Sky Full of Egrets
All the images in this blog were taken during the trip. Click on an image to display at full size.
In the early hours of the 10th January I stepped aboard MV Boudicca, one of my favourite ships, in the Queensland city of Cairns. It would be the start of an adventure to explore a part of the world with a special appeal. The ship would be making 3 stops in one of the remotest parts of the planet, Papua New Guinea, it would also call in at the equally magical island of Komodo on route to Bali.
As usual I was able to bring a companion along for the ride and on this occasion it was my good friend Laura Dennis, a fellow Ecologist and birder.
We had a few hours ashore in Cairns before the usual speaker responsibi...
MV Balmoral - Barbados to San Diego - 31st January to 19th February
Barbados to Cartegena
Click on images to enlarge. All images taken during the cruise tour. Copyright Jeff Clarke Ecology Ltd unless otherwise stated.
We left a snowy Britain behind (eventually – what with 5cm of snow having ground Manchester Airport to a halt!) As normal on a sectored speaker gig we arrived at our start point, this time Barbados and we were immediately ferried to our ship, on this occasion Fred. Olsen’s MV Balmoral that would, via the Panama Canal, take us eventually to our intended departure point of Cabo San Lucas in Mexico. As it transpired our final stop would be San Diego, but more of that later. On route to the ship, via the taxi, I...
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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