We were frustrating at first light on our first morning after leaving Tenerife to find that the visibility had dropped to only a couple of miles, from the fourteen miles to the horizon that we expected on perfect conditions. While it was possible to see more than a couple of miles, it wasn't easy and it would be very easy to miss Cetaceans surfacing beyond that distance. This was down to Saharan dust in the air. At dawn we were around two hundred miles South West of Tenerife & double that to the North African coast. The Saharan dust continued to be a problem causing hazy visibility for the next few days, albeit the visibility picked up to a few miles after that first morning.
Around mid-morning, I was off-duty on the starboard side when a shout went up from the port side. I hurried over to find a small pod of Atlantic Spotted Dolphins had popped up close to the side of the ship. Unfortunately, they stayed underwater as they enjoyed the bow wave on the port side of the ship: so my only views on this occasion were glimpsed through the water.
The undoubted highlight of the day came just before lunch when another port shout was heard for an Owl that was off the port stern side of the ship. I quickly got onto it as it started to circled the ship at height and shouted it was a Short-eared Owl. Well that wasn't on my prediction list for the trip. It circled the ship several times and seemed to be looking for somewhere to land, before we lost it from view at the back of the ship. By this point, our most recent thirty minute survey period was up & we decided to head down for lunch.
I had a good look around the upper decks for the Short-eared Owl as it quietened down on deck when the restaurants opened for dinner that evening. This was followed by another early look around the decks on the following morning. There were no subsequent sightings over the following days and we concluded that the Short-eared Owl hadn't landed on the ship. Unfortunately, there were a lot of people on the upper decks when the Short-eared Owl was seen, as the weather was warm enough for sunbathing, and it clearly hadn't felt comfortable landing on the ship. This saved the worry of whether it would be possible to provide it with any food given we were to be at sea for six days. We did see a Baja Ferry heading towards the Canaries when we returned from lunch. If it saw that ferry, which didn't have open top decks, it might have been able to get a ride and been in the Canaries the following day. If not, sadly the chances of it finding land were bleak, given the Canaries were the nearest land and that was two hundred and fifty miles North East of us.
Here is a comparison photo of a Long-eared Owl, taken in Turkey in Summer 2015.
We discovered a few stowaways on the ship during the day. Firstly, a Canary Red Admiral flew around the upper deck a couple of times without landing. This is a brighter marked species than our Red Admiral and it has less extensive white in the wing tips. A large Dragonfly passed along the deck at least twice: a Vagrant Emperor or Lesser Emperor would seem to be the most likely option. I had thought it was a Hawker at the time, but there aren't any Hawker species on the Canaries. The best stowaway was a Striped Hawk Moth that we also saw on a few occasions over the first two days at sea. I only saw it briefly land once and unfortunately, it was on a sunbathing passenger: so I decided that was not the right opportunity to try & take a photo. The Saharan dust had made the day more frustrating on our first day at sea after Tenerife. But the appearance of the Short-eared Owl, the stowaway insects and the brief views of the Atlantic Spotted Dolphins had made it a good day.
The Saharan dust continued into our second day at sea after Tenerife. I had a distant sighting of a Band-rumped Storm-petrel. There are now three species of Band-rumped Storm-petrel breeding in the North Atlantic, and it wasn't possible to resolve this to a specific species. A second Storm-petrel sighting was even briefer and that remained as a Storm-petrel sp. A Cory's Shearwater, more views of the stowaway Striped Hawk Moth & our first two Flying Fish completed the wildlife list for the day.
That evening saw the first of the formal evening dinners. On the weekly formal nights many of the passengers dress up in dinner jackets and fancy dresses. This was expected clothing for the speciality restaurants on the formal nights, but a suit and tie were OK in the normal restaurant, which was a positive for me as I have no interest in ever wearing a dinner jacket. As the ORCA team were considered part of the entertainment team, we were not allowed in the speciality restaurants, even if we were invited by a passenger.
