Strumble Diary 11-12th Sept 2024

 Two days, same conditions and same weather. Broken cloud and sunshine a strong NWly wind and a small tide with a very choppy sea. 

 11th.

I started my session at 9am with Mr John Rees at my side and watched and waited to see what might come along. There for the porpoise as always but secretly hoping for Rissos. 11am arrived and so did the survey team. It was an hour and ten minutes before we saw any action and that came in the form of a dozen or so commons crossing East to West in the choppy swells. It wasn't until ten minutes before the end of the session that Will (intern) spotted a single porpoise out to the NW. That was it! The survey team returned to the Ocean Lab but John and myself stayed on a further hour in vain hope more than anything else but to no avail.

12th

Again a 9am start but this time on my own except for the local birders making the most of bird movements in the NWly winds. It was 10.21am when I spotted a small group of several commons speeding accross in front of the lookout. In the choppy sea it was difficult to track them and I struggled to follow them in the lens. I did get some shots though so quite happy really. Fran arrived with the Thursday survey group and we did our best to scan the sea in front of us for signs of cetaceans. No luck though and after two fruitless hours the survey ended with our first blank sheet for porpoise in a long time. Tomorrow's another day though and I'll do it all over again, weather permitting of course.

Photos from the 11th

 

A couple of passing birds.

Photos from the 12th.

Carrie got there in the end!

Carrie hung on after the survey and...

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My first Risso's of the year today anyone that knows me knows how happy I was about this

All reactions:

31You, Lloyd Nelmes, Ian Hotchin and 28 others

 

Strumble Diary 05/9 to 10/09/2024

 I've had a few sessions over the past week and sightings have been a bit shetchy to say the least, so this blog entry has various images covering the past five days. The sightings have been a mixed bag of Commons, Porpoise and a few Rissos. With rougher conditions and poor to fair conditions sightings have been difficult and it seems to affect the cetaceans as well, with very many one surface and gone encounters. Case in point was seeing as many as nine Rissos and not getting a single shot on camera.  

Bird flu as with Covid could sadly still be around as can be seen in one of the below images of a dead Black Backed gull floating by, with several Herring Gulls trying to get their piece of it. You can see how easily it could spread the virus depending on how long the bird was deceased.

Today though 10th Sept we had an excellent session in rough conditions with Commons, Porpoise and Rissos, seen earlier by the birders in the lookout. The porpoise were pretending to be dolphins at one stage with several full breaches over our two hour watch. Although the forecast is patchy this week I still hope to get some more sessions in and always hope for some more Rissos encounters.

Strumble Thresher Thriller! (6/9/24)

Pembrokeshire Porpoise, Whale & Dolphin Sightings (FB page)

Stephen Roberts

Top contributor

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While the Rissos failed to show at Strumble head today , porpoises were generally present as were 10, maybe 12 common dolphins from mid afternoon till early evening, feeding throughout and offering some good views while off the Mackerel rock.

The highlight however was a breaching Thresher shark about 3/4 of a Mile out , the first splash drew my attention while the second showed what it was and the third offered an excellent view to myself and strumble regular Andy wise who quickly got his scope onto it . As ever it chose not to play ball when the camera was ready for more action !

Cliff Benson

Top contributor

Brilliant Stephen! seems to be a bit of an annual event and Welsh waters seem to be particularly favoured by them! 

Strumble Diary 04/09/2024

 Another excellent Rissos day today at Strumble, made all the more enjoyable in the company of ardent Sea Trust supporter and good friend John Rees of St Dogmaels. When we arrived we were almost straight into Rissos action as a few passed east to west. A family from Kent who I'd met a couple of days previous also joined us giving us more eyes on the water. It's lovely to see our visitors enjoying our marine wildlife and for me to be able to pass knowledge onto such entusiastic people. The survey team arrived at 11.00am just as the Rissos action was dropping off although they did manage a few brief sightings before they all moved west. The highlight for me was a mother and calf pairing that moved through giving some great views, allowing for some good images. The porpoise were also there but in the very strong tide race were keeping their distance. Nevertheless the survey team were kept busy with sightings.