Atlantic spotted dolphins off Cape St. Vincent

Another amazing trip out into the open Atlantic Ocean off Cape St Vincent with mar limitado. We saw about 90 dolphins from three different species, including Atlantic spotted dolphin which is so rare in these parts that this was only the third sighting this year.  Great to see babies with them. Also bottlenose and common dolphins, plus four species of shearwater, Cory's, great, Balearic and sooty.

In the photo above you can just see the baby behind it's mother.

The baby is just coming into view....

There's the baby!

Riding the waves with Wilson's Petrels

This morning I joined Mar llimitado again for a seabird watching pelagic out of Sagres into the Atlantic ocean. The difference today, there was a moderate northerly blowing so instead of heading west past Cape St Vincent we went south east to calmer waters.

We came across a pod of about 15 common dolphins, which are always great to see, but it was the petrels that were the stars today.

A big difference in seabird numbers today, whereas on Sunday we saw a thousand Cory's and even a couple of great shearwaters, today we were reduced to just five Cory's and a single Balearic, with no greats.

However, for some reason there were a lot more storm petrels, I counted at least 40 European and 15 Wilson's. We'd seen a couple of the latter on Sunday but I didn't get a good look at them, and since they were a new species for me in the Western Palearctic, they were my main target species today. 

Storm petrels are always a joy to see and Wilson's must go down as perhaps the most charming. Tiny little birds, only marginally larger than our own European storm petrel, they patter across the water searching for food on the surface seemingly oblivious to the huge swell and windy weather. I believe that they engage in this "walking on water" far more than European storm petrels.