Azores and Madeira - at sea

I have recently returned from another trip with Ocean Wildlife Encounters as a Guest Lecturer and sharing the wildlife seen whilst cruising with passengers onboard Fred,Olsen's Borealis cruise liner.

The fourteen day cruise included several days at sea, but also port days on the Azores and Madeira and in Lisbon. These days provided a welcome respite from hours on deck looking for cetaceans and seabirds, but the opportunity to see whales and dolphins at close quarters was not to be missed and we went whale watching in the Azores and Madeira.

Cetaceans seen during the trip included Common, Bottlenose, Striped and Atlantic Spotted Dolphins; Short-finned Pilot Whale; Sei and Fin Whales: and Curvier's Beaked Whales.

Short-finned Pilot Whale

Atlantic Spotted Dolphins

Sei Whale

Common Dolphin

Seabird activity was dominated by shearwaters and petrels, plus gannets. Great, Cory's, Sooty, Manx and Balearic Shearwaters were all seen, with four figure counts of the former two species on some days. Petrels seen included Bulwer's, Leach's-storm, European-storm, Wilson's and Band-rumped Petrels. Desertas Petrel was seen whilst on a seabird and whale watching trip from Maderia, with some also seen from the Borealis as we left Madeira.

Great Shearwater

Cory's Shearwater

Desertas Petrel

There are more images on my Flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/147077268@N05/albums/72177720329448578