Wed July 13 – Whale Watching

An excellent day on the water with 120 short-beaked common dolphins and loads of pelagic birds, and 6 phalaropes,  2 Wilson’s storm petrels.

It was a beautiful afternoon on the Viking Starship. We had reports of whales nearshore and searched without success, we headed offshore and we encountered pelagic birds, Portuguese Man-o-Wars, and too many balloons. It wasn’t until we got back to the area we’d searched last Wednesday and found about 120 short-beaked common dolphins and hundreds of shearwaters, a handful of Wilson’s storm petrels, and an immature Northern gannet. The dolphins, came over and swam alongside, we were barely moving and had amazing views.

120 Short-beaked common dolphins

300 Great shearwaters

25 Cory’s shearwaters

1 Sooty shearwater

1 Immature northern gannet

6 phalaropes (unable to determine species)