Azores whale-watching

Whale-watching highlights from a week spent in Ponta Delgada, Sao Miguel, Azores - enjoying five boat trips with Futurismo who provided us with a wealth of stunning cetacean experiences and solid interpretation every time out!

Sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis)

A pod of four Orca (Orcinus orca)

Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae)

A group of three sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus)

fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus)

The Futurismo guides had never seen a fin whale do a belly roll before! They said it was highly unusual for this species to behave like this. This particular fin whale was the last cetacean of our trip, and as such quite a special way to end.

In keeping with recent holiday tradition, we missed seeing the first blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) of the season, found by Futurismo on the afternoon of our departure, whilst we were soaking up the rays by the hotel pool. Whilst we waited to kick off to the airport for our return flight. As we queued for check in I discovered the sighting whilst idly thumbing through Facebook.

However, this did not depreciate our week's experience, and only heartened us that we had unfinished business with the Azores, and another good reason to return to this stunning island of Sao Miguel.

Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)>)

iPhone footage of a pod of bottlenose dolphin can be seen on YouTube at:

bottlenose dolphin pod, Azores - April 2017

iPhone footage of a humpback whale diving can be seen on YouTube at:

humpback whale diving, Azores - April 2017

iPhone footage of a Azores gull, in Porta Del Garda harbour can be seen on YouTube at:

Azores gull (Larus michahellis atlantis), Porta Del Garda, Azores - April 2017

Speyside and the Cairngorms Day 1 - dancing slavs, dolphins and a dipper

Having picked up the hire car in Inverness - the first goal was to connect with slavonian grebe (Podiceps auritus) at Loch Ruthven an important UK breeding site for the birds. Two pairs were seen - one of which gave eye-watering views close to the hide. They or the second pair later overwhelmed us with a courtship display and "hearting" as we were heading back to the car. 

A single distant whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus) gave added value.

Chanory point on the Black Isle provided an opportunity to watch bottle nose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) only meters from the shore where the rising tide was pushing the salmon (Salmo salar) against the undersea cliff walls.

At least 5 individual bottle nose dolphins were present including a very pale calf the locals have named "Breeze". A common seal (Phoca vitulina) was also in the area. 

Sea-birds included singles of both sandwich tern (Sterna sandvicensis) and gannet (Morus bossanus), two pair of distant eider (Somateria mollissima) and a black throated diver (Gavia artica).

A walk along the Spey riverbank in front of The Bridge Inn at Aviemore in the early evening, gave us our first sightings of osprey (Pandion haliaetus), dipper (Cinclus cinclus), common sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) and goosander (Mergus merganser).

All pictures courtesy Ian Loyd