Commersons Dolphins

Here are some more pictures from the day with the Orcas. On our way home we met a group of Commersons......fun as allways when they appear.




some more pictures from the Orcas






Rockhopper penguins at penguin Island





The dates for the 2010 Darwin Tours are already on the web page. If you want to share with us some incredible experiences in Patagonia sign up for 2010. We will have 2 groups with max. 12 passengers per group.
www.patagoniaproject.net

Orca encounter on Patagonia trip

What a great luck during the second part of our Charles Darwin trip.

On 27th October we went out to observe Rockhopper Penguins at Isla Pinguino.
Our first stop was the island where Imperial Cormorans are nesting. Suddenly we saw some blows in the sea, just 200m away from our location. A group of Orcas were hunting just in front of Penguin island.
So we forgot the Cormorans and went back to the boat.
We found the orcas that were feeding on something. After they started to navigate around penguin island and we followed them for more than 1 hour.
A first ID made clear that these animals did not belong to the Punta Norte Pod that we know from our work with Orcas in March and April.
www.patagoniaproject.net

I forwarded the pictures to Dr. Ingrid Visser in New Zealand. She works with the Orcas in Patagonia since many yours. She also could not find any match to other Orcas that have been seen before.
Now we will try to find a match from other places along the Patagonian coast. Juan Capello from PNOR is following up this case.

Ingrid is doing a work shop with us a Pico Island about whales and dolphins from 17th to 31st July 2010. We hope to have more information until that time an will update you in the summer.
Infos on the work shop can be requested by e mail
whales@gmx.net

Now enjoy some Orca pictures with us















On the second day we went to bird island, where the oystercatchers started to nest......Falk, our tour guide for the Orca trip next march took some close ups.






a sea lion bull



The paloma antartica with a sea lion. They feed on parasites of sea lions.



Grey cormorans nest along Deseado river

Patagonia Tour since 18 years

Once again we are on the road in southern Patagonia. The animals are great as allways.
This year we are very international in the group with passengers from UK, Italy, France, Austria and Germany. But nationalilty does not matter in nature and we all enjoy this wonderfull days together.

Today I will upload some pictures from Puerto piramides, the Right whales and some horses that we met on our way ....


























The next tour in Patagonia will be in march 2010 with the Orcas. This tours are for wildlife photographers. Find information on www.patagoniaproject.net or send me an e mail to whales@gmx.net.

Kenya news

On my way from Pico to Patagonia I stayed for some days at Rhino Watch. On our Kenya blog you can read about the latest news at Rhino Watch.

http://whales-kenya-safaris.blogspot.com/2009/10/rhino-watch-camp-and-lodge-is-growing.html

soon i will publish pictures from our Patagonia Charles Darwin Tour. Like every year in October we are with the right whales.....comming up soon.

Darwin Trip to Patagonia comming up

On 17th October the Charles Darwin Tour is comming up. We do this trip since 17 years. Its a trip into the kingdom of the Right Whales. But not only Whales are the highlights of this phantastic trip. Rainer Fackel joined the trip twice and today we show some of his pictures from the southern part of the trip.


Bettina Fackel at a side Canyon of Ria Deseado.


Gerard Soury, the French photographer is enjoying the view at Ria Deseado at low tide.





Erich Pröll was filming with us for the ARD show " Die letzten Paradiese"


Gerard Soury is always happy in Patagonia. He joined our trips 4 times and uses his material for many book productions and articles all over the world.




Guanakos come very close at Cabo dos Bahias National Park.


We use the Containers of the Fisherman Camp at Calhetta Sara when we visit Cabo dos Bahias. The accomodation is basic but in the middle of the nature. It is one of my favorite places to stay and i share this feeling with many of my clients.


Bird Island is in the Ria Deseado. Its home of Magellanic Penguins. Here we have an appointment every time we visit this magic place.


Book now your 2011 Charles Darwin Tour. Checkwww.patagoniaproject.net

Ben Schilling at Pico Island

Ben lives in Central America. He is working as a free lance journalist and does a lot of publications in Geolino. He was at Pico for some days. See some of his pictures that hopefully will be published in geolino as well.

False Orcas visit Pico

What a surpirse. Some days ago I left the port with a group of Gottfried Sumser on board. We were on the way to swim with dolphins that were sighted out of Candelaria.
I just passed the rocks in front of Madalena Port when I saw some jumps and fins in front of the Tuna factory....
When I came close we identifyed the group as False Orcas. We stayed with them fpor more than 1 hours, just some meters in front of Madalena port.
I did not carry my camera that day but Thomas Durant, who was among the guests on board, gave me this pictures to share our experience with you .

more sperm whale Babys

This is the year of the new born sperm whales. In 17 years i never saw so many familys with young animals. Almost every departure allows us to see Babys.

But also on land we have wonderful animals like the buzzards.



Taken on 4th September 2009, noth of Pico Island. A new born sperm whale is visiting our boat Maisha.



Flukes taken for the TRACE project on September 4th.





Pictures copyright by Frank Wirth
www.whales-dolphins.net