Sunday, 28 September 2014

Tour at 13:00

Report from Hafsúlan: We sailed towards the area we saw lots of birds the last tour hoping our luck might change with the whales. It did, a minke whale surfaced just in front of our boat but only twice and very quickily. Some passengers saw it but not all. We carried on for a while and suddenly saw a splash, a small pod of white-beaked dolphins, 4-6 in all surfacing close and showing off to the passengers and played around the boat for a while before swimming off again. It took us a long time of sailing and searching until suddenly I saw a pair of minke whales, yes two minke whales travelling together just behind us about 300-400 meters away but got closer over time. One of the minke whales was a regular minke called ´Resight Guy´seen every year since 2008 and quite frequently this summer. A slow start but a great end.

-Megan Whittaker

Tour at 09:00

Report from Hafsúlan: the weather could not have been better, cold but it was blue skies all the way. We sailed slowly through our best areas roughly 30-40 minutes offshore from the harbour. We saw a flock of gannets plunging into the water from great heights and 3-5 harbour porpoises underneath. After another 40-50 of searching we got word from another whale watching company about a minke whale they saw but it was not in a good mood or it was very busy because it only surfaced once. Luckily, when we were scanning in the binoculars we could see a pod of 5-9 white beaked dolphins a few miles away. Once in the area they were great, leaping, surfacing fast and sometimes close to the boat too. Of course we would have loved to show our passengers the minke but nature is nature and if they don´t want to be seen you have to let them. The wonders of wild animals.

-Megan Whittaker

Birds seen on today's tour include: northern gannet, northern fulmar, black-backed gull, glaucous gull, kittiwake, eider duck, common guillemot, cormorants