Mysteries invite me deeper into my own depths until I find myself at the quiet stillness of perfect center.

Your salty tears move through my being and we weep together at needless loss and destruction.

Your varying shades of blues–turquoise, indigo, light blue, green-blue–fill my veins and my blood runs hot and salty in rhythm to you.

Your power fills me with courage as I journey through this life to love you more, to surrender more to your immense, all-enfolding, raw, elemental power.

I can scarcely contain my emotions and find this body challenged to hold the love as it courses through my being. Divine Madness.

You whisper, Don’t hold it in, child. Express your love for me daughter. Let yourself be free. Open to love….open…be free.

But what will they say, Dear Mother? When I dance in wild spirals screaming your name, singing your name, whispering your name. What will they say?

Will they shun me or lock me up or call me crazy? But in truth, I am crazy with Divine Madness for you, Ocean Mother.

I want to dive into your salty waters and never rinse the dried, healing minerals from my body.

In gazing at the horizon where your Body meets Sky, it appears to be a line of separation but no matter how far I journey, it is a never-ending relationship, a dance that continues and continues…forever….endless.

My Child, you whisper through the wind. My Child! you shout on the spray carried by the wind. My Child of love, never apologize for loving me and for opening your heart. Rejoice in your ability to feel! Rejoice!

Rejoice! Rejoice! In your own salty, juiciness.

We began seeing whales long before we reached our mooring. Breaching, tail lobbing, fin-slapping humpback whales. Their white-hot breath led us forward in our journey, our crossing from one reality to the magical realm of the Silver Bank.

I fell asleep knowing that humpback whales swam beneath the boat dreaming strange whale dreams. I surrendered to their call and joined them in the dreamtime.

——-

Part II….In the water with whales….stay tuned.

Sanctuary

By Simone Lipscomb | January 29, 2016

The clock proclaimed sunrise but heavy clouds hung close so dawn’s light was slow to brighten the day. Silently I slipped into the water, wrapped in my dry suit and holding my heavy, underwater camera equipment. With a slow and quiet frog kick I moved toward the narrow opening of the spring.

A manatee exiting the clear water paused in passing, watched me for a few moments and then moved forward in her glacial, flowing pace. Low light and particulate matter in the open water made a shot impossible but communion was exchanged and was sweet.

As I approached the spring, a manatee laid sleeping on the white, sandy bottom. I carefully avoided splashing and went around him and into the clear water of the freshwater spring.

Ten manatees of various sizes lay asleep on the bottom, huddled together in a common area. I glided away from them toward the back of the small spring and turned to face them from a distance. I took a few photographs as the light increased and then felt drawn into their meditation, into their group mind of stillness and dreaming warm, saltwater dreams.

In the quiet, peaceful water temple I closed my eyes and floated effortlessly with heart and mind open. The beauty of their being touched my core. No thoughts, just sensations enveloped me. Cool water on my face and neck; gravity-free except for the heavy camera rig in my hands; muscles relaxed; gentle floating….total surrender and release of all stress, tension…of everything except that moment of manatee mind.

One woman, ten sirens of the sea communing in perfect harmony caused time to disappear. We joined in that glorious, timeless dimension of stillness and quiet.

The moments of harmony with my sisters and brothers were some of the sweetest I have ever experienced.

After several minutes I opened my eyes and noticed my open heart and calm mind. I said a silent prayer of gratitude for the gift of this encounter then took several photographs, hoping to be able to translate, through art, the experience that so powerfully touched my core.

Slowly, quietly I moved around the side of the rock wall toward the exit. I turned before leaving to offer my thanks to the manatees and witnessed several slowly rise from their resting place on the bottom to the surface to take a deep, full breath. So in-tune in their sleep, their meditation they breathed in unison. Humans have much to learn from these gentle beings.

Throughout King’s Bay and Crystal River there are official sanctuaries or areas set aside where manatees can rest without human interference. Heavy fines and penalties are imposed on anyone entering these designated safe-zones. Today in the small, clear spring, I found my own place of peace, my own sanctuary.