Wed July 3-Whale Watching Trip

We started out just where we left off, still finding cetaceans on every trip – ~70 short-beaked common dolphins.

What a gorgeous day to be on the water. While it took sometime before we found interesting animals, we did indeed find all kinds of critters. A small basking shark was our first aquatic vertebrate and the first seen by many of our passengers. Shortly thereafter we found a small ocean sunfish that gave us great views of its swimming and jumping capability. A short whale later we found our first aggregation of about 30-40 short beaked common dolphins. This group was loaded with lots of, you guessed it, small dolphins. moms with calves and loads of juveniles. Many of the adult dolphins were engaged in mating, a rare sight for most people. Perhaps that’s why the young ones were all together. Our second aggregation of 30 dolphins were similarly “engaged.” We also were able to find Wilson’s storm petrels, Great shearwaters, Cory’s shearwaters, Sooty shearwaters, and Manx shearwaters.

Totals:

1 Basking shark

1 Ocean sunfish

70 Short-beaked common dolphins

25 Wilson’s storm petrels

15 Great shearwaters

2 Manx shearwaters

1 Sooty sheawater

1 Cory’s shearwater