Some more from our canaries and Madeira cruise. As mentioned in the previous post Bulwers Petrels were numerous as we sailed between the Islands. Amazingly long thin wings and effortless flight. I was a little surprised not to connect with a Feas/Zinos type or a Little Shear in this part of the world but the two White-faced more than made up for that. This was the species I thought I would be unlikely to see without going on a dedicated pelagic and the comments in the Collins Guide "rarely seen at sea" didn't boost my confidence.
After reading the Birding World article on the recently identified sea bird hotspot, Banco de la Conception, I thought that some persistent scanning as we sailed north of Lanzarote on our way to Portugal might just pay off, but it was a still a big surprise when I got on to two of these beauties.
Cetaceans also performed well, a total of 7 species, the highlight being 2 Sperm Whale that surfaced in my scope view while we were sailing away from Madeira. A total of 8 Fin Whale were noted on the South-ward journey off NW Spain and Portugal, a Sei Whale was noted off La Palma and several Pilot Whale were seen between the Canary Islands and Biscay on the return journey North. Not surprisingly Common Dolphin was common, and also seen were 2 Risso's off La Palma and a few Striped.

Fin Whale off Portugal, one of a group of 3 that showed reasonably well. This species, the second largest after the Blue, is indifferent to ships.

Got lucky with this shot as a pod of Common Dolphin swam in along side the ship at the same time we were watching the 3 Fin Whale. Certainly made some fellow cruise goers day, had just pointed out the Whales and then one lady said she had never seen Dolphins. Heres some.

Pilot Whales off Lanzarote. I presumably had both species of Pilot Whale although they are pretty much impossible to ID at sea. Short-finned have a more southerly distribution and the canaries are known to have resident populations. The ones I saw at the North end of Biscay were presumably Long-finned.

Along with Bulwers, Cory's were the default around the Islands

Good views were had of Roseate Terns as the ship docked at Funchal, Madeira including 2 Juveniles.

As would be expected in early July, the most southerly Gannets noted off Portugal and NW Spain were immatures with Adults becoming more frequent as we headed round the Brest peninsular.