Strumble Diary 05/04/2025

 It was a shall I shan't I go decision this morning. The wind was strong form the NE which is never a good wind for Strumble at the best of times. But I decided to go as you never know what's ahead of you. As it happens something quite unusual did occur and made for a much better than anticipated session. Long before the tide race formed a combination of wind direction and direction of tide flow (I guess) created a patch of disturbance a bit like a mini stand alone tide race just north of the lookout. This attracted a group of porpoise to forage through it.

 One of the most thrilling sights for me apart from seeing the porpoise leaping and surfing is watching them in clear water as they dart through the swells underwater. Watching one is good, but to see four close together inside a large swell chasing prey is on another level for me and it's hard to describe the joy it brings. Seen through binos but not the lens sadly so you'll just have to take my word for it although I did catch a single one as well, and that's in the images below. Within thirty minutes or so this anomaly faded away and all went calm until the actual tide race formed. By this time the porpoise had moved off and despite waiting an hour or more I had no more sightings. I also had a few commons during the session mostly off to the west in the forming tide race.

 

Strumble Diary 04/04/2025

 It's been a lean week for me as far as porpoise surveys go. I did manage to get out a couple of times but after those massive tides earlier in the week sightings were hard to come by. The two suveys I did manage produced a few sightings but no meaningful or usable images. 

So to today.

 I went out for the afternoon dropping tide, starting my survey at 13.30, approx' one hour into the tide. The wind, still from the E-NE was not as cold as of late and moderately light. Visibility though was poor with a lot of haze to start with but as the cloud moved off and the sun came out the haze lifted somewhat. My first sighting was of several Commons fairly far out making their way NE stopping at intervals to chase prey. Then about two hours into the tide I had distant sightings of porpoise. Eight in all with one group of four and four individuals, sadly all too distant for images. Right through the survey up unttil I left for home there were commons visible all accross my view and I'd guess a total of around 90-100 over that period. 

The tide race was very late forming and thankfully a few poroises did come in to feed. Mostly individuals with one pair showing well and staying in the tide race for several minutes before moving on. Survey ended 16.30.

 

Active link for the previous post.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC_Bho_DEBY

This link should take you to Cliff's video as mentioned in the previous post.

 

Some old porpoise footage from Skomer (2013)

 

 Some old porpoise footage from Skomer (2013)

Some porpoise BEHAVIOR

I just re-found this, and thought it might be interesting for anyone interested in Porpoise behaviour and the problems associated with getting relevant counts/abundance:

Here's a link to some footage of porpoises. I filmed  this from the cliffs near the Mew Stone on Skomer Island : http://youtu.be/xC_Bho_DEBY Sadly the definition is not so good but the great thing is that it shows whats happening on the surface but also some of what is happening below the surface which we rarely see ... Seeing the porps under water, it's clear to see how quickly they can manouver and change direction. It shows just how tricky it is or even impossible to count porpoise numbers with any real accuracy from just surface sightings.  One animal may surface and then seem to resurface again when in fact as we can see from the film it is a completely different animal. The first one shoots off surfacing randomly elsewhere whilst others seem to appear from nowhere.

I was amazed at how fast they can suddenly accelerate and swerve, flashing their flanks as if rounding up or disorientating their prey. I am not sure if in this case, its a "team effort" but it looks like it could be..

Ramsey Sound: Sea Trust Porpoise Photo ID team from Fran.

 Monday and Thursday photo id teams both had great surveys in Ramsey Sound this week! It was sunnier today but the same number of porpoises travelled past the survey point on both days over the course of 45 minutes, starting 3 hours after high tide. 12 porpoises passed us in one of the 15 mins. Today Carrie (see photo) joined Fran, Ben, Dawn (regular Thursday team) as well as 3 interns Jack, Amy and Aneesha and Maisy (work experience) and Chris from Treginnis Farm. Monday's team was Chris, Harry, Fran and Louise plus Amy and Joe. We should have some good photos once they have been processed as lots of cameras were clicking today!

Strumble Diary 20/03/2025

 Another early morning start today at 07.30. Not a very big tide today but it was calm and thankfully a bit warmer once the sun came over the horizon. First sighting was of two porpoises north of Pen Caer point and at the same time some Commons to the east of the point. Given the weaker tide race porpoise sightings were slow and I only saw a few with most being distant. One did come closer and as it turned out it was a marked animal I fancy I'd seen before, possibly "Front Nick" and if that is so will be a nice returner for the ID catalogue. The Commons were more numerous though and a pod of a dozen or so were active in the area for most of my session. As the tide race peaked and dropped away so did the action and I ended my session at just after 10.00am.

 Session 07.30-10.00am. Sea state 2. Wind SE3-4. Clear sky.

 

Strumble Diary 19/03/2025 AM

 Early morning session today starting at 7.am and hopefully another for the dropping tide this afternoon. A beautiful sunny morning again and with a bit more warmth than previous days. Things were very quiet when I arrived despite the fact the tide race was running well at this stage. The odd porpoise started showing followed by a few Commons off to the NW. That's the way it followed for the remainder of the session with porps then Commons then porps again and so on. One previously sighted porp, I think "Top Notch" so happy to see that one return..

Flooding tide. Session 07.00-10.00am. Sea State 2, 3 in tide race. Clear Sky, Light SE wind.