30 Jan 26 - ORCA Canaries Cruise - A Tour Of Lanzarote

On our second day in the Canaries, we approached the port of Arrecife on Lanzarote. We were tied up in the half-light, so, there was no chance of any early morning surveying. There weren't any Birds I was keen to look for on the island and therefore, my plan was to book onto one of the ship organised coach tours.

Sandwich Tern: Chris and I were watching Arrecife's bay from the cabin's balcony and suggesting potential species we might see. Top of the list was Sandwich Tern and within five minutes, there were half a dozen flying around the bay

The wreck of the Telamon: Back in 1981, she started flooding on a trip from Ivory Coast to Thessaloniki with a cargo of logs. She was beached by the port and the fuel oil and logs were offloaded. After breaking her back in a storm, she could no longer go to sea. In recent years, she has been partially dismantled, but that work stopped a couple of years ago. Conveniently, the Greek company who owned her no longer exists and so won't have to pay for the clean up

Fortunately, there was room on one of the coach tours around the island. The first stop was the delightful small tourist town of Teguise, which was the capital of Lanzarote from the early 15th Century until the capital moved to Arrecife in 1852. As we were travelling around the island, our guide said that there was a famous artist, Cesar Manrique, who lives on the island until his death in 1992. He worked hard to convince the locals to paint their houses while to revive an old tradition on the island. As these photos show he was very successful in this regard.

The small tourist town of Teguise

The old church was at the centre of Teguise

The square around the old church

Another view of the square

The buildings have a very Moorish look to them: This isn't surprising as while the Canaries were first mentioned by the Romans, they were first settled by Moors from 999 AD. In the early 14th Century, a Portuguese ship captained by Genoese navigator Lancelotto Malocello arrived. Within a few years, the locals were being captured and sold into Spanish slavery. The Spanish started to settle in the Canaries from the start of the 15th Century. Early settlers continued with the building styles of the first inhabitants as the houses were easy to build, with flat roofs which were designed to channel water into underground storage

An old street

This old 15th Century church tithe barn is now the local bank

The bank has retained many of the old structural features of the building

I really like how many of the building stones stand out from the lime mortar: Cacti and Succulents were often replacing more typical garden plants on the island

A statue celebrating the local musical style of dancing with a tambourine

Collared Dove: This was one of the Bird species around the town

Collared Dove

Santa Barbara Castle dominated the hill next to the town: This started as a simple 15th Century watch tower, but it was converted into a proper fortress by 1576

Having had a good wander around the town, it was time to move on. The next stop was the beach next to the surfing beach village of Caleta de Famara, which had excellent views of bumpy sand dunes and some stunning hills. It was little more than a quick photo stop, but there was time to look around the village and photograph a couple of Spanish Sparrows I had seen.

A nice looking cafe: Everything in the village seem to be surfing related with a surf school, surf shop, surfing hotel and this cafe which presumably welcomes surfers

There were a few hardy surfers in the waves next to the village

The bay was very scenic

There were these little hummock dunes behind the beach

Spanish Sparrow: Male. The is the nominate hispaniolensis subspecies which occurs in Cape Verde, the Canaries, Madeira, Southern Europe & North Africa

Spanish Sparrow: Male

All too soon we were back on the coach to head to the Southern end of the island.

Wherever you go on Lanzarote, there are these small volcanic hills

Monumento al Campesino by local artist Cesar Manrique: To me, he was clearly more successful at convincing the locals to paint their houses white, than at his sculptures

The drive took us through the Parque Natural de Los Volcanes and Timanfaya National Park: Albeit we missed the best parts of the area

Another volcanic area

These walled hollows in the volcanic soil provided to be good ways to grow grape vines on the island: The walls and hollows provide shelter and a way to collect and retain any moisture on this arid island

Our final stop was an Aloe Vera museum. To be honest, this felt more like the obligatory visit to a Turkish Carpet shop where the guide stops hoping you buy a carpet you don't need. I opted to have a walk along the road, rather than look around the small Aloe Vera exhibition and shop.

The highlight of my walk was this Cacti and Succulent garden by a large house

Finally, it was time to head back to the ship for a late lunch. As I was waiting for the coach to depart from the Aloe Vera museum, I saw two large Falcons circling over the nearby hill, but there wasn't time for a photo. This subspecies was formally split as Barbary Falcons, but it has now been relegated to a subspecies of Peregrine.

Our guide say that there had been more rainfall than normal on Lanzarote: Consequently, there were lots of plants appearing where it is normally barren, including this lovely display of purple flowers

We left at 17:00 as planned and there for time for ninety minutes or so of surveying from the top deck before it got dark. I managed to see a two single unidentified Dolphins in that time: one of which was probably an Atlantic Spotted Dolphin. It had been an enjoyable day and I spent a bit of time booking a hire car for our next destination of La Palma. I will cover the in the next Blog Post.

This was our first good sunset at sea

7 May 18 - West African Pelagic - Day Seven: Fin Whale Off The Portuguese Coast

First light saw the Plancius a couple of hours away from the Portuguese coast. We closed a bit, but stayed around twenty to thirty miles off the coast as we headed North. This kept us in deep water, but only one to two kilometres deep. The weather was less clement with more overcast conditions & rain showers during the morning. Before breakfast, we were lucky to pick up a Fin Whale, which passed close down the starboard side of the Plancius. It was only the second one I had seen since boarding the Plancius, with the first being on the first day at sea off the Argentinian coast.

Fin Whale: We had already seen it was a large Whale. With this gently sloping dorsal fin, it suggested a Fin Whale

Fin Whale: The ridge around the blow hole is on the right-hand side of the photo

Fin Whale: There is a lot of back behind the blow hole

Fin Whale: With the blow hole dropping below the surface, the dorsal fin finally appearing

Fin Whale: A better view of the dorsal fin

Fin Whale: It soon disappeared below the surface

Fortunately, it quickly resurfaced again. Fin Whales are the second largest Whale, with Northern hemisphere Fin Whales growing to 24 metres & Southern hemisphere individuals growing to 27 metres. Blue Whales are larger still, growing to 27 metres in the Northern hemisphere & 29 metres in the Southern hemisphere. Blue Whales are bulkier than Fin Whales. Fin Whales can weight up to 120 tons, compared to 135 tons for Blue Whales.

Fin Whale: A view of part of the back in front of the dorsal fin as it resurfaced

Fin Whale: A clearer view of the dorsal fin profile

Fin Whale: A final view of part of the back behind the dorsal fin

We were entering into major shipping lanes for the first time since leaving Ushuaia & saw a number of large ships. Another sign that our time on the Plancius was slowly coming to an end.

It was quite a hazy day at times as this distance ship shows

Gannet: I saw around fifteen during the day

Curlew: This Curlew was the the only Curlew I saw from the Plancius

Bonxie: This was one of two Bonxies that I saw during the day

Arctic Skua: This Arctic Skua raced across the bows & quickly headed away

Lesser Black-backed Gull: We saw several parties of Lesser Black-backed Gulls & Yellow-legged Gulls moving North. There were all flying faster than eleven knots as they steadily overtook us before disappearing into the distance

Lesser Black-backed Gull: After overtaking us, this party then settled onto the water

Lesser Black-backed Gull: An individual from an earlier party than overtook us

Lesser Black-backed Gull: These were the first Lesser Black-backed Gulls I had seen since leaving the UK in mid Feb

One of the less predicted species for the day were a couple of Turtle Doves which appeared around the Plancius before breakfast. They were flying around the Plancius & presumably landing. However, given the number of occasions they were seen in flight, the chances are that some of the photographers couldn't leave them along. I am not a fan of chasing after Birds on boats, as they have generally been forced to land as they are needing a break. Being forced to fly again in these circumstances by uncaring photographers is wrong. I grabbed a few photos on one occasion as they flew past the bridge wing.

Turtle Dove: A female Yellow Wagtail & a couple of Reed Warblers were also seen at various times on the Plancius

Collared Dove: The following day, the two Turtles Doves were replaced by two Collared Doves. They stay aboard for most of the day having arrived off the Portuguese & travelling North to off the Spanish coast (8 May 18)

Striped Dolphin: There were several pods of Striped Dolphins & Short-beaked Common Dolphins seen during the day, but none gave particularly good views. Even these three Striped Dolphins which came close were quickly lost

There were a couple of interesting Fish seen during the day. The first was an Atlantic White Marlin which passed closed down the starboard side. The second a distant Basking Shark & our only one of the trip. This meant I had seen both the largest & second largest Cetaceans, Blue Whale & Fin Whale, as well as the largest & second largest Sharks, Whale Shark & Basking Shark, since I boarded the Plancius in Ushuaia. I had only seen Fin Whales before. Unfortunately, the Basking Shark was too far out for any worthwhile photos.

Atlantic White Marlin: This was identified as an Atlantic White Marlin

Although we couldn't see the land, it was obvious that we had come closer to people, given the increase in marine rubbish.

Large polystyrene rubbish: This will be really bad news for wildlife as it continues to breakdown

A carelessly discarded balloon: Bad news for anything that accidentally eats it, especially when it becomes deflated. This was already twenty to thirty miles offshore

Another deathtrap for any Seabird, Cetacean, Seal, large Fish or Turtle that gets caught in this mass of ropes

The wind got up stronger overnight & increased to a twenty to thirty knot headwind. The sea state also became choppy. We were heading up the Northern Portuguese coast and crossing into Spanish seas. It wasn't as pleasant on deck & with little chance of seeing any interesting Cetaceans in the sea conditions, I decided I deserved a long overdue rest day. I did miss the first Long-finned Pilot Whales which appeared briefly, but we saw those better once we entered the Bay of Biscay on 9 May. I had been spending eleven to twelve hours on deck every day for most of the last few weeks. So, it was a treat to have a long lie in, followed by a day of mainly sorting photos from the Observation lounge & catching up on washing some clothes. There were laundry services on the Plancius which I used for some items, but I wasn't prepared to hand over the more precious Rohan clothing (they are easily ruined if ironed in error). I grabbed one of the seats by the window, which still allowed me to keep an eye on what was happening outside. There were good numbers of Gannets & similar Seabirds to the previous day. At one point, a pod of Short-beaked Common Dolphins came alongside for some bow-waving. The highlight for me was the Collared Doves & the only species I photographed when I went on deck during the afternoon.