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I spent a weekend in Nova Scotia in mid-October 2008. I was in Canada for work and wanted to see North Atlantic Right Whales. But the whale watching operators on Grand Manan Island - the best place to see this species - had closed. One operator in Nova Scotia - Tom Goodwin from Ocean Explorations - was still running trips through the end of October out of Tiverton, just 20 miles as the cormorant flies, or the Zodiac bounces, from Grand Manan. And Tom agreed to take me out to look for them.

Nova Scotia is idyllic in the fall. Good weather, beautiful autumn colours and picturesque towns. And there are plenty of mammals too. I didn't spend much time looking for stuff, other than cetaceans. But the roads were littered with squashed Porcupines, Raccoons and Striped Skunks.

Red Squirrel

I did however see the following. A Coyote along the highway late in the evening near the town of Windsor; White-tailed Deer and Raccoons on the Lunenberg Golf Course at night; and White-tailed Deer, Red Squirrels, Grey Seals, Harbour Porpoises and a Red Fox in or around the Ovens Park, just outside Lunenberg.

The Ovens, near Lunenberg

Tiverton Whale Watching

I spent an afternoon with Tom Goodwin from Ocean Explorations, the only whale watcher still operating in the Bay of Fundy in mid October. Tom had been very helpful over the summer, sending me occasional emails to tell me what the Right Whales were doing. He knew that I was only coming to Nova Scotia if the whales were still in the bay and tried hard to keep me up to date. I took a scheduled tourist trip with him we saw Humpbacks close in to shore, as well as Grey Seals.

Humpback Whales

We dropped off the tourists and then took a much longer trip - 25 miles across the Bay of Fundy to look for the North Atlantic Right whales. The weather was good, but the sea was lumpy and Tom warned that I was going to get pounded. I did,

About 10 miles out we saw a pod of White-beaked Dolphins which came into the boat to bow ride for a few minutes. Both White-sided and White-beaked Dolphins are around in the late summer and autumn. With the species alternating as to which was the more common.

White-beaked Dolphins

About an hour later Tom spotted a blow, not far off of Grand Manan Island. And within minutes we had seen dozens more of the distinctive v-shaped blows of Right Whales. I reckon there must have been at least 50 animals in the area. All the more impressive when the remaining global population of the North Atlantic RIght Whale is estimated at less than 400.

North Atlantic Right Whales

After I left Tiverton, I had a second day in Nova Scotia and hoped to find some Atlantic White-sided Dolphins. A whale watching boat was still operating out of Lunenberg, and when I called them they said they had seen a big pod of White-sided Dolphins right about the same time as I was watching the Right Whales. So I drove to Lunenberg. But only two other people turned up wanting to go whale watching, and the skipper canceled the trip.