April 4th - A great day for sperm whales today with an estimated total of at least 111 individuals, although they were difficult to count with blows on both sides of the ship and right out to the horizon. With several groups of dolphins observed amongst the sperm whales too, the day's tally came to an impressive nine sightings and 351 cetaceans.

April 7th - We are visited by a colourful juvenile Eurasian Golden Oriole, which lands briefly on the ship's mast before flying off again.  

April 9th - An exhausted Leach's petrel is found on the deck in the morning.  We put it in a box for the day to rest, and late afternoon take it to the deck for release. 

However the release operation is hindered by the arrival of an exuberant pod of Atlantic spotted dolphins which come porpoising in to the ship to play on the bow!  This is typical at sea - nothing for hours, and then everything happens at once!  After the dolphins leave we finally manage to encourage the petrel to leave the ship and it seems much stronger as it flies away.

The day comes to a nice end with a pod of 11 sperm whales logging in calm seas just before dark.

April 13th - A dorsal fin slices along the water surface - not a dolphin this time, but a hammerhead shark cruising just below the surface.  

April 13th - Later in the day a pod of 15 sperm whales are observed, apparently socialising at the surface.  These whales are unusually aerially active with up to four animals repeatedly breaching over a 15 min period and others tail-lobbing and rolling at the surface.  Although several kilometres from the ship, the splashes from these breaching animals are enormous and create vast areas of disturbed white water.  

April 18th - Heavy overcast skies today brought visitors of a different kind . . . moths!  Amazing that these tiny creatures can be found 120 km from shore.  Several different species land on the ship and spend the day resting on various decks and walls. Martin Honey of the London Natural History Museum identified this particular moth as Zebronia phenice (Cramer) (Pyralidae).

April 19th - A pod of 45 fast moving dolphins streak across the bow almost 2 km ahead of the vessel.  Often in the field such pelagic dolphins are so fast moving that it is difficult to get a good look at their flank markings, but with the added challenge today of strong wind and the vessel roll producing binocular shake, it is nigh on impossible.  I opt instead to try photographing the dolphins in the hope that later analysis of the photographs might reveal some identification features.

And zooming in digitally reveals enough of the flank markings to positively identify these animals as striped dolphins. 

April 21st - In the afternoon another group of sperm whales are sighted.  The whales are spread out in small sub-groups with a total of around 15 animals.  Most of them lift their tails and 'fluke' before disappearing below the sea, indicating that they are embarking on long, deep dives. 

Later that day the distinctive wing pattern of a Sabine's gull flies briefly past the vessel, our first record of this species since the 6th January. 

April 23rd - Whales have a bad habit of appearing at dawn and dusk when the light is poor for photography!  This morning, a group of 20 sperm whales surface in their usual scattered array, but with some animals within a kilometre of our vessel. One whale surfaces between our ship and the escort vessel, before shallow diving and disappearing.  

A second whale surfaces even closer to our ship, resting at the surface until only 100 m off the side before sinking beneath the waves.  

April 27th - A great day with the calmest seas of the survey so far.  Calm weather is when we have most success at spotting turtles, and shortly after lunch the carapace of a turtle appears ahead of the ship and remains at the water surface.  Basking turtles seem to be quite lethargic, and I have plenty of time to grab the camera and travel to the bow to photograph the animal.  The turtle (an olive ridley) basks until right below the ship's bow, when it finally 'awakens' and dives out of the way. 

April 27th - I detect more sperm whales blowing several kilometres away.  As we approach, a few animals surface closer and one whale appears only 500 m off the side of the vessel.  This whale logs at the surface blowing for several minutes, before lifting its tail and diving.

May 1st - A cattle egret flew over the helideck today.  It circled around for several minutes and seemed to want to land somewhere, but ships are busy places and it was clearly unhappy with the deck space on offer!  We have seen several cattle egrets out here since this survey began back in August 2004, so it is clearly not unusual for them to be occasionally blown out to sea.  

May 2nd - Today we saw the strange sight of a large bat flying in across the ocean towards the vessel!  The bat flew around the helideck a few times before finally deciding to roost in a choice sheltered spot on the starboard side.

Photographs were sent to Dr Jakob Fahr of the University of Ulm in Germany, who identified it as a straw-coloured fruit bat (Eidolon helvum).  According to Dr Fahr, this species is one of the most common fruit bats in Africa and is distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa.  It is known to undertake seasonal migrations as far as 1500 km in West Africa, and vagrants have been reported at sea up to 400 km off the African mainland.  Our bat was put into a box and sent back to shore with our supply boat.  But we will keep our eyes open for more surprise visitors!

May 3rd - Typically I am taking a break when the radio crackles and the crew on the back deck report that there are 'hundreds' of dolphins along our port side!   And even more typically we are in the middle of a rainstorm, and the dark skies and rain drops are not ideal for observations.  The Atlantic spotted dolphins (I estimate at least 250 animals) are actively porpoising in a tightly-bunched group and there are many tiny calves amongst them.

They seem to be very interested in the paravane which is towed behind the seismic ship.  Probably the paravane creates noise as it is dragged through the water and perhaps also a bit of a bow wave.  The dolphins escort the paravane for almost 40 minutes, but never come near to the vessel's bow.  Finally they head off in a frenzied bout of high-speed porpoising which churns up the ocean.

May 4th - A very busy morning - there are dolphins and sperm whales scattered all around and it is difficult to keep track of them all.  I am just logging another group of sperm whales, when a mass of white water appears ahead of the vessel and I identify the splashes from leaping dolphins.  After my previous experience (see April 19th diary) I abandon my clipboard and binoculars and choose instead to concentrate on photographing these dolphins which are passing about 1.2 km ahead of our bow.  I run off a series of digital shots which I will download later to check the identification of the animals.  And later on . . . the photographs clearly show the intricate flank markings of striped dolphins.  

Probably I would only have been able to identify these as one of the 'Stenella' species in the field, due to the combination of the fast movement of the animals and the windy conditions and binocular shake.  The bonus of digital photography has been proven again.

May 7th - Humpback whales return!  A single animal seen today was the first humpback whale recorded on the survey since January, and marks the beginning of the return northward migration of humpback whales from the Antarctic through Angolan waters to their calving grounds.

May 10th - Another surprise today as a thud on the bridge window marks the arrival of a beautifully-coloured woodland kingfisher.  The bird settled on a rope at the side of the ship to recover from its flight.

May 14th - Today produced only the third sighting of false killer whales we have had in Angola.  A pod of eight animals including a calf were observed for almost an hour as they milled around near to the survey vessel.  Although they never came within 1 km of the ship, digital photographs taken of breaching animals clearly revealed the torpedo-like body shape, conical head and the diagnostic ‘elbow’ in the flippers typical of this species.

May 15th - Two pods of sperm whales were encountered today, the final day of the survey.

An unidentified rorqual whale was also observed, along with a pod of 5-6 short-finned pilot whales which was our first sighting of this species since January and ended up as the final sighting of the entire survey.