August 15th to 18th 2009 Bay of Biscay

Mini Cruise travel and boarding
Day one
It’s that time of the year folks when we like to go looking for big ‘fish’ and this time we had Colin Potter and Richard Cox for company so once we had picked them up from Coventry and Bristol we headed for Beauly Road Station in the New Forest, Hampshire. Traffic was heavy and the journey took longer than expected so we were grateful for the chance to stretch our legs wandering around the heath managing to see 3 juvenile Dartford Warbler, 4 juvenile Redstart 10 Stonechat and 2 Peregrine talon grappling over our heads before a pleasant meal in the nearby hotel. Once fed and watered we moved on to Portsmouth where once the normal formalities were completed we boarded the P&O ferry the Pride of Bilbao and departed just a few minutes late.

Mini Cruise Bay of Biscay
Day two
Sea conditions were calm with a less than one meter swell as we sailed down the English Channel overnight. Dawn broke to cloud cover with good visibility and warm air as we approached the coastline of NW France with the island of Ushant in the distance. In the hour before breakfast we managed a few Gannets and 3 Harbour Porpoise.
At breakfast time we were lucky to be allocated a window table overlooking the bow and the excellent viewing conditions meant we picked up Cory’s and Manx Shearwater, 3 Storm petrel and 8 more Harbour Porpoise.
After breakfast time we settled down on deck 8 port side spending the rest of the day keeping our eyes peeled. Between 9am and 12am we had 44 Storm Petrel, single Leaches Petrel, Basking Shark and 32 Harbour Porpoise. At 12:20pm we spotted a Minke Whale breaching a mile in front of the ship and as we approached it continued to breach another 10x and went down the starboard side. Colin and I went to see if it would surface close and were treated to stunning views as it cleared the water in front of us just 200 yards from the ship. It left Colin grinning like a cheshire cat for the rest of the day as his stunning shots were soon appreciated by the holiday makers onboard. Among all this excitement we saw 19 Harbour Porpoise 3 Great Skua, 33 Storm Petrel, 5 Common Tern including 3 resting on driftwood and 2 distant large shearwaters that could have been Cory’s.
As we continued south in the northern part of the Bay of Biscay over the next five hours we added to our list a further 26 Harbor Porpoise, 2 Basking Shark, 4 Long-finned Pilot Whale and 34 Bottlenose Dolphin. Surprisingly we saw Fin Whales quiet early with the first at 15:10pm followed by three others and a distant ‘blow’ and then another two at 16:30pm and 17:10pm plus another ‘blow’ but Common Dolphins stole the show with our first 12 at 15:30pm then 6 at 17:10pm and at 18:35pm an estimated 1000 surrounded the ship and we were treated to fantastic views. We only watched the ones on the port side and our count was over 450. Sea birds in this period included 67 Storm Petrel and 34 Great Skua including a group of 7 and 11 and birds on board were 2 Willow Warbler and Wheatear and the other sighting of note was 4 Sunfish including one over 5ft.

Mini Cruise Bay of Biscay
Day three
After a quiet night we were first in the queue to disembark in Bilbao, Spain in very humid conditions and low cloud that turned to rain. Unfortunately we had a 40 minute wait for a taxi and then we stupidly gave the wrong directions ending up on the hill opposite the one we wanted with a motorway in between so not the best of starts. As the rain continued we tried to retrieve the situation by exploring the area we were in and though we struggled at first we started picking up the odd species and our perseverance paid off as we found an area that despite the conditions was heaving with bird life and we were soon running around like headless chickens. In just a two hundred meter square patchwork of smallholdings, fields, hedgerows and a few trees we managed 30 species including 3 Cirl Bunting, Tawny Pipit, 2 Cetties Warbler, Nightingale, 4 Melodious Warbler, 2 Sardinian Warbler, 6 Red-backed Shrike, 12 Black Redstart, 4 Serin and 2 White Wagtail so we were happy bunnies on our way back to the dock.
The rest of the day was spent traveling north through the southern part of the Bay of Biscay with the sea condition still very calm and the cloud cover eventually breaking to bright sunshine. Only 30 minutes out we saw Baleric Shearwater followed by 3 Cory’s and 12 Bottlenose Dolphin then it went quiet till Dave shouted Cuvier’s Beaked Whale at 14:20pm when he spotted two animals underwater heading directly for the ship who swung right at the last minute and surfaced before one started breaching. Another two were seen at 15:30pm and they performed really well on the surface and then both started breaching at least 8 times.
Other sightings included 2 Fin Whale on the surface as the ship passed, 2 large Bonito Tuna boils, 35 Common Dolphin, 30 Striped Dolphin, 3 more Cory Shearwater, 6 Storm Petrel and a single Artic Skua. Also of interest was a Hummingbird Hawk-moth flying around the decks.

Mini Cruise Bay of Biscay
Day four
We surfaced after we had passed the NW French coast and though we don’t normally see much on this section of the trip we surprised ourselves by finding 5 Long-finned Pilot Whale at 10:30am and a Sooty Shearwater flew close by at 10:45am. The last two highlights were a juvenile Great-northern Diver sitting on the surface at mid-day and a Blue Shark close to the ship off the Isle of Wight. We arrived back at Portsmouth to a very humid night with plenty of moths seen as we retraced our steps back home with Dave dropping me off just after midnight.

Final count at sea was:
8 Fin Whale, 1 Minke Whale, 4 Cuvier's Beaked Whale, 9 Long-finned Pilot Whale, 46 Bottlenose Dolphins, 498 Common Dolphins, 34 Striped Dolphins, 88 Harbour Porpoise, 3 Basking Shark, 1 Blue Shark and 4 Ocean Sunfish.
Seabirds included 7 Cory's Shearwaters, 1 Sooty Shearwater, 6 Manx Shearwater, 153 Storm Petrel, 1 Leaches Petrel, 37 Great Skua, 1 Arctic Skua, 5 Common Tern, Great-northern Diver and 3 Cormorant.
Land birds included Dunlin, 2 Willow Warbler and Wheatear
Moths included Setaceous Hebrew Character, Flame Shoulder and Large Yellow Underwing which were found the first night sailing down the channel (probably already on board when we sailed) and Hummingbird Hawk-moth 3 hours out of Bilbao

Richard