azwhales
Today, in the morning, we had a bit of a wait before our vigia gave us confirmation of our tour. The weather forecast predicted bad sea conditions and we had poor visibility. Despite these predictions we went to the sea to end up with a summer-like sea with some patches of blue sky. Even better than these good weather conditions were the dolphins who delighted everyone with their sheer numbers and behavior. In total we spotted four species of dolphins: common dolphin, Atlantic spotted dolphin, bottlenose dolphin and Risso’s dolphin! This last species is known for its shy nature and this is the fourth time that we encountered them this month. Also, from our catamaran we spotted a loggerhead turtle. In the afternoon we resighted all the dolphin species except the Risso’s dolphin. In the end of the tour our skipper found a huge feeding ground of spotted dolphins, Cory’s shearwater, great shearwater, Manx shearwater, yellowlegged gull and great black-backed seagull.
Photos from today:
Common dolphins
Spotted dolphins, one up-side-down and playing around
A spotted dolphin jumping
Risso’s dolphin
Bottlenose dolphins
Common dolphins
Cory’s shearwater, yellow-legged gull and black-backed gull
Yellowlegged seagull juvenile checking out the open mouth of a spotted dolphin
This is what we call a feeding frenzy!
A Cory’s shearwater picks a mackerel off the surface
Juvenile gull biting the head of a Cory’s shearwater
azwhales
Futurismo Biologists Team
Sandrina Rodrigues
