S2526 – Volcanic Vistas of the Azores and Madeira on board Borealis
- ph87gb
- Oct 5
- 11 min read
The next OWE adventure began with Jean Obray, James Phillips, Paul Hill, and Peter Howlett meeting in Southampton on 19 September to board Borealis bound for the Azores and Madeira.
Departure from Southampton wasn't until almost 18:30 so we didn't make it out of the Solent before the light went. However, a Buzzard directly overhead was a nice sight in some lovely evening light.
20-22 September – at sea
Dawn on the 20th and we were approximately 40 miles SSE of the Lizard and by sunset we were just on the shelf break in the western approaches. Conditions were not too bad to start but the wind soon freshened and by late morning the wind was a force five from the SSW and during the afternoon the wind backed round to the WNW and increased to force six – not great for spotting cetaceans! The morning was overcast but the cloud broke and the light in the afternoon was lovely and bright.
(Click on any of the images in a gallery to enlarge)
Given the sea conditions it’s perhaps not surprising that cetaceans were few and far between, but we did at least see a few Common Dolphins including a few animals which showed really well as they leapt in towards the Borealis. One Common Dolphin in the afternoon showed a little more colour in the sunny conditions.
Birds were many and varied during the day from hundreds of Cory's and Great Shearwater to a handful of Pomarine Skua and a single adult Sabine's Gull. A flock of four Knot and seven Ringed Plover added to the diversity. The stiff breeze was shearwater heaven and the Cory’s and Greats were shearing across the wind at great speed.
Along with all the birds along the shelf edge there were numerous fishing boats, from medium-sized French longliners to three huge 140m Dutch trawlers, between them taking a lot of fish out of the ocean.
After the good first day at sea things didn't go quite so well on the following two days. A northerly force six certainly didn't help but, now that we were out over deep sea, there were just very few birds, and even fewer cetaceans around. We did continue to see a few Cory's Shearwater along with the odd Great, Sooty and Manx. 'Bird of the Day' on the 21st went to another Sabine's Gull and on the following day eight Band-rumped and three Leach’s Petrel were the stars. Annoyingly everything stayed a long way from the Borealis, so it was hard going.
Glimpses of two Goose-beaked Whale on the 21st and another three on the 22nd were the cetacean stars but views were brief, and it wasn't possible to get any guests on to them. A handful of Common Dolphin were the only other cetaceans seen.
On the evening of the 21st, after the OWE team had adjourned to the Observatory, a heron flew past the Borealis and disappeared. There was a little bit of concern as we hadn't seen it well enough to rule out Great Blue Heron, but thankfully it made a reappearance, and we got photos which confirmed identity as a Grey Heron. A long way offshore though, the NW corner of Spain was over 500 miles away and the Azores still over 300.
23 September – Terceira, Azores
It was still dark as we approached our first port call of Praia do Vittoria on Terceira. There were a large number of Cory's Shearwater around the ship, their white undersides gleaming in the light spilling from the lights on the promenade deck. A quick check around that deck revealed a solitary Cory's grounded on the deck, it was unharmed and swiftly released overboard to join the others.
The OWE team had planned a whale-watching trip out of Angra do Heroismo (the second largest town on the island), unfortunately the weather dictated otherwise, and the trip was cancelled. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the team were then able to spend the day at Paul Pedreira do Cabo da Praia, a small area of quarries which are tidal and renowned for the variety of North American wading birds which turn up.
Our day was no exception, there were 20 species of wader on the pools, five of which were from North America, the team saw all the American species and 12 Western Palearctic species – we had spectacular views and it's amazing that so many birds turn up in such a small area.
Here's the list of species the team logged:
Kentish Plover (80)
Ringed Plover (6)
Grey Plover (8)
American Golden Plover (1)
Ruff (5)
Pectoral Sandpiper (8)
Knot (4)
Sanderling (200)
Turnstone (80)
Dunlin (3)
Curlew Sandpiper (8)
Little Stint (2)
White-rumped Sandpiper (4)
Semipalmated Sandpiper (4)
Lesser Yellowlegs (4)
Black-tailed Godwit (4)
Whimbrel (1)
One of the Curlew Sandpipers was colour-ringed, and a quick email revealed that it had been ringed on the island of Griend in the Wadden Sea on 26 August this year.
24-25 September – Sao Miguel, Azores
An overnight sail from Terceira brought us to Ponta Delgada, the capital of the Azores on the largest island – Sao Miguel and home for the next two days. Despite having spent three days looking at the sea on the way down the team had booked two whale-watching excursions for the first day and an excursion to look for the Azores Bullfinch on the second.
The two trips on the 24th were spectacular and the team along with many of the guests on board Borealis were blown away by the amount of wildlife they saw.
There was a huge concentration of feeding Cory's Shearwater a little way out of Ponta Delgada on both trips, probably in the region of 10,000 birds. More impressive, particularly in the morning, was the number of Atlantic Spotted Dolphin, there was a huge number spread over a large area with a conservative estimate of 3000! Almost as impressive as we had superb views, were six Sei Whales. Smaller numbers were seen in the afternoon but still impressive. A pod of Common Dolphins was seen on the afternoon trip along with another two Sei Whale. Some guests out on a RIB in the morning got far enough west to add Sperm Whale to their tally (seen again by guests on the 25th along with a Bryde's Whale).
A celebratory beer on the harbourside was enhanced by the discovery of a juvenile Spotted Sandpiper on rocks in the port – another species from North America.
The team's outing with a guide on the 25th was also successful with James, Jean and Paul adding Azores Bullfinch and Azores Chaffinch to their lists. A supporting cast of American Wigeon, Garganey and White-rumped Sandpiper, along with numerous Azores Buzzard and Azores Grey Wagtail and the day-flying Azores bat added to the fantastic day out.
Unfortunately, despite our route on sail away taking us through the area where the whales had been, none were seen, although there were still thousands of Cory's Shearwater meandering over the ocean.
26 September – a day at sea
We left the Azores amid all sorts of warnings for the locals to stock up with two days’ worth of food in preparation for the impact of Hurricane Gabrielle. The worst we felt from the hurricane was a SW force 5-6 wind and warm and extremely humid air. The sea day between the Azores and Madeira was uneventful to say the least, with just six birds recorded. Later in the day there were at least some flying fish to keep us entertained.
27-28 September – Funchal, Madeira
The OWE team had planned a couple of boat trips for their time in Madeira and the first left at 10:00 on Saturday 27th. We headed offshore and found a small pod of about 20 Short-finned Pilot Whale, a mix of adults and juveniles. The adults dived to feed just as we approached which left the four juveniles on the surface to muck about while the adults were away.
We found out that there have been no feeding frenzies seen off Madeira for two-three months with one of the main bait fish, Horse Mackerel, being completely absent from the seas around Madeira. Consequently, there have been few cetacean sightings apart from the resident Pilot Whales, which, being deep-diving animals feed mainly on squid.
The afternoon was spent in the area near the botanic gardens, high above the city centre. Sitting having a chilled drink at a café we picked up three of the Madeiran endemics - Trocaz Pigeon, Madeiran Chaffinch and Madeiran Firecrest.
On the way back to Borealis James and Jean made a quick stop at the Parque da Santa Catarina and were rather pleased to see as many as 14 Monarch butterflies in the garden. They weren’t the only ones who had seen them, a good number of guests also commented on them.
The second boat trip on Sunday 28th was leaving from Machico in the east of Madeira. This would be a two-hour RIB trip out into the channel between Madeira and the Desertas Islands. However, while awaiting the pickup in Funchal it was nice to see several Plain Swift overhead, with some still feeding young.
A short van ride to Machico and we were soon out on the RIB. Our first encounter was with a group of 20 Short-finned Pilot Whale, we had amazing views as we were able to see them swimming under the RIB, with one or two surfacing very close by. We also had very close fly pasts from a couple of Desertas Petrels. We had hoped to see these birds, but they can never be guaranteed. Finally, we had an encounter with eight Bottlenose Dolphin, they were more interested in doing their own thing than investigating the RIB so, views were mainly very brief.
Sail away at 18:00 started well, with calm seas but the wind soon freshened and was soon a northerly force five. Still, we managed to find six Bottlenose Dolphin just outside Funchal and then three distant Pilot Whale. As we passed north of the Desertas Islands we were fortunate to pick up several Desertas Petrel and Bulwer's Petrel. We had very good views of the latter, albeit in the gathering gloom of dusk, as a couple of birds closed to within 100m of Borealis.
29 September – a day at sea
We’re not having much luck with our sea days, we had to contend with a northerly force 5-6 wind and a 3-5 metre swell - it was a long day with only 11 birds seen all day.
However, all the standing and staring at the lumpy sea was forgotten in 20-30 seconds of magic just before lunch. A splash off to starboard drew our attention and when the animal breached again, we could see it was a beaked whale, now the imperative was to get a photograph as it looked like it was either a True's or Gervais' Beaked Whale. Fortunately, we managed one photo of the head with the teeth visible which confirmed the identity as a male Gervais' Beaked Whale - a new species for James and Jean.
30 September – Lisbon
We docked in Lisbon just as it was getting light, so the team had a quick breakfast then off the ship to get a taxi to Parque Eduardo VII, a well-known birding hotspot, and we wanted to get there before it got too busy and warm.
The park was amazing, its looks belying just how good for migrant birds it is. The most obvious species during our walk around was Pied Flycatcher, we saw around 30 and their contact calls could be heard from almost every tree. After three hours in the park, we amassed a total of 36 species, not bad going for an urban park. Top species was Wryneck, we saw two of these fantastic birds and, not surprisingly, many photos. Other species seen included Jay, Short-toed Treecreeper, Crag Martin and two Reed Warblers, which looked very out of place hopping around under a bush in the park.
Sail away was 17:30 and we left Lisbon in warm evening sunshine. We passed a couple of well-known monuments on the way down the Tagus estuary, the statue at the Sanctuary of Christ on the south bank and the Monument to the Discoveries near Belem.
Once out in the open sea we clocked up a few seabirds, most notably several Balearic Shearwater and European Storm Petrel. We even managed a cetacean sighting before sunset - a small pod of Common Dolphins headed towards us but then went past without bothering to look at the Borealis.
1-2 October – two sea days back to Southampton
We finally had some luck with the weather for our last but one sea day - light winds and a flat calm sea - we could actually do a deck watch from deck 6! We also had a superb sunrise made all the better by the five Grey Heron flying past over the rising sun.
The conditions made all the difference to our sightings with over 230 Striped Dolphin, 50 Common Dolphin and five Fin Whale seen during the day. We even had a group of Striped Dolphin leaping into the bow, not something that happens very often. One irritation was seeing three beaked whales resting on the surface, unfortunately they never showed their heads, so identification was impossible.
Seabirds were numerous as well, star of the show were the 58 Sabine's Gull, though all stayed annoyingly distant. Otherwise, there were the usual Cory's Shearwater meandering over the ocean joined by a few Manx Shearwater and Gannet.
Non-seabirds included a flyby Ringed Plover and two Chiffchaff, which were hopping around the plastic shrubbery on deck eight probably wondering why there were no insects amongst the plants.
By dawn the following morning we were about 140km southwest of Ile d'Ouessant, frustratingly just past the edge of the continental shelf edge in north Biscay. At the edge of the continental shelf sea depth plunges from 200m to over 5000m in the space of 60km, and is known to be good for cetacean sightings, but not once you’re into the shallower seas north of the edge. Still we had another gorgeous sunrise to look at.
The morning started slowly, in fact non-seabirds started us off with a Pied Wagtail flying around Borealis for quite some time, a Chiffchaff also flew backwards and forwards a few times. We haven’t had very many landbirds on board during this cruise but that isn’t always the case. In spring and autumn, a ship at sea can make a useful place to rest for a migrating landbird far out to sea, although it’s usually best of they don’t stay long as it’s easy for feathers to become matted with oil and salt water.
It's not only birds which can be attracted to the ship. There are many lights that need to be on overnight (for passenger safety) and these can attract moths and other insects such as Asian Hornet. Despite the northerly winds when we’ve been at sea, we’ve managed to find several moth species on board (and an Asian Hornet!), sometimes hundreds of miles from shore.
Seabirds were few and far between, with just a trickle of Gannet and Cory’s Shearwater but around 11:00 we started seeing some Great Shearwater and within 10-15 minutes the floodgates had opened and there were shearwaters and Gannet everywhere, it really was impressive stuff. Most numerous were Great Shearwater, we estimated in the region of 3000 birds; then Cory’s Shearwater, about 1000; and then about 300 Gannet. The area was obviously full of food as there were feeding flocks scattered all over the place. Other species included Manx Shearwater (200), Sooty Shearwater (70) and Great Skua (20), it was particularly good to see several juvenile Great Skua, given how badly they have been hit by bird flu in recent years. Then, just as quickly as we’d entered the area with birds, we left, and birds became very thin on the ground.
It wasn’t until late afternoon that we had a bit more action, in the shape of a well dispersed group of 144 Common Dolphin. Fortunately, a few came into the bow and the few guests on deck 6 had spectacular views of them leaping in towards Borealis. With few sightings after the last dolphin the team retired to the Observatory to raise a toast to a brilliant two weeks on board the Borealis.
The cruise wasn’t over yet though, and there was one more surprise in store for the team. Just before log one of the guests came up to say there was a petrel on the promenade deck. We went down and rescued a European Storm Petrel from the scuppers and after about 10 minutes in a darkened area the bird took flight and disappeared into the night.
Lovely account of a lovely cruise. Thanks guys 😀