We boarded the MS Braemar on the 8th Dec in Tenerife where I was to be one of the guest lecturers. By the following dawn, we had arrived in La Gomera and spent a relaxing morning in San Sebastian exploring the local park which hosted a very tame Hoopoe and a number Berthelot’s Pipits and numerous Monarch Butterflies. That afternoon we set off across the warm waters of the sub-tropical Atlantic. After an hour or so we encountered a small pod of Striped Dolphin and a short time later a family group of Short-finned Pilot Whales. Then shortly before dusk that first evening we also had a small pod of Blainville’s beaked Whale.
click on the images below to see them at full size.
Hoopoe and Betholot's Pipit - San Sebastian, La Gomera
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On the 20th September I joined the Fred. Olsen MS Boudicca at Newcastle (accompanied by my wife Adele) as a Guest Speaker. The cruise tour would take us out to the Azores in the Mid Atlantic, followed by Madeira, then onward to the canaries and then back up to Newcastle via the Portuguese coastline.
Click the images to get a larger view
Boudicca in Newcastle
The prospect of so many sea-days; crossing some of the best cetacean waters on the planet, plus the chance of encountering migrating seabirds was too tempting to resist. As we proceeded out of Newcastle and down the North Sea the first of many Northern Gannets ghosted alongside the ship, some being harried by Great Skuas but the first real highlight was an unidentif...
We boarded the MS Braemar on the 8th Dec in Tenerife where I was to be one of the guest lecturers. By the following dawn, we had arrived in La Gomera and spent a relaxing morning in San Sebastian exploring the local park which hosted a very tame Hoopoe and a number Berthelot’s Pipits and numerous Monarch Butterflies. That afternoon we set off across the warm waters of the sub-tropical Atlantic. After an hour or so we encountered a small pod of Striped Dolphin and a short time later a family group of Short-finned Pilot Whales. Then shortly before dusk that first evening we also had a small pod of Blainville’s beaked Whale.
click on the images below to see them at full size.
Hoopoe and Betholot's Pipit - San Sebastian, La Gomera
...
