It finally looks like summer has arrived, with sunny skies and very smooth seas the day was filled with great sightings!
We started in the morning by ticking almost every dolphin species we can see in the Azores at this time: the residents Common and Bottlenose dolphin, and the fast Striped dolphins that are the first of our Summer visitors 🙂 We were only missing the Risso’s dolphin to hit the jackpot… maybe next time!
The trip was also filled with turtles and the beautiful (but dangerous) Portuguese Man of War.
In the afternoon the Sei whales kicked off the trip. The 2 adults were slowly travelling along the coastline and allowed us to keep them company for a little bit 🙂
We continued by meeting a lovely group of Common dolphins with lots of young calves and even a couple newborn dolphins. Commons dolphins, like many others, can breed during the entire year. However, there is a peak in the number of births in the late Spring-early Summer as the waters are a bit warmer allowing the small calves that still don’t have a lot of fat stored (to keep them warm) to have better chances to thrive.
The day ended with a group of the fascinating Bottlenose dolphins 🙂
Bottlenose dolphin young with its mother / Tursiops truncatus
Keep tuned for more news of our tours! 😀
