Strumble Diary 13/01/2026

A bitter cold NE'Ly  wind at Strumble but at least the forecast rain didn't turn up. In fact it was a glorious afternoon with good light apart from that wind. As previously the action was slow to start and with the waves running parallel to the lookout sightings when they did come were difficult. I had seen nine porps all distant with no chance of images before one or two came closer giving better views. Suddenly out of nowhere twenty Gannets were circling overhead three or four Porpoise feeding 300 or so metres out. By now we were gettting toward the top of the tide and getting colder by the minute. With 100 or so images in the bag I decided to call it a day and return home for a welcome cuppa and a thaw out.

 

Late on in the session this lovely little Kestrel came to a hover 100yds or so from the lookout.

 

Strumble Diary 10/01/2026

 My first outing for a while so to all who follow the blog I wish you a happy and healthy new year. 

With the recent storm passed the wind was NW 5-7 with a temp of 3deg, so I wrapped up well and headed out. As I arrived I could see two groups of Gannets, one off to the NW and the other to the NE so I was hopefull of cetacean action under them. I set up the gear and started my watch. Sadly there were no visible signs of porps or dolphins at that time. The tide race was just getting going on the flood tide but it was a while before I spotted my first fins. Two distant porps moving westward toward the tide race but not showing very well. I'd seen four as time went by but sightings too poor for images.

Two hours before high tide I sighted some more porpoise and managed a couple of images so things were looking up as they say. A pod of around twenty commons moved in from the West and started feeding in front of me. As this was going on I was seeing porpoise further up the tide race so things were getting busy. The commons soon moved on East and the sightings of porpoise were more sporadic as we got closer to high tide. The commons that had moved East later came back West and headed off toward St Davids, bringing my session to a close. All in all a decent session and if nothing else I enjoyed the fact I was back out there in my happy place with fresh air filling my lungs and nature feeding my soul. 

 

From Adrian Rogers 5/1/26

 

Time: 09.45 - 11.45

Weather: Overcast but no rain

Wind: SW 3/4

Common Dolphin - Encountered as soon as I started watching, the Gannets circling above them in numbers giving them away. Continued to be seen all through the whole watch in medium sized groups first moving east towards Fishguard then after Ferry came through appeared slightly further out. I estimate up to 50+sightings but difficult to estimate number of animals present.

New Years Day annual porpoise watch!

 

Having what seems to have been a trapped Sciatic nere causing a lot of pain over the holiday, and also a less than encouraging weather forcast i was wondering if i could do the porp-watch today . Thankfully Thursday is usually the day for Frans team of Porpoise ID vols and she retimed their watch to coincide with the NYD watch.

It wass not an easy drive to Strumble with the pain in my leg and i arrived 5 minutes late but was gratified to find around forty people there along with Fran's team! Many indeed most, were old friends which was a nice way to start the new year. A bitterly cold Nor Westerly was rolling up the waves making  spotting very difficult but everyone seemed in good spirits enjoying the fresh air as I gave my talk describing all the things nobody could see! Regular Porp watch volunteer, Andy Wise did get a couple of brief glimpses of Common Dolphin and Porpoise, so technically not a total blank, for him at least!

Fiona May opens the NYD score at Strumble!

  Fiona had an epic stsrt to the New Year at Strumble despite the rather dissapointing lack of animals on our annual NYD watch. On a dfallng tide in the morning she had lots of Common Dolphins but star creature   was an otter (Lutra lutra) close in by the nearest bouys definately the reward of an early bird! 

Sunday Dec 28th: Fran at Pen Anglas,12.30 -14.30 and Brennig at Strumble ...

 Fran Eggby decided to check out Pen Anglas above Fishguard Bay yesterday lunchtime.

On arrival she was rewarded at first with (Circa) 12 common Dolphins just inside the Harbour mouth, and a brief  glimpse of a Porpoise 12.30 and a similar sized group fifteen minutes later.  Two  Porpoises were seen soon after, feeding just off the fog horn. 

Then, around 2 pm at least three were seen with some breaching and what appeared to be surface feeding. A small calf was also seen closely accompanied by it mother.

Meantime, Brennig Hughes spent the morning watching from Strumble from dawn into the afternoon with plenty of Commons, including this deformed animal breaching!

Chrismas Eve Popoises.

 Sunny with an  Easterly wind.

Just half an hour, 13.00-13.30 on a dropping tide at Strumble produced several sightings including a mother with a new born calf! 

From Chris Peirpoint

 Hi Cliff & Fran - this was about 600 m ESE from Crincoed Pt.  On 13-Dec-25 at 12:00 approx.  I was trying to sex them from the photo, but without any luck so far.  I was starting to imagine features, like a double genital slit on the left porpoise (male) and a possible penis on the aggressor (right).  Maybe Holly will know more.  I first thought it was a sexual approach - as in Holly’s paper.  But can’t be sure.  

There were no porps off Crincoed side when I arrived at 10:30 (flood), and first one (one of the two in photo I’m fairly certain) arrived from Pen Anglas at 11:35.  The second one arrived 10 min later.  They had this interaction then separated and both patrolled up and down ~200-500 m off Crincoed, sometimes under gannets, until 12:50, when they both moved back NW over to Pen Anglas and beyond.

 happy for you to use the pics for anything. 

Thanks Chris, yep this is something i have seen quite a lot over the years at this time of the year! I used to wonder if it was perhaps a female driving a weaned calf away, used to describe it as "Leapfrogging" Pretty sure it is sexual having seen more explicit pics taken by Ken!

A Porpoise Sandwich 04/12/2025

 A tale of Commons then Porps then Commons.

I started at Strumble today at 08.45ish and with the big tides I wasn't expecting big numbers or a long period of action. Almost as soon as I got the lens trained on the water I spotted a few Commons moving West with the tide. Within five minutes they were gone through. I waited and watched until the tide race was running at it's fastest and as expected didn't see any further action. 

Yesterday, Sea Trust supporter Chris Pierpoint had some good action at Pen Anglas so I upped sticks, drove to Harbour Village and had a look there myself. I settled for a spot between Pen Anglas and Crincoed Point and sure enough a few Porpoise visited over the hour and a half I was there. As with Chris two of them were very active with tail thrashing and strong surges. This didn't seem like the normal mating behaviour where the male approaches from the left underneath and forces himself on the female but rather a chase and play sort of behaviour. But who knows, as we can only guess at what they're up to. As the tide dropped away the Porpoise moved off and all was quiet. I was just about to put the kit away and leave when a pod of twenty or so Commons dashed past East to West heading toward Strumble. With the ground weing waterlogged from all the recent rain the uphill trudge going back was heavy underfoot and by the time I got back to the car I was ready for a good rest (knackered) :-), but it was worth the effort to spend time watching these lovely creatures.