Rather than bore everyone with the tedious happenings of day-to-day occurrences,
I have opted for a less regular blog, where, hopefully, there will be a lot more
excitement to report, without people groaning at the sight of yet another
failed attempt at a Dolphin photograph… or another wave crashing against the
side of the ship! This way, you
get the highlights. All of the good stuff. Without the padded out tales of
grumpy passengers, or how I have forgotten my soap bag, so had to go three days
without a shower, shave, tooth clean or spray of deodorant. Needless to say,
the quilt covers have turned a stale brown/green colour.
So now I am giving you the wildlife highlights of my life, this month’s first
photo is of a floating wooden pallet. Great eh?
There are a lot of these floating around, amongst a lot of other pieces
of crap. I saw two within an hour of each other. But these can, conversely, in
a bizarre twist of fate, provide a unique form of shelter for fish in the open
ocean. Young fish will school underneath, Triggerfish will actually make them
home, and other larger fish will follow these in search of prey. The innocent
floating crate could mean the difference between a Tuna making it from a few
centimetre larvae to a full grown two metre long powerhouse of an adult or not (Info straight from the greatest natural history programme ever made – Blue
Planet).
A particularly enormous sighting of a Fin Whale, right next to the ship,
the closest I have ever sighted one, sparked some excitement amongst the
crowds. I say crowds, more like the two people who were hardcore enough to
brave the wind and rain! You can see in the next two photos its large body and
fin rolling through the water. Pretty much all you get to see of these great
leviathans.
The fin Whale was undeniably amazing. But on that very same day,
something happened that overshadowed any marine mammal sighting I could have
had. Out from the fog laden distance, a bird slowly caught up with the ship,
struggling in the wind and rain. A bird of prey. Not any old bird of prey, a
Kestrel. I love birds of prey. I especially love Kestrels. Small, agile, finely
tuned, perfect predators of small mammals. But this was at sea, probably at
least 150 miles from land. Crazy.
Soon the Kestrel tired of keeping up, and decided to kick back on one of
the lifeboats on the side of the ship…
Luckily, of all the lifeboats, on all of the places across the entire
ship the Kestrel could have landed, it landed on the lifeboat right outside my
bedroom window!
Absolutely stunning! I
had been spending ages out and about back home tracking these down, and then in
the middle of the ocean, one lands outside my bedroom window!!! Phwooaarrr!
After a while Kes took off, leaving me with my ruined undies to retire
for the day.
I seem to remember having a stint of fair weather for a few days. Here
is a pod of Striped Dolphin, keeping low as they travel through the golden
tinted surface of the sea in the early hours of the morning.
Santander is my favourite destination of the week, notable for its
rather grand entrance, and wonderful sea front of the city. Here, the
incredibly lush and snow-capped mountains in the Pecos National Park back a
royal castle on the rocky sea front.
Another reason why I like Santander… the naked statues of people scattered around the sea front.
This particular fellow is diving into the sea. Not sure how well these would go
down back home.
Being late spring, and everything on land already blooming, the sea was
covered in miles of these giant red slicks across the surface. Plankton blooms.
These tiny animals and plants explode into life as the sea begins to warm and
they gorge themselves on the nutrient rich waters across the Bay of Biscay,
turning the sea a lovely red colour.
The ship sailed into another spectacular sunset as it left Portsmouth.
It reminded me of the over-romanticised Brittany Ferries advert on the
television.
Another bird joined the ship, this time a lot smaller than the Kestrel,
and a lot less likely to pummel a Bank Vole and tear its organs out. A Grey
Wagtail, with its bright yellow underside, managed to keep up with the ship
travelling at 45kmph. Not bad going for a little fellow, usually seen bobbing
around streams and rivers.
I had just put my head down and nodded off for an afternoon kip, when
the phone rang. The ship manager, Audrey, seemed a little flustered and wanted
me down at reception to help them. When I got there, a Collared Dove was
hobbling across the floor, falling around, clearly disabled. It had flown into
the ship, and probably trashed part of its spine.
I took it to my room, with my fat face and pale forehead, and found it a box to keep it in until Audrey got
off the ship and could take it to the vets. Where I believe they killed it.
Should have probably killed it on the ship, saved it a day of pain and
suffering, suffering and pain.
The Bay has exploded with the slightly retarded looking Sunfish or Mola
Mola, the heaviest bony fish on the planet, growing over two metres from fin to
fin, these guys can weigh a couple of tonne. They bask at the surface, where
they are thought to be thermally recharging after deep dives in cold water.
Sometimes gulls will peck parasites off of their bodies, and females of the
species are known for producing more eggs than any other vertebrate on the
planet. What is not to like about these insane animals?
Finally some photos of Dolphins where the entire body is visible, and
kind of sharp-ish! Here a Common Dolphin and its calf (behind) leap through the
water.
Here a Striped Dolphin keeps characteristically low in the water while
it travels…
And a young Common Dolphin leaps from the surface !
And a through-water shot from above of a small pod of four…
My food highlight of the month has to be the Cow tongue stew. Really
nice, beefy flavour, except with a much tender texture. The skin is the only
part that puts you off, being a little rough and whiter in colour.
This has been quite a long blog this one. So I will blog the adventures
back on land in a second part to the month of May. Maybe next week. Probably
later.
Hopefully you enjoyed!
Until next time…
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