Stena Ferry Animals

Almost perfect conditions meant little was likely to be missed and we saw quite a few Porpoises. Our first record of Common Dolphins for March means we have recorded them in every month of the year now on our ferry route! Thanks to Steve Rosser for coming to join me for this last minute survey.
allthingsgood, cliff

Porpoises in Ramsey Sound

Given the following information it seems quite likely that the "Dolphins" in the posting below were in fact Porpoises.

Sighting sent in by Malcolm Barradell - A nice lively group of Porpoise in the sound today, about a dozen animals including a mother with calf,similar number on Sunday too. Pictures are not great quality, digiscoped from about 600m.

Ramsey Sound Dolphins

Information received that some visitors saw 10 or 12 Dolphins in Ramsey Sound on 23 March. Porpoises are often seen in the area and whilst we have no further details of the Dolphin sighting both Common and Bottlenose Dolphins have been seen in Ramsey Sound in the past.

Dolphins, Sarn Helin

Sightings sent in by Chris Bird - Two Dolphins on the North side of Sarn Helin between Borth and Clarach on 16 March. Seen at some distance but thought to be Bottlenose Dolphins.

Hi Cliff,

After talking about notches in porpoise dorsal fins this came in yesterday at Ynyslas.

1.60 metre female. (ignore the date on the scale).

Regards

Rod.

Rod Penrose, Strandings Co-ordinator (Wales)

More funny fins than first appeared

Nice one Macolm.

I think part of our lack of damaged fin sightings may be due to the distances involved at Strumble, although my impression is that they are few and far between. Alison Ross with whom I spent the morning at Strumble yesterday, told me of an individual seen several times in the sound with the top of the fin missing.

Alison came to Strumble so I could introduce her to "Click Counting" It is a recording techneque I have developed where every surfacing by every animal in view is "clicked" using a sheep tally counter over a five minute period. Three, five minute periods are observed within an hour at roughly twenty minute intervals, the result is then averaged out and x4 to give an hourly average. (4x15 mins = I hour)

Our tally for yesterday morning was an average of 540 per hour. Alison went off to Ramsay and pipped Strumble with an average of just over 600!

Of course we are not recording numbers of Porpoises, we are recording surfacings/activity. Neither are we recording all activity as we are likely to miss some.

What we are recording is a minimum. What we can say is that during a period of one hour on a particular day there were at least x amount of sightings.

This is something that can be carried out on any part of the coast by anyone at any time.

If you want to try it click here to see what to do...

Funny Fins Ramsey Sound

I took these pictures of porpoise with a notch in the dorsal, the first in Sept 2008 the second in February this year, the quality is not good but the notches are clear.Both Alison Ross and I have seen porpoise with damage to the dorsal on several occasions in Ramsey Sound, however its not clear weather its one or more animals.
Hopefully there will be an opportunity to photograph this/these porpoise again in better conditions,cheers Malcolm G Barradell.

Funny fins happen in Pembrokeshire!

So a bit better definition and finally Tim got back to me. He spends time in Mull and other parts of Scotland and also Mwnt where Janet first photographed "Polo" so It seemed a 50/50 chance but this animal with its pup was photographed off Skokholm in 2007!

I am not as yet convinced it is the same animal as Janet and I photographed. Tim is looking for any other photo's that would give a better view, its a bit like waiting for the TV ref to award a try!

The clarity of this photo, taken at reasonably close range apparently, also shows a couple of what appears to be abraisions on the flank. So if it is not the same animal (?) why do two seperate animals have quite similar notches in the dorsal ? Certainly the shape of the bottom notch , given the slightly skewed angle looks very similar. The two notches on each fin look different. Are the abraisions noticable on this animals flank synonymous, inflicted at the same time?

• Is someone locally catching and cutting fins for identification purposes?
• Have these animals been wounded by some predator that could be identified from the shared characteristics of the wounds?
• Were the wounds some accidental injury caused by collision with some inanimate object?

A Porpoise could travel from Mwnt N of Cardigan where Janet photographed her animal in 2003 to Skockholm where Tim photographed his animal four years later within in a day. Fishguard where I photographed "Polo" is about half way. This leaves lots of room for speculation as to porpoise movements or residency. All in all we may never be any the wiser, but who knows which way this puzzle may next turn?

allthingsgood cliff

Funny Fins Happen!

I had a friend visit on Friday , a great photographer who lectures at Cardiff Uni', a really fine wildlife photographer, Tim Collier.

Its fun to add pic's to the blog and I asked him for any porp photo's he had . One, a mother and calf, looked good to illustrate a posting; "Fishguard Breakwater" I made back in February. (see Archive), as I added it to the posting, I noticed the fin of the mother was a bit funny.
The low res image was not too easy to blow up but anyway this is what I got (top)

Before we started this "Whales in Wales" blog I had been pretty excited to photograph a porpoise last summer with a couple of notches in its dorsal fin. I posted it on the "Pembrokeshire Birds Blog" Janet Baxter replied with a picture of what was almost certainly the same animal she had taken almost 5 years previously at Mwnt. I have not as yet managed to get hold of Tim to check this out but I can't wait to find out where he took the mother and calf pic'.

watch this space...

allthingsgood, cliff

Easter Boat Trip , Celtic Wildcat

Hi all,

looking at an Easter dolphin watching/monitoring boat trip aboard Celtic Wildcat, Easter Monday if weather OK. We will have a look around islands and the Smalls, etc.

Also see what birds are about and generally search for some cetaceans.

Price (at cost) £55 per person, if interested please email info@seatrust.org.uk (Meet Neyland 0830 for 0900,departure, back 17-18.00 approx.

This is not a commercial boat trip but represents great value and helps Sea Trust in its work trying to monitor the marine wildlife around the Pembrokeshire Coast and Islands

Other dates for 2009, include; July 9th, 16th, 23rd 27th.
August 6th, 13th, 20th, 26th.

allthingsgood, cliff

Porpoises - Swansea

Sighting from Richard Davies - 6 Porpoise off Mumbles Head, Swansea close inshore 4 March 09 am.overall general direction was down channel.

Porpoise - Stackpole Head

Late morning a single Porpoise feeding close in to the cliffs at Stackpole Head. As one was reported here on 27 February I wonder if Porpoises spend some time in the same area? (See also Manorbier sightings on 21 Feb & 4 March).

Mad March Surfyporps

A really mixed up tiderace at Strumble this afternoon with big spume crested overfalls off the lighthouse, despite little wind and what should be relatively small tides.
I was not expecting to see a lot but an initial squint at the turbulence revealed odd porpoises surfing amongst the breakers as per photo , (courtesy James Davis)
I did my click count and got a total of 52 sightings over 3 x5 minute periods within the hour giving an average of 208 per hour. Considering the extreme conditions and long range, I must gave missed a lot more than I saw!

Porpoises - Manorbier

Two porpoises close into Priests Nose, Manorbier Bay this afternoon - an adult and well grown calf. Seems likely these were 2 of the 3 Porpoises seen here on 21 February.

High tide, single porp

It was a bright and breezy start to St Dewi's Day at Strumble with a really hard running inner tide race hugging the shore at Strumble before curling out towards Strumble Bank. It was getting towards high water with a WNW breeze chopping things up and bright sun causing a lot of sparkle. All in all not good conditions but I searched the glassy overfalls in the hope of a sighting. After a couple of minutes a small back and fin appeared and started moving along the ribbon of smoother water up tide. It looked about half grown with the blunted features that young porps have, proportionately smaller head and dorsal. I waited for mum to turn up but did not see her.In the confused seas around the tide race she could have been handy by, difficult to know really. I have seen them leave calves for a while, whilst they go off to forage, although Its possible the youngster was lost. after a few more minutes I saw it no more, lets hope it was back with mumsy!