365 Project, Day 130
Here is my day 130 submission to my 365Project:
UPDATE 10/12/2013: After posting these photos on the Facebook Bird Id Group Of The World and some back and forth with the members of the group and falcon specialists...it turns out my supposed juvenile Lanner falcon was actually a female red-footed falcon! This sighting is of interest because, according to my bird ID book Birds of Africa South of The Sahara and the twitchers who've commented on the sighting, it's considered an extralimital species to the area and interesting that it was quite far offshore.
Anyways, here's the info about today's sightings including this unique falcon sighting:
Although it was a bit of a frustrating day...it was still a decent day for observations. I started the morning with, once again, flat calm seas. While scanning the waters I had my second dwarf sperm whale (Kogia sima) sighting ever; I spotted something floating at the surface and, sure enough, upon closer inspection with my binos there it was. Of course, just as I was grabbing my camera to get a photo it sunk out of view (very typical dwarf sperm whale behaviour)! It was hard not to be disappointed that I couldn't get the photo but I am very confident in my ID of this species because it was a very similar observation to one I had on this same project back in July (see my post for July 9)...the only difference being there were no sharks during this observation :)
A short while after I had that observation I had another frustrating sighting. About 2 km away I saw two animals logging right next to each other at the surface and I believe they were one of the small blackfish species, either melon-headed whales (peponocephala electra) or pygmy killer whales (feresa attenuata). Unfortunately, I could only record them as unidentified small cetaceans because they were too far and the sighting too brief to see them in any detail through my binos and when I tried to photograph them (for identification) my camera wouldn't focus due to the distance and the lack of contrast in the surrounding waters. This is one disadvantage of flat calm seas of with distant sightings...the camera has trouble picking what to focus on! So, frustrating but, after taking a deep breath I moved on.
I figured that would be the end of my (somewhat frustrated!) excitement for the morning but, no, just as I was feeling settled down into my scanning routine again a falcon flew right at us (one of the clients was with me on the heli-deck while he was on his morning stroll) on the heli-deck. It was quite amusing because I got incredibly excited and started enthusiastically pointing at it as I grabbed my camera telling him to "look, look!" and he just glanced at it casually and continued on his way as if to say "yes, there is a bird there, and...?" Anyways, my excitement was worth it because I ended up taking some photographs I was pretty happy with!
Fun fact of the day:
According to Oiseaux.net's webpage on Lanner falcon's Lanner falcons live on African seashore as well as in continental areas, from Mauritania to Egypt and can also be found in Italy. They nest in semi-desert areas of Moroccan Atlas up to Libya and dry savannahs. In Europe they live in rocky areas with steep cliffs.
And a fact on the red-footed falcon:
Although the red-footed falcon will take small mammals and birds its main prey are large insects! The latin portion of its name 'vespertinus' means 'evening' indicating its activity at dawn and dusk.
Read more about the red-footed falcon at redfootedfalcon.com.
Here are some more photos of the Female red-footed falcon (falco vespertinus) and, something we haven't seen a lot of here offshore Angola, flying fish:
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| Female red-footed falcon (falco vespertinus) |
UPDATE 10/12/2013: After posting these photos on the Facebook Bird Id Group Of The World and some back and forth with the members of the group and falcon specialists...it turns out my supposed juvenile Lanner falcon was actually a female red-footed falcon! This sighting is of interest because, according to my bird ID book Birds of Africa South of The Sahara and the twitchers who've commented on the sighting, it's considered an extralimital species to the area and interesting that it was quite far offshore.
Anyways, here's the info about today's sightings including this unique falcon sighting:
Although it was a bit of a frustrating day...it was still a decent day for observations. I started the morning with, once again, flat calm seas. While scanning the waters I had my second dwarf sperm whale (Kogia sima) sighting ever; I spotted something floating at the surface and, sure enough, upon closer inspection with my binos there it was. Of course, just as I was grabbing my camera to get a photo it sunk out of view (very typical dwarf sperm whale behaviour)! It was hard not to be disappointed that I couldn't get the photo but I am very confident in my ID of this species because it was a very similar observation to one I had on this same project back in July (see my post for July 9)...the only difference being there were no sharks during this observation :)
A short while after I had that observation I had another frustrating sighting. About 2 km away I saw two animals logging right next to each other at the surface and I believe they were one of the small blackfish species, either melon-headed whales (peponocephala electra) or pygmy killer whales (feresa attenuata). Unfortunately, I could only record them as unidentified small cetaceans because they were too far and the sighting too brief to see them in any detail through my binos and when I tried to photograph them (for identification) my camera wouldn't focus due to the distance and the lack of contrast in the surrounding waters. This is one disadvantage of flat calm seas of with distant sightings...the camera has trouble picking what to focus on! So, frustrating but, after taking a deep breath I moved on.
I figured that would be the end of my (somewhat frustrated!) excitement for the morning but, no, just as I was feeling settled down into my scanning routine again a falcon flew right at us (one of the clients was with me on the heli-deck while he was on his morning stroll) on the heli-deck. It was quite amusing because I got incredibly excited and started enthusiastically pointing at it as I grabbed my camera telling him to "look, look!" and he just glanced at it casually and continued on his way as if to say "yes, there is a bird there, and...?" Anyways, my excitement was worth it because I ended up taking some photographs I was pretty happy with!
According to Oiseaux.net's webpage on Lanner falcon's Lanner falcons live on African seashore as well as in continental areas, from Mauritania to Egypt and can also be found in Italy. They nest in semi-desert areas of Moroccan Atlas up to Libya and dry savannahs. In Europe they live in rocky areas with steep cliffs.
And a fact on the red-footed falcon:
Although the red-footed falcon will take small mammals and birds its main prey are large insects! The latin portion of its name 'vespertinus' means 'evening' indicating its activity at dawn and dusk.
Read more about the red-footed falcon at redfootedfalcon.com.
Here are some more photos of the Female red-footed falcon (falco vespertinus) and, something we haven't seen a lot of here offshore Angola, flying fish:
 |
| Female red-footed falcon (falco vespertinus) |
 |
| Female red-footed falcon (falco vespertinus) |
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| Female red-footed falcon (falco vespertinus) |
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| Female red-footed falcon (falco vespertinus) |
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| Female red-footed falcon (falco vespertinus) flying off our stern |
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| Flying fish in flight |
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| Flying fish in take off mode :) |
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