Lots happening despite weather.

From Alison Ross.
Hi Cliff. I spent a breezy but sunny 5 hours at Ramsey Sound today, Sat. 1st. August. There were probably about a dozen porps there, including a calf. Great to see those numbers again. Spectacular gannet activity as well, with sometimes several birds diving together. Usually porps can be seen moving north up the Sound on the turn of the ebb tide but today they were still very busy lower down in the Sound an hour and a half into the flood tide. What an extra treat! Food must've been plentiful there today! All the best.....
Hi Alison, do you think this unusual behaviour of the porps may tie in with the very small neep tides ?

From Richard Stonier (via bird blog)
Common Dolphin - 2 separate pods - 1 * 20 and 1 * 10 (The pod of 10 having at least 3 very small calves)Bottlenose Dolphin - c.10. Very unusual for Strumble. We had these animals at a bearing of "one o'clock" - they were actively feeding in amongst a large raft of Shearwaters alongside the above pod of 10 Common Dolphin. Unfortunately the Sea Cat then powered through the very spot these dolphin and birds were feeding. (The dolphins were seen to dive just beforehand). After the wake had calmed down the Common Dolphin were seen moving west but the Bottlenose were not seen again.

Brilliant sighting Richard, sorry to hear the Lynx messed things up but probably she was trying to take some shelter in the lee of Strumble rather than hit the gnarly bits further out. This is something we cant really object to as legally master mariners have to put the safety and comfort of their passengers first. I will go down to Stena today and make sure the Lynx are aware of the situation.

We had our annual visit from the BDRP contingent on the Cartlett Lady today , always great to see them and Adrian Shepherd whose luck was in again today as we managed to get out but it was extremely lumpy. Several common dolphin sightings heading out towards the Smalls but didnt quite get there! a splashy pod of 10+ porpoises just west of Grassholm was interesting as we had a similar occourence with Nick o' Sullivan on the Celtic Wildcat last month.
Nick was out today with fishermen and reported a Minke off the Hats and Barrells that we obviously missed by turning back! Andy said he could smell a whale and I reckon he could!
allthingsgood, walrus