Dolphins and winter seabirds

This morning we had the chance to go out to sea on one of our zodiac boats. The weather was a bit crisp and the sea slightly choppy, but we had a fun ride and after some searching we encountered a nice group of bottlenose dolphins. It was the same group of individuals that we saw on our last tour last week as we could recognise some of the individuals including one with a bent dorsal fin who we call “Kinky” and one with a broken jaw. After a nice time with the bottlenose dolphins we went further inshore to search for common dolphins. They were very spread out but in the end we found a common dolphin feeding together with a small group of gulls, in an area where there was also a fishing boat. The boats, dolphins and birds were all hunting mackerel close to shore.

 Bottlenose dolphin with Sete Cidades in the background

 Juvenile bottlenose dophin

 Bottlenose dolphin tail slapping

 A well known bottlenose dolphin with a broken top jaw

 Traditional mackerel fishing boat