A good look at wild dolphins

Good water visibility can make all the difference to the quality of dolphin sightings. In the Azores we would sometimes be able to see down to about 30 m deep. When the top later is perfectly clear it's amazing to be able to see dolphins bowriding right beneath your feet. When there's not a ripple in the water it can look like the dolphins are gliding through the sky rather than water.

Common dolphins (Delphinus delphis)

Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)

Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis)

A mirror-like ocean

On just a few days each year, the wild oceanic waters around the Azores are completely flat, like a mirror. The locals would say that the water is like olive oil. These are my favourite kind of days to be out, especially when the surface of the water reflects like a mirror.

Atlantic spotted dolphin

Bottlenose dolphin

Returning home after a late afternoon whale watching trip

Sunset through the mist at Sete Cidades

This viewpoint over Sete Cidades crater is covered in cloud or mist more often than not. So it was a lucky moment on a completely covered afternoon, that the sunset burned its way through the mist and lit up the whole area in a warm orange glow. 

Important Bird Area - Vila Franca Islet

During the summer months it's possible to visit an offshore islet in the form of a sunken volcanic crater. This place is called Vila Franca Islet and it's classified as a Birdlife International Important Bird Area (IBA). IBAs support key bird species, so they are recognised globally important for the conservation of birds and other biodiversity. Vila Franca Islet is frequented by nesting Cory's shearwaters, common terns, ruddy turnstones, black-backed gulls, the occasional Azorean buzzard and some rare winter vagrants like egrets, herons and whimbrels. 

Common terns (Sterna hirundo) nesting on Vila Franca Islet

Ruddy turnstone (Arenaria interpres) having a bath

Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus) posing

Common tern bringing a fish back to the nest

The volcanic formations of Vila Franca Islet

Summer on the ocean

The Azores islands is one of the best places to see a huge range of species of cetaceans (whales and dolphins). In 2014 I encountered 16 different species! Below are some photos of just a few of them:

Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)

Common dolphin (Delphinus delphis)

Pilot whale (Globicephala sp.)

Roseate tern (Sterna dougalii)

Sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis)

Sperm whale (Physeter marchocephalus)

Sperm whales diving

Vila Franca islet

A very energetic humpback whale

I could never get tired of watching a humpback whale breaching. It's not until they are completely out of the water that you realise how big these animals really are. This particular individual who breached multiple times must have been at least 14 metres long! 

Another type of behaviour we call lobtailing