We have been reluctant land lubbers for the past three days but that routine has now been broken. Today we returned to the sea. The weather is not ideal – winds too strong and waves too high. This all makes sighting cetaceans harder than normal. Such are the joys of fieldwork!
With our movements restricted to the calmer waters of the channel between the islands of Pico and Faial, the sum of the reward for the day’s efforts was a few encounters with small groups of common dolphins.
The conditions did also give us chance to enjoy some of the aerial acrobats, such as the Cory’s shearwaters, who are one of the targets for the bird surveys. Our feathered friends can get over-looked on ‘busier’ days, but they still form an important component of the surveys.
So a better than being stranded on land all day day. Birds + dolphins = data, which also means a happy team.
We’ll just have to try again tomorrow and hope our perseverance is rewarded.
Update from our volunteer vacation / conservation holiday protecting whales, dolphins and turtles around the Azores archipelago
Biosphere Expeditions: blogs from the frontline of wildlife conservation and the fight for a more sustainable planet 