At sea to Western Sahara
The second day at sea en route to Western Sahara saw a fresh northerly wind and choppier seas than we have seen throughout this voyage to date. These moderate conditions reminded us that we have been lucky this past month with a very comfortable passage north from Cape Town.
After the sei whale spectacular of yesterday, today the birds moved in and were the stars of the show. We observed a really good example of how this rich and productive part of the north Atlantic attracts seabirds from all corners. The most conspicuous birds were the large groups of northern gannets that rode the updrafts around the vessel throughout the day. These large seabirds with a two-meter wingspan do not breed in this region, but form colonies around the coasts of northern Europe (The Lindblad voyage around the coast of the British Isles and Ireland is an excellent voyage for seeing gannets at their colonies). The majority of the gannets we encountered today were immatures, spending perhaps several years in the southern part of their range before heading back to northern Europe to breed.
Other sightings today included several long distance seabird migrants on their journey north to breeding grounds in the high Arctic. Pomarine skuas and Sabine’s gulls were most the conspicuous, but small numbers of Arctic terns were also following the same flyway. The southern hemisphere was also represented by the presence of sooty shearwaters and Wilson’s storm-petrels that will spend the southern winter, their non-breeding season, in the North Atlantic. And while we did not have cetacean encounters to rival the quality of the encounters of yesterday, several groups of common dolphins added another dimension of interest during the day. Tomorrow we will exchange the open ocean for the deserts of Western Sahara—another of the many contrasts on this voyage.
