Mr Liable is around

Today, in the morning, we had an amazing whale watching tour. We can say that the nature worked in our favour: many cetaceans and perfect weather and sea conditions. Just in front of the marina we had a small group of common dolphins. We observed them just for a few minutes because our lookout spotted a bigger group of cetaceans further out. We could identify them from a distance, big sized and grey dolphins: bottlenose dolphins. It was an incredible encounter with these intelligent animals and there were more than 70 individuals swimming and bowriding close to us. It is always interesting to see both common and bottlenose dolphins and check the differences in their colouration, size and behaviour. While we were enjoying the encounter we heard good news from our lookout; he found a whale! We traveled closer to the shore, and suddenly our catamaran crew spotted a blow just in front of the boat. It was our resident whale species: sperm whale, and even more resident as it was our famous Mr Liable. He is a large male, already well known because we saw him in many previous encounters. He is normally predictable in terms of where and when he is going to appear at the surface and has a beautiful and big tail (for these reasons we gave him the name Mr Liable). On our way back to the coastline we had another encounters with the common dolphins; it was a larger and more active group than before and finally back to the marina, finishing with big smiles and happy clients.

In the afternoon, we tried to resight Mr Liable, the sperm whale, but unfortunately we did not find him. We tried to predict when and were he was going to surface but we can't control him, and we sure don't want to. So in the afternoon we had to be happy, and we were, with playful common dolphins that had new born babies around.

Photos from the morning:

Mr Liable's head as he is resting at the surface

Mr Liable diving

Common dolphin looking at us

Bottlenose dolphins "running"

Aboard Cetus, with a jumping bottlenose dolphins playing with us

Bottlenose dolphin slicing through a wave

Our zodiac boat this morning

Photos from the afternoon:

Common dolphin leaping alongside out catamaran Cetus

Watching the dolphins from the bow

Baby dolphins

This morning we went out to swim with and observe some of the dolphins that we have here in the Azores. We had both common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins out there and we had some great experiences with them. For many of us the highlight of the tour was the presence of many baby dolphins of both species. Summer may be over, but we are still seeing plenty of little ones, including some newborns. We started by encountering the common dolphins which were nearer to Ponta Delgada. We observed a group of about 60 dolphins who were together with many birds (mostly Cory's shearwaters), probably feeding together on small fish at the surface. Our dolphin swimmers stayed with these common dolphins while our catamaran continued further offshore to see the bottlenose dolphins. The bottlenose dolphins were delightful to watch as they spent most of their time simply accompanying our boat and apparently doing human watching while we were watching them. It was here that we saw some very young pale baby dolphins.

Two baby bottlenose dolphins jumping

Manx shearwater taking flight

Sunday dolphins, egrets and herons

Today was a day of wildlife. We encountered both common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins. The bottlenose dolphins were active and full of energy as they jumped several meters up in the air, sticking their heads out off the water and rolling around in the water. This was clearly courtship behaviour and we had the luck to see the strong males show of for the females (and our clients). On our way back we passed by Vila Franca Islet and we got to see lots of birds flying around, at least seven little egrets, a great blue heron, the usual yellowlegged gulls and rock pigeons. On the way towards Ponta Delgada we got to see even more little egrets flying around. And right now out at sea we have the joy to see the juvenile Cory's shearwaters learning to fly. 

Photos from today:

Bottlenose dolphin jump sequence

Can you spot all seven egrets?

Great blue heron landing on Vila Franca islet

Our zodiacs out on the big blue with dolphins

One of our zodiacs going around Vila Franca islet


The other zodiac watching bottlenose dolphins

We start November with sperm whales

Today we went to the sea with our zodiac and our fiber glass boat. Although the sky looked really heavy we found our resident species to make our day happier. We saw a shy group of common dolphins, a really interactive group of bottlenose dolphins and we even saw a juvenile sperm whale. After all it was not a bad day at all!

Text and photos by Mafalda Ferreira:

Bottlenose dolphins

Common dolphins

Song of Whales

October 2014 sighting statistics

During the month of October we encountered 7 different whale and dolphin species. There are not many place in the world where you can routinely see such a diversity of cetacean species in such a short time frame! Our resident sperm whale has not been as present as is usually expected for this time of the year, but we have had a surprise visit from a migrating fin whale and also a group of Sowerby's beaked whales. Of course it's not just about the whales as we have also enjoyed the company of common dolphins every day that we have been out this past month (a 100% sighting rate!) as well as bottlenose dolphins, Risso's dolphins and perhaps some of the last Atlantic spotted dolphins for the season. Lets see what surprises the next month will bring us...

• Common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) - 100%
• Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) - 86%
• Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis) - 10%
• Risso's dolphin (Grampus griseus) - 14%
• Sowerby's beaked whale (Mesoplodon bidens) - 5%
• Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) - 19%
• Fin whale (Balaenoptera physalis) - 5%

Dolphins creating memorable experiences

Today we enjoyed a beautiful summer-like day out on the ocean. Contrary to yesterday the sea was calm and flat so we could all enjoy the boat ride. Out there we had the company of two of our resident dolphin species: common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins. We had both our whale watching boat and swimming boat out there with them and the dolphins created some nice memorable experiences for our guests. We had many children aboard our catamaran and it is a lovely experience to see children watch dolphins, and having dolphins looking back. On our way back along the coastline we also passed by Vila Franca Islet to see the crater and its wildlife.

Common dolphin

How many bottlenose dolphins can you see?

Our swimming boat with bottlenose dolphins

Watching Vila Franca Islet from our catamaran

A yellow-legged gull contrasting against the black lava stone rock of Vila Franca Islet

Trying the luck

Today we had to cancel the morning tours due to rain, but we set sail in the afternoon instead. Our lookout had spotted the blow from a baleen whale, most likely a sei whale, and we went to the area to search. It was before we left the harbour that he saw it and he did not resight the whale. It was a little bit rough out there and "white horses" doesn't make it easy. We spent some time searching but unfortunately we were unlucky in this sense. But we were lucky with dolphins, both common dolphins to start the tour and bottlenose dolphins to finish. The bottlenose dolphins were the highlight as they were surfing happily in the waves and we got to see some nice jumps out of the waves close to our catamaran. 

Photos from today:

A bottlenose dolphins next to us

Bottlenose dolphins having fun!!

Cory's shearwater

Exploring the underwater world of the Azores

This morning we set out to swim with dolphins out in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, in the Azores! Just outside our base in Ponta Delgada we encountered several groups of common dolphins, each group of a different size and with a different behaviour. We managed to get a few nice swims with the different groups and we also observed them above water, including some tiny babies leaping out of the waves. But today it wasn't just dolphins that we got to swim with. We had a small swimming group and time spare time after the dolphins had moved on, so we went towards the coastline to snorkel around the rocks and observe some local fish species. It was a beautiful experience being surrounded by many different species, as if we were inside a natural aquarium. Some of the fish, like the ornate wrasse, are very brightly coloured so it was nice to see the contrast of them against the dark backdrop of the black lava stone walls. We also spotted many bright red seastars scattered along the bottom. It was really a unique experience this morning, exploring the underwater world of the Azores!

Some photos of the snorkeling:

One of our clients snorkeling

A bearded fireworm

Starfish everywhere!

A blenny resting on a rock ledge

Beautiful rock layers created by the forces of mother nature