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Minke Whale (I think) : 2
Pilot Whale : 6
Common Dolphin : 1,100+
Bottlenose Dolphin : 70+
Sunfish : 4
Sabine's Gull : 3
Storm Petrel : 3
Great Shearwater : 30+
Cory's Shearwater : 70+
Arctic Tern : 40+
Sandwich Tern : 4
Audouin's Gull : 1 (Alicante)
Yellow-legged Gull : numerous
Ringed Plover : 8
Great Skua : 1
Gannet : numerous
Subalpine Warbler : pair (Mahon)
Spotted Flycatcher : 1 (Mahon)
9 comments:
Thought at the time that the close in whales were Minkes,not entirely sure so I wouldn't mind an opinion.
Where were they, Brittany or in the Bay and how big were they? were the shears in Biscay?
Great shots Jeff.
Great photos Jeff! I bet the Toggers can't wait for Biscay!
Cheers lads,I had a full day on the Monday in Biscay on the way south after leaving Southampton late Sunday afternoon and after a quiet start picked up the whales in a few hours late afternoon by which time we were probably 2/3 the way down the bay.
The whales in the photos were probably about 10m which is why I went for Minke.
I had the Pilot Whales as we passed Gibralter.
It wasn't easy being the only pair of eyes sea watching out of some 1300 passengers and I must have missed loads and could obviously only cover one side of the boat at any one time.
I picked up Cory's both in Biscay and the Med but only had Greats on our way back north at the top end of the bay just south of Finisterre.
Because we left La Coruna at 4.30pm (I did get in a few hours) we covered a huge chunk of the bay on the return leg under cover of darkness and by sunrise were probably more than 3/4 of the way up which is when I picked up good numbers of the large shearwaters.
It was really disappointing that we covered so much of the bay in the dark.
The one thing I was lucky with was the weather and the seas everywhere were between slight-moderate.
I think you lads will do very well on the upcoming ferry trip and wish you all the best of luck.
Odd shaped dorsal fin but they can vary. If you were 2 /3 down the bay that would suggest Fin Whale. But the size as you know is much greater than 30ft! Minke is unlikely that far south. The Whales do look big also!
Fin Whale Jeff. There'd be no obvious remnant of a blow if they had been Minke, the animal looks very bulky and the fin doesn't proportionately big enough for Minke. Also, as Steve has said, Minke is rare (though not impossible) in that part of the Bay.
Bxxxer! You dipped on Tropicbird and Frigate you must be gutted!!
Agree with above Fin ID of course not even a hint of Sei either.
This trip probably takes a path away from the continental shelf far out in Biscay so maybe the hours in darkness were not such a loss.
I am guessing that the ship is not as high above the waves as the Pont Aven?
Cheers lads,thanks for the ID confirmation,there were Fin Whales further out at the time that I photographed the close in pair.
You are correct Rich,the ship took a route directly from Finisterre towards La Coruna so was pretty far out in the bay and probably too far out for big numbers of whales.
That being said it was still a great trip.
Cheers lads,thanks for the ID confirmation,there were Fin Whales further out at the time that I photographed the close in pair.
You are correct Rich,the ship took a route directly from Finisterre towards La Coruna so was pretty far out in the bay and probably too far out for big numbers of whales.
That being said it was still a great trip.
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