Azorian whales & dolphins, azorian weather and azorian birds

Today the weather supposed to be real azorian. We had the blue sky with a lot of sun, some clouds and even rain. At one moment, we even couldn’t see the island in our back – but it was worth it!

Near to Vila Franca we were able to observe a group of Common dolphins during feeding. It was amazing to see them near to the Cory’s Shearwaters flying and hunting on their prey – fish. Some birds were able to catch some bate, so we could see even them eating.

Common dolphin and Cory’s shearwater foraging

To this group of Common dolphins were Spotted dolphins joining the feeding. As they were having young calves with them, it seemed like, that they were showing them to hunt on fish. But sometimes you could think, that the little ones still have other things on their mind, so they approached our boat in curious movements – even solitary!
When they were surfacing they tried their best during small jumping movements, but the juveniles showed their impressive ability in higher, spectacular jumps.

Spotted dolphins/ Golfinho pintado

Surprisingly a Sperm whale appeared in the afternoon and we headed out to the ocean and into the sun. We left the island in the back, where our Lookout Filipe sat in the rain, so for a moment the visibility was not given. Never the less the rain passed and soon we were able to approach a female Sperm whale. She was calmly surfacing, showing us the typical blow. Even a spyhopping movement was seen. What beautiful view!