Barolo shearwater and some dolphin photos, Madeira

My only new species of bird from this holiday turned up towards the end of what had so far proven to be a slightly disappointing whale watching trip out of Calheta. To be fair, we had started off with fabulous views of a pod of about 30 bottlenose dolphins, probably showing better than I'd ever experienced previously with the species, but we had seen none of the hoped for whales. 

We had reached the furthest point from land, about 4 miles out from Jardim do Mar and stopped the boat for a final look at a more distant pod of dolphins when I noticed a shearwater on the opposite side of the boat, unfortunately about to fly into the glaring sunlight. This was exciting because by mid December virtually all seabirds have left this area and I didn't expect to see anything avian at sea. However, there was perhaps one possibility....

The bird had an odd fluttering flight low over the water, followed by more typical shearwater glides, but then it was frustratingly lost in the glare. Fortunately a few moments later it flew back out of the sunlight briefly and allowed me a better look. It was clearly a small bird of the Manx shearwater variety, and not one of the larger shearwaters such as Cory's which also breed around these islands. 

My excitement levels went up a notch, because before we travelled to Madeira, I'd done quite a bit of research into which species of seabird, if any, I had a chance of seeing in December. There was really only one, Barolo shearwater, and if I was lucky enough to see one, I didn't want to tick it based on just an assumption, I wanted to know exactly why it was a Barolo. So for weeks I'd studied the finer details of identifying this particular species because it was the only lifer I was likely to get on the holiday and if I did see one, I wanted to be able to eliminate the doubt of an extremely out of season Manxie.

Barolo shearwater © madeirabirds.com.
Click here to open their website in a new window.

Short-finned pilot whales, Madeira

Today I took a whale watching trip out of Canical in the east of Madeira, run by Sea Emotions.  Really enjoyable, they found us around 15 each of short-finned pilot whale and bottlenose dolphin. The pilot whales came very close to the boat and had at least a couple of calves with them.

This was my first encounter with this species. I have seen long-finned pilot whales previously off southern Australia, and I have to take the word of todays guides and the Australian guides that they are the species they claim, because separating them is virtually impossible in the field. However, on range short-finned are by far the most likely off Madeira and long-finned most likely off southern Australia. These pilot whales are resident around Madeira and have been well studied.

Another journey across the Sea of the Hebrides

I love a good ferry journey across the Minch or in today's case the Sea of the Hebrides. Today we saw about 30 common dolphins in three groups and I also had brief views of a couple of minke whales. It was very quiet for birds, but I did manage two species of skua, great and a distant pale phase bird that was almost certainly pomarine. Other than that it was mainly just gannets and a few kittiwakes, plus a handful of fulmars and auks.

Crossing the Sea of the Hebrides

A five hour crossing of the Sea of the Hebrides today, from Oban to Barra, produced low numbers of cetaceans, with harbour porpoise and around eight common dolphins the sum total. All good value for money, but I was hoping for a minke or two. Perhaps on the return leg?

Incredible bluefin tuna at Peterburn

The last day of the holiday and there was nowhere else to be but back at Peterburn for the one final scan of the sea. It was good viewing conditions, quite calm but just breezy enough to keep the midges away, and although Skye and Harris were not as clear as they had been at the start of the holiday, I could still clearly make out their outlines.

To the north west through the binoculars I could see a lot of splashes and sure enough when I turned the scope onto them  I could see the acrobatic leaps of common dolphins. It was slightly odd though because there were a lot of splashes with no dolphins emerging, but they were over a mile away so I just assumed that it was dolphin activity and forgot about them and started to scan the rest of the sea through the scope, as always on the look out for large whales.

Almost immediately I saw a dolphin breaching at quite close range (1km?) and it was unmistakeably a Risso's dolphin, with a largely pale grey body, covered in scratches and no beak. One of the best views I've ever had of the species, because this is the first time I've seen the whole animal. Soon I saw that it was with at least another three animals, which included a calf, presumably the same one I saw with its mother yesterday. Brilliant, if I saw nothing else it would have been a good morning. 

I continued scanning. More splashes to the north west, but this time no obvious sign of dolphins. I continued scanning. Suddenly at much closer range I saw something that obviously wasn't a dolphin, the shape of the tail was completely wrong. I just managed to capture it as it disappeared back into the water. Straight away I suspected that it was a tuna because three had been reported from Tiumpan head the previous day, but I'd never seen one before so didn't know much about their behaviour or even their size. It was a breathtaking moment, one of the highlights of the holiday.

Death by midge at Peterburn

It was raining and misty first thing this morning so I didn't manage to get out very early. When I did eventually get to my vantage point at Peterburn, 5 miles south of Rubha Reidh lighthouse, at 9:45am there was no rain, no wind and the sea was like glass, perfect for whale and dolphin watching. Also perfect for midges which were out in their trillions. It was worth putting up with them though, in a couple of hours I managed to see 4 minke whales, 2 Risso's dolphins (a mother and calf), 40 common dolphins and 2 harbour porpoise. Also adult white-tailed eagle and 29 great northern divers. Not a bad return from a place that only yesterday I said was petering out.

Fin whale and breaching minke whales off Peterburn

A fantastic early morning whale watch from Peterburn which is about 5 miles south of Rubha Reida lighthouse and 4.5 miles north of our caravan. In a 90 minute watch I saw at least 8 minke whales including one animal which breached at least 3 times and was a great view through the telescope. Then I noticed the Hebridean Whale watching boat Orca 1 stopped and watching a couple of minkes. As I watched, a huge whale surfaced perhaps a mile beyond them, which looked to be twice the length of the boat which I think is around 10m. Clearly a fin whale just off size alone, it took my breath away when I first saw it. Also this morning, several pods of common dolphins and a few harbour porpoise.

Minke whale soup in the Minch

Another amazing trip with Steve Truluck at Hebridean Whales Cruises, we set sail from Gairloch and headed up to the summer Isles north of Ullapool. We saw an amazing 19 minke whales, around 30 common dolphins and about 10 harbour porpoise.

One of the minke produced this impressive blow which I'm told usually only happens when the animal has been working hard. Further down this post you'll see the same whale lunge feeding.

Minke and probable fin whales at Rubha Reida lighthouse

Rubha Reida lighthouse sits in a spectacular location about 15 miles north west of Gairloch on the eastern side of the Minch in Wester Ross. Next stop west is Skye or Harris. It's a noted place for cetaceans and today was the first day of my now annual whale watching trip to the area, and this time Elaine came as well.

After a short walk of about three miles to take in some of the scenery, we returned to the car and I set up the telescope and started to scan the sea. By looking for feeding frenzies of gannets and shearwaters, I was able to pick out places where whales were likely to be, and in 30 minutes managed to have decent, though distant views of at least three minke whales including one animal which was lunge feeding, i.e. driving fish in front of it to the surface, then rapidly increasing speed and lunging at them so that it's head emerged from the water. It was a good enough view through the scope to enable me to see the whales baleen plates and white throat. A tremendous sight and a great start to the holiday. 

Most frustrating though was a distant blow from a large whale which I'm pretty confident was a fin whale, but I didn't get enough on it to be sure. Edit: later in the evening another observer at Kilt Rock on the Isle of Skye informed me that during the afternoon she had watched a large whale that was probably a fin whale just north of Longa. Longa is the island right opposite our caravan, and just a few miles south of Rubha Reida, so perhaps the same animal.

Minke whale.

 

Indian Ocean humpback dolphins, Munamban beach, Kerala, India

At Munamban harbour in Kerala, India today we saw at least 10 Indian Ocean humpback dolphins. These wonderful animals are closely related to the Australian humpback dolphins that I saw in 2018 and are just magical and enigmatic. They are pale grey in colour with a white / pinkish tip to the dorsal fin and instantly identifiable. Or so it would seem....

There is considerable uncertainty surrounding humpback dolphins in the Indian Ocean. Animals on the west coast of India (including Munamban) are thought to be Indian Ocean humpbacks, whilst those on the east coast are thought to be a different species, Indo-Pacific humback dolphins. However there is also a sub-species of Indian Ocean humpbacks, ssp. lentiginosa, which occurs on the east coast in the Bay of Bengal, which may in fact be a third species (Carwardine 2020).

So based on location it seems pretty clear, these must be Indian Ocean humpbacks? Well possibly... there are a few problems though. In the field it was immediately clear that there were two different colour types present the first was pale grey as in the animal at the top of the post, but the others were dark grey almost brown in colour, as is the case with animal below.