Today was the final day at sea before we arrived at St Helena. There had already been some interesting Seabirds including Red-billed Tropicbirds & a Leach's Storm-petrel within a party of Band-tailed Storm-petrels. I also saw a good number of Flying Fish seen with the same four species that we had seen on the previous day. I also saw a Smurf which is believed to be an immature Flying Fish. They are only a few inches long, have small forewings & are only capable of flying a few metres before they drop back into the sea. Given the short distance of the flight, I never managed to get any photos of the Smurfs.
Bandwing Flying Fish
Bandwing Flying Fish: Another individual which dropped back into the sea (a few frames after this photo)
Bandwing Flying Fish: A third well-marked individual showing they can control the flight by closing the rear wings
Bandwing Flying Fish: The third individual opened its rear wings (a few frames after the previous photo)
Bandwing Flying Fish: A fourth individual. They have a very distinctive broad white eyering which can only be seen when they change direction so they are not flying directly away from the Plancius
Atlantic Flying Fish