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.

 

Strumble Diary 18/11/2025

 With the tide phase moving on an hour or so it wasn't such an early start today, but still out by 09.00. The wind had turned to the West, almost the exact opposite to yesterdays NE'ly. The chill remained though so the layers were piled on.The outer tide race had been running for a while when I arrived and the inner race started some 15 minutes later. Same as yesterday the first sighting was of a pod of around twenty or so Commons on the far side of the inner race moving quickly and actively toward the East with lots of breaches keeping my shutter finger busy. Slowly the porpoise started to show but were very difficult to pick out in the choppy swells shrouded in the overcast light. Of the 12-15 seen I only managed to capture two but both are marked animals one of which was the same as seen yesterday with the hooked fin tip. The other with a distinct notch in the fin is I'm sure a returner and will be matched in the catalogue for confirmation.

Forecast for tomorrow is for a stiff Northerly with wintery showers which will give no shelter and washing machine like sea conditions, so I'll decide in the morning if it's worth going.

 

Strumble Diary 17/11/2025

 Today felt like the first true day of winter at Strumble. The 7deg felt more like 2 or 3 with the brisk NE wind pushing onshore. With the wind crossing the tide race it made for some pretty disturbed water too (see first image). The 08.15 start meant the light was quite poor as well but as the sun rose it slowly improved to manageable levels. First to show were a small group of Commons off to the NW with a single porpoise moving up the tide race some twenty minutes later. From then on it was the odd common or two but very hard to pick out in the turbulent water. It was a while later that the porpoise started to show, with several brief and stealthy sightings and I thought at one stage I wouldn't get any shots at all. Thankfully a pair which looked like a mother and juvenile came up the tide stream and hung around for fifteen minutes or so giving better views to the extent that I was able to recognise the mother with a hooked tip on her fin as one I'd seen quite a few times before (see highlighted images below). The action died away around 10 ish so I closed my session at 10.15am and headed home to thaw out with a warm cuppa.