Whales to the east

Today in the morning we travelled along the coast to the east part of São Miguel Island, enjoying beautiful views of the green coastline on our way to the whale area. We had a group of sperm whales to see there, a family of at least 7 whales, including at least 2 small calves and a juvenile. The trip out to them was well worth it, we all got to see plenty of whales. In the same area our catamaran Cetus could see a sei whale, towards the end of the encounter almost together with the sperm whales.

On the way to the sperm whales we found different groups of our resident species of dolphins; common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins. The swimmers had a wonderful time with them! Our afternoon tour was more sunny and also full of great sightings. First we encountered a group of common dolphins in the beautiful bright blue water. We got to see some tiny newborn babies and also some mating behaviour of dolphins creating the next generation of babies. Next we encountered a small group of bottlenose dolphins, together in the same area as a loggerhead turtle that was soaking up the sunlight at the surface. Finally, we encountered a sei whale on its migration route. We got to see it several times at the surface and then left it to continue its travels.


Photos from today:

Sperm whale spyhopping

Sperm whale diving

Sperm whale fluke

Sperm whale family

Common tern feeding

Vila Franca do Campo

Beautiful landscape of the island

Photos from the afternoon:

Sei whale in the sunlight

Common dolphins - mother and newborn calf

Common dolphin

Bottlenose dolphins

Enjoying the summers day aboard our catamaran "Cetus"

Fun with dolphins

Today we had a fun day with common dolphins, bottlenose dolphins (Bubbemaker) and striped dolphins. In the morning it was a bit foggy and it was difficult for our lookouts to spot animals, we did see the dolphins and we searched far out but sadly no whales. In the afternoon it was clear and good and our lookout did spot a whale but we were not lucky enough to see it. But still, dolphins are wonderful and makes all of us smile! We also spotted loggerhead turtles, Bulwer's petrels, storm petrels and a Macaronesian shearwater. 

Photos from today:

Bottlenose dolphins

Bottlenose dolphin

Watching bottlenose dolphins

Watching common dolphins

Common dolphin jumping

The common dolphins in the afternoon also accompanied some yachts passing by

One of our swimming boats

The baleen whales are still around

It's another baleen whale day in São Miguel and the ocean is very calm today today. In the morning we rode out on the flat sea to see the third largest animal species in the world, the sei whale. During the morning tour our coastal lookout reported the presence of at least 7 whales and we were able to enjoy the company of 4 of them. There were 3 large adults travelling together with a smaller juvenile. By the looks of it the juvenile was only a few months old and it was the first young sei whales we have seen this season. Dolphins played a part in our tour aswell. During the morning there were common dolphins spread out everywhere, it was easy to see why they are called common dolphins. We also had a nice encounter with a group of bottlenose dolphins to give us a total of 3 different species for the morning tour. In the afternoon we set out again to try to encounter some whales. Our lookout hadn't spotted any but after seeing common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins again we went searching and ended up finding a fin whale. It's great that we still have baleen whales around! 

Photos from the today:

Sei whale surfacing

Adult and juvenile sei whales

Watching a common dolphin

Watching a bottlenose dolphin

 Fin whale

 Fin whale

 Bottlenose dolphin leaping

 Common dolphin mother and newborn calf pair

Yellow-legged gull

Bottlenose dolphins in fog and mist

Today we spent the afternoon with Bubblemaker and family, our wonderful bottlenose dolphins. They were full of energy and they were "working for the future" which means: mating - making baby dolphins. Now we have to wait one year to see the result. The result is always fantastic, baby dolphins are such cute little beings. We also saw a loggerhead turtle. 

Photos from today: 

Two curious bottlenose dolphins

"Lady"

Fantastic Fins!

Whales are still around us! Spring time is the best time of the year to see the biggest animals in the world as they are passing by the Azores during their long migration. Today we had the luck to encounter the second and third biggest ones: fin whales and sei whales.We also saw two of our resident dolphin species, common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins. Bottlenose was really active today offering us beautiful jumps.  :)

Some photos of our trips:

Fin Whale

Sei Whale

Jumping Bottlenose

Bottlenose dolphin ;)

First fin whale from the morning

Second fin whale from the morning

Sei whale (morning)

Sei whale (morning)

Sei whale (morning)

Fin whale from the afternoon

Fin whale from the afternoon

Bottlenose dolphin male jumping

Bottlenose dolphin male jumping

Bottlenose dolphin male jumping

Bottlenose dolphin male jumping