In Glacier Bay, fall is the time of year when male humpback whales are prone to suddenly stop feeding and burst into song. On a recent Friday evening, this singing whale kept me late at work listening to his song. But it was worth it - this was by far our best recording this fall. Males typically sing in their tropical breeding grounds (think Hawaii! Mexico!) but we often hear a few singers in the fall in Alaska.
To learn more about whale sounds and hear a 60-sec clip, or the whole 25-minute song, visit Glacier Bay's underwater sound library at https://www.nps.gov/glba/learn/nature/soundclips.htm
You can use this spectrogram 'sound picture' to follow along, from left to right. Thanks to Sean Tevebaugh (NPS) for the animated video, featuring male #1299 (although we really don't know which whale was singing).