Sun Aug 31 – Whale Watching

You couldn’t have asked for a better late August day. We had unlimited visibility, clear skies, sun, and enough cool wind to keep those in the shade needing additional layers. We had no reports of whales or dolphins, and decided on a course that would take us through several areas that had been productive recently. We briefly caught glimpses of dolphins, and had several encounters with phantom ‘blows,’ but nothing substantial materialized. While we saw sporadic clusters of pelagic birds and prey, it wasn’t until late in the trip that we found areas with significant prey densities throughout the water column, but still no cetaceans.

19 Wilson’s storm petrels

60 Cory’s (with perhaps 1 Scopoli’s shearwaters (see https://ebird.org/checklist/S270846932)

30 Great shearwaters

8-10 Manx shearwaters