And it just goes on!

Taking advantage of the indian summer and Stena Lines generosity, Steve Rosser, Miguel and new girl Sharon Grey joined me on yet another Stena Irish Sea Survey starting off on Tuesday and finishing today.
Again there was a lumpy start but as we progressed towards Rosslaire the sea began to fine down and the light was perfect . Steve Spotted these Risso's , part of a larger pod of around a dozen and also managed to photograph them, The incredible light allowed us to pick things up at extreme distance in the glassy sea adding two more pods of Risso's, Common Dolphins and Porpoises.
The return journey this morning also added another pod of Risso's as well as some closer CD's (also pictured by Steve) and Porp's including several larger pods of up to 20 individuals.
Graham Rees had commented on there being a lot of porpoises recently at Strumble, also congregating in distinct groups of up to 20+. Local fishermen say the herring are beginning to arrive and this may account for this behaviour as porpoises gather to exploit this seasonal bounty.

Rissos and Common Dolphins

A great day yesterday out north of the smalls with Sea Trust - see Rissos posting below. Click here for more photos from the day. Many thanks to Cliff Benson of Sea Trust and to Andy Rickard, skipper of the Cartlett Lady.

Common Dolphin at Strumble

The Common Dolphins seen by Richard Stonier at Strumble were still around at 5.15pm yesterday but only numbered 10 to 15. I watched them from the top car park. Mention of the word 'Dolphin' had lots of people training their bins out to sea and looking through my scope. Great views of the Porpoise too in a mirror calm sea. Then we witnessed upon the darker side of nature, a Great black-backed gull was attacking a flightless Guillemot with vigour. A gathering of juv gulls assembled around this 'David & Goliath' tussle and the scene was reminiscent of a school playground with the 'bully' and the 'victim' engaged in an uneven match. I honestly thought the guillemot's days were numbered but remarkably it survived this onslaught. The gull temporarily called a halt to the hostilities but remained on station nearby.

I watched the local fisherman transferring their catch of shellfish (crabs, lobster and 'craw fish') into a lorry at Goodwick yesterday afternoon for onward transportation to supply the French & Spanish markets and I realised how important this sea area is not only to marine life but also to the livelihoods of some local families. All the more reason to ensure its future survival as a 'sustainable' resource for the benefit of man and nature.

More Risso's than you could shake a camera at....

A weekend of fantastic sightings from the ferry and then a hastily arranged small boat survey has continued to produce some incredible Risso's records. We hoped to take the Cartlett Lady out but pressing family commitments for our skipper Andy had put the mockers on it. A call on Saturday evening saying the trip was back on gave us little time to get a crew together but on Sunday Morning nine of us joined Andy and Brian in Neyland for yet another incredible cetacean survey.
And what a trip, a couple of hours out and not far from where we had contacted Risso's on the Stena Europe we chanced upon a pod estimated as 16-20 comprising of at least 3 small calves, and a mixed family(?) group of all ages including a monster pale grey specimen. We gently approached continuing our course and then stopped to see what would happen. The Risso's seemed unconcerned and we got good film and pictures as they passed by. Interestingly one of the calves was dark and when it first surfaced we thought it was a porpoise but on a side view soon resolved itself into a tiny Risso-let. there seemed to be at least one other dark one and a white one, which helps to uphold my contention that Risso's can be pale or dark phase.
We let them go on thier way and watched them dissapear before making our way.
In the prevailing calm overcast conditions, we encountered multiple Common Dolphin and Porpoise sightings but the Risso's were most certainly the stars. Click photo for larger image (hopefully more to come)!

Resplendant Risso's !

Another misleading weather forcast had us on the ferry yesterday wondering why the sea was choppy and covered in white horses! We copped some Common Dolphins and some Porpoises but halfway across the sea state was being whipped up by a stiff SW breeze and we saw little else. We woke up back in Rosslare this morning and were grateful that the wind had died to a gentle NNW and the sea was pretty smooth. None the less we saw no cetaceans and little birdwise for the first hour despite perfect conditions. We had just invited another birder to join us when I noted a very distant big splash. We strained our eyes untill some specks became obvious and then slowly resolved themselves into a pod of 16-20 Risso's They muddled around and then went down the starboard side of the ship giving great views. Some common Dolphins added to the score and then a distant trio of two very dark and one white Risso's passed by again on our starboard beam. As we came in towards Strumble Porpoises were appearing in ones and twos and then pods of 6 and 7 inc porplets. Seven Common Dolphins came in to ride our bow and then a dozen or so were half glimpsed, dissapearing behind the bridge but were later confirmed By Graham Rees and Richard Stonier as around 20 CD's. They had been seeing them all morning and it seems from various reports and sightings that we have had a semi resident pod of about 60 hanging between St Davids and Fishguard for the past couple of years. They had also seen a "very big single Rissos heading east into Cardigan Bay which had pale front and rear with a dark saddle remeniscent of a Belted Galloway bull (acording to GRH).
The previous report from Aberystwyth from Ian Lycett and Rachel Davies was really nice, one of very very few of Risso's in the depths of Cardigan Bay. Most are either from the Lleyn/Anglesey area or Strumble/Rosslare area but their observasions are reliable and extremely welcome.
Risso's are commonly seen off the Stena Europe and reasonaby regularly from Strumble, often heading into the bay. There has beeen huge (albiet mainly summer) cetacean recording effort in the area north of the Teifi up to Aberporth cntered around Newquay but almost no sightings of Risso's I can remember. Perhaps they cut across from Strumble to Aberystwith and on to the the Lleyn avoiding the Sarns (stone ridges ) which might obstruct them? Either way, well done and thanks Ian and Rachel. The more people adding their observations on "Whales in Wales", the more we will learn!

Rissos Aberystwyth

Sighting sent in by Ian Lycett - On Monday 21st September, there were 2 Risso's Dolphin off Castle point, Aberystwyth. One individual was very pale, almost white in fact. The typical flat face could be seen and also the scarring was noted on both individuals.

Strumble

Info from Elfyn Pugh who is staying in Pembrokeshire for a couple of weeks - It's 8am and I started my lonely vigil at Strumble. Slightly stiff and still tired following my walk to the summit of Carn Ingli yesterday with members of my family. What a delightful place with great panoramic views from the top. On our way up my brother in law's dog flushed a snipe from a boggy bit. The present anticyclonic weather is not popular with birders or birds it seems so I wasn't expecting much at Strumble today. I knew I should have had a lie in as the milk I had brought for my coffee had coagulated! Anyway the weather was calm with a light south westerly and sea state 'one' so it could turn out to be a good morning for cetacean watching. There was a steady movement of auks and kittiwakes but even the scoters seemed to have deserted the place as I only saw a couple all morning. 2 divers made an appearance and caught me off guard as they were going the 'wrong way' up the coast! Anyway it was a good chance to study the ever present porpoise although 'study' seems such an inappropriate phrase to use as we only ever witness a tiny fraction of their daily lives which takes place below the waves. I watched a grey seal cow coming up for air after a feeding foray.At 10am I saw a large gathering of gannets about 2 kilometres offshore and my heart raced with the anticipation of seeing dolphins and sure enough when I trained my scope on that area there was a lot of splashing activity going on below the gannets. I watched a group of approximately 20 common dolphins foraging and steadily making their way south. Their distinctive 'falcate' fins ruled them out as porpoise. There was the occasional 'breach' from some animals. Gannets plunge dived round about. So there we are it was well worth the effort coming down to Strumble this morning even though my body told me otherwise! I love this place you never know what's going to happen next! I was joined by a chap called Chris whom I had met a couple of days ago at Strumble. He was staying in a cottage up the road. Fortunately at 11.20am another group of common dolphins made an appearance at '12 o clock' to us and about the same distance out to sea. I presume they were the same animals I had seen earlier. There was a lot more leaping and splashing this time. It was great to be able to show Chris his first sighting of Common Dolphin and from Strumble Head too (another convert to this enchanting place!)

Porpoise off Caerfai

Unusually two Porpoise were present at about 7pm just off the beach at Caerfai bay near St David's

Last Survey of the Season

The last scheduled Sea Trust small boat Cetacean survey took place yesterday. After some strong winds on Tuesday it was touch and go whether we would get out but in the end we went for it and it turned out to be another great trip.
The weather started out dull and drizzly and there was a big swell still running as we headed out of Milford Haven. The day brightened up later but the swell remained. We ended up a pretty long way out, some 25 miles west of St. Anne's Head, hoping to catch up with a huge number of Dolphins which we had heard was in the area a few days ago. We didn't find a "Superpod" but did find really good numbers of Common Dolphins including a number of pods of 20 or more which were feeding intensly - herding fish in a compact team formation. The photo shows one such group in the shadow of a tanker (click on photo for larger image).

Several groups of Dolphins also came to investigate the boat and rode the bow wave and amongst these were many mothers with very small calfs.

A group of diving Gannets turned out to be feeding near a Minke Whale which surfaced only very briefly. Also of great interest was a raft of 12 Sooty Shearwaters resting on the surface and we also saw 3 more of these visitors from the southern hemisphere as well as 1 Storm Petrel, plenty of auks and Manx Shearwaters. The day ended in wonderful sunshine as, on the way back in, we watched a group of Grey Seals basking on the rocks of Skokholm Island.

Thanks again to Cliff Benson for organising the trip, to Nick O'Sullivan, skipper of the Celtic Wildcat and to all the people who have joined the surveys this year and with their donations have made it possible to survey the cetacean rich waters of the Pembrokeshire coast.

Click here for more photos of the trip.

Stonier and Strumble keep the records coming in...

From RS:

Risso's Dolphin - 6 (Single going East along tide-race - large with lots of "scarring". Later a pod of 5 going East along tide-race: 2 large and pale, 1 medium/large and completely white and 2 small/medium and grey).Common Dolphin - c.10
// posted by Richard Stonier @ 5:26 PM

The intriguing thing is that we have often seen them heading east into Cardigan Bay but they are not recorded until they get to the Lleyn or Anglesey peninsulars, do they swerve out into the Irish Sea or merely pass by the most researched area undetected ? I think they must swerve for some reason : answers on £50 pound notes please...

Porpoises Gower

Sightings from Alan Williams for 19 September: 3-4 Porpoises (incl a mother & calf) close inshore at Caswell Bay beach, Gower, at low tide (observed from 12 to 12.30pm in very calm sea conditions). At times one of the porpoises would chase fish into the shallow water of the beach, causing the fish to jump out of the water to avoid the porpoise.

Strictly Come Dolphins

After 2 weeks of a very welcome Indian Summer would the weather hold for the Sea Trust survey boat trip on 19 September?

The day broke cloudy and damp, and as The Celtic Wildcat moved up Milford Haven it was pretty chilly. But miraculously as we came out into the open sea the weather improved and it steadily turned into a warm, sunny day. The first 2 hours of the trip were pretty quiet - very few seabirds (as there were to be throughout the day) and just a glimpse of 3 unidentified cetaceans close to Freshwater West.

The aim of the day was to survey an area into the Bristol Channel midway out towards Lundy and once we started to see Common Dolphins at around 11:30 we had a steady procession of them coming in close to the boat and riding in the bow wave - not so much a case of finding the Dolphins as them finding us! In all we saw just over 120 Common Dolphins in a number of relatively small groups - the biggest 20 or so animals. Mostly adults but a number of juveniles and a few young calfs. Wonderful to see such enigmatic creatures so close to the Pembrokeshire coast - as the photo shows, with St Govan's in the background (click photo for larger image). A good day was had by all - many thanks to Nick O'Sullivan the skipper of the Celtic Wildcat, to Sea Trust and to all the participants for their help in spotting the Dolphins and making the day a memorable one. Click here for more photos from the day.

Weather or not, Whale or not... Dolphins and Porp's though!

From Rob Colley (Gower Marine Mammal Group)
Out of Swansea /Bristol Channel:
Yesterday's summary: forecast n.e. 1-2 didn't happen, & consistent e/s.e. 5-6 made for a bumpy, slammy, day & very poor sighting conditions. Surprisingly, x5 porpoise were seen on transit. On transect, x2 glimpsed-and-never-seen-again animals remain a mystery but were probably (?) porpoise; a maybe-whale-blow came to nought. Two groups of Common dolphin came to the boat: 5 adults + 3 half-size calves, and 11 adults + one >half-size calf.

This weather seems to be literally unpredictable, Sea Trust out today lets hope for better luck, without me though...aaargh!

Ramsey Sound Porpoises and Seals

News from Alison Ross - A couple of early starts up at Ramsey Sound yesterday & today had its rewards. Probably 12-15 porps there yesterday, maybe not quite so many today. One of the ones I saw today appeared to have a damaged dorsal fin but unfortunately I only had the one positive sighting of it. There was a close group of 5 that moved up the Sound at the end of the morning ebb tide on both days. The same animals or just a coincidence? Just as a footnote. I arrived this morning to some very strange noises. A couple of courting seals in the water below, calling to each other, rolling over & nuzzling each other suggestively & then diving down together with lots of splashing. Interestingly, I saw a couple of seals behaving in the same way in exactly the same spot on Mon.7th. It is reassuring to know that the circle of life continues.

Blow by blow account!

Hi Cliff, see mail below sent into the Blog. Not sure from the description what this is. Any ideas?
Rich

From kyaker, Mike Bevan;

Hi, I have a sighting to report, I was kayaking 250 metres out, west of Pwll Ddu Head, Gower on 10/09/09 The solo dolphin passed me by at 1130am less than 25 feet away,heading eastwards, it was 6foot long, lightgrey with brown around the fin and back blowing every 5 seconds. ThanksMike

Not sure what this animal was although the view from kyak is both intimate and limited, it could be that the size was overestimated or underestimated or he might have got it right!
The obvious species that might be encountered are Porpoise and Common Dolphin. Both are more or less black above and pale below... Its a bit big for a Porpoise and about right for a CD, although at that close range Mike might have noticed the yellowy green blaze around a commons head and shoulder. The brown is a mite confusing although in some lights porpoises and Bottlenose dolphins have a purplish/brown cast. Bottles, at least adults, are much bigger than 6feet. I am guessing that Mike may have been wearing sunglasses which may have also caused a colour discrepancy. Grey/brown could just concievably be a Risso's but it would have to be a calf. What is definite, is... it was a cetacean! maybe we can get a bit more detail? allthingsgood, cliff

Still some Sun!

From Sam Vickery;

Hi Cliff
We met a couple of years ago when I worked for Creative Mwldan in Cardigan. I've left the company now but Sean and Steve are still running their film/ editing/ graphics service from the building.
Just looked up your email address on Pembs Marine Code website and wanted to report a sighting of a sun fish at Mwnt around 10th August at about 5.30pm.
We were walking the coast path from the chapel at Mwnt beach towards Aberporth and noticed a fin 'waving' about 10 meters off the coast. We watched it for about 30 minutes and it travelled about 200 yards in that time heading towards the 'mwnt' and keeping close the the cliffs. Sea was fairly choppy.
We thought it was a dolphin in distress to start, but the fin was longer and thinner. We decided it might be a turtle but it seemed to be rolling and was dark on the top and lighter under belly. It was only when we got home and googled it that we realised it was a sunfish and video on line matched our sighting. Unfortunately we hadn't a camera so didn't get a photo of this sighting.
About half a mile further along the coast path I also saw a smooth back 'mass' break the surface - no fin and seemed to be 'rolling' . It was a couple of seconds. I waited a while incase it reappeared or to find out if it might have been a smooth rock, but didn't see anything.
Sean and I often walk the coast path and now that I have your email address, I shall let you know of any other sightings in North Pembs/ Ceredigion.
Best wishes
Sam

Hi Sam, I look forwards to more! sounds like the finless back may have been a seal but thats the problem with underwater things, you often just get a tantalising glimpse, allthingsgood, cliff

From Alison Ross;

Hi Cliff. Hope you are well. After a stressful week I've just spent 7 hours up at Ramsey Sound on Sat.12th.Sept. Although there were'nt as many porps there as I've seen as my previous couple of visits. Only a single sighting in the flood tide & for a long time nothing in the ebb, but then 3 porps appeared & were there for about an hour, sometimes displaying quite energetic behaviour. I could also see their blows on several occasions. I could see many seal pups in the coves over on Ramsey today & there were also a lot of adult seals in the water. I checked up on a pup that I had seen about 10 days ago, near where I survey the porpoise, but I was saddened to see that it had'nt survived (if it was the same one). When I saw it before, it had looked so well fed & likely to survive. For every one that does'nt make it, hopefully there are more that do. All the best, Alison.....

Sea Trust Pelagics

Just a reminder that the last two Sea Trust Pelagic Boat trips from Neyland for this year are scheduled for Saturday 19th and Wednesday 23rd September. Cost is £50 per person payable on the day. This is a great opportunity to see Dolphins and, possibly, other Cetaceans as well as close views of any seabirds which have not yet departed our shores. There have been sightings of large numbers of Common Dolphins recently as well as good numbers of Rissos........................who knows those Fin Whales may still be around! Photos from various Sea Trust pelagics can be seen here. Full details with info on how to book a place can be found by clicking here

Seal Pupping Season.

Allthough odd pups may be born in any month, the great majority of Grey Seals in Wales give birth to thier single pup from September onwards, peaking in October with most finished by the end of November.

Strumble Head Lighthouse is a good place to view them, the seals are used to humans there, but please realise they are wild animals, avoid waving or shouting or any behaviour that may alarm them.

Many seals are born in Caves or unnaccesible coves and beaches but some like this one (photographed by Adrian Roger) end up on beaches where the public can easily reach them.

If you do come across one it will almost inevitably be without its mother but this does not mean it is abandoned.

Seal Pups spend most of their early days alone, the mothers only coming ashore to feed them.They often make heart rending wailing calls but this is merely telling mum to hurry up and give a feed. She will not do so if you are nearby.

The best advice is leave them well alone, especially if you have a dog with you. Despite their small size and cute looks they will bite and their teeth are covered in bacteria that will infect wounds.

Nature is neither cruel or kind but birth and death are integral and inevitably some seal pups will die. On the larger picture our seal population is big and healthy.

Whatever the circumstances, our advice is to let nature take its course, but if you are really convinced a seal needs help, contact Terry Leadbetter on: 07970285086

All round Wales!

An invitation to join Dan Worth on his RHIB;Razorbill out of the Teifi Estuary provided a welcome oportunity to glimpse the stunningly beautiful north Pembrokeshire/southern Ceredigian coastline with the added bunus of a brief encounter with a Bottlenose Dolphin that briefly joined us. Sea Trust stalwarts; Rich Crossen and Steve Berry, brought photographic expertise and equipment as can bee seen from Rich Crossens pic's (above).

Equally welcome was the meeting with my old mate Mark Williams who skippers the EA survey vessel "Vigilance". He greeted me with the news of a "superpod" of "at least 500" Common Dolphins seen the day before off St Govans Head!

Richard Stonier reported another somewhat smaller pod of ten Common Dolphins from Strumble... but all cetaceans are super !

Its amazing what a bit of good weather produces in the way of sightings and the last few reports certainly cover the larger part of Wales, proving our coastline to be prolific in species as well as numbers of cetaceans.

Bottlenoses at Ynyslas

At 1pm today at Ynyslas near Borth I watched 3 adult bottlenose Dolphins far offshore. They often breached clear of the water and occasionally simultaneously (They must have escaped from Sea-World!).

Rissos at Cemlyn

Info from Steve Culley - I was seawatching at Cemlyn last night (7 Sept) and had a group of c.6 - 10 Risso's Dolpins.There were adults and younger individuals in the group. Adults noticeably paler with taller scickle shaped dorsal fins. One of the dolphins had a split in the dorsal fin approx. half way down the posterior aspect of the fin.
Thanks, Steve, paricularly interesting in view of the number of Rissos seen 9/10 Sept from the Rosslare Ferry.

Common Dolphins, Ramsey Sound

Info from Malcolm Barradell for 7 September - I was out on another of my survey days in Ramsey Sound and was greeted on arrival by a group of common dolphin foraging in the south of the sound,There were about 20 animals around for about 20minutes, a great start to the day. Still very few porpoise, a group of abput 7 passed down the sound at the beginning of ebb tide. but not much activity close in after that,however there was alot of gannet activity out in St Brides Bay towards Skomer, saw some fins through the scope, maybe porpoise possibly the commons.

Rewriting Risso's

On a Sea Trust/Stena ferry Survey 9/09 -10/09, a minimum of 48 Risso's (including females with calves) were recorded in a total ot 8 seperate encounters by Sea Trust volunteers; Adrian Rodger, Rich Crossen and myself. The weather played its usual tricks and had the conditions been more favourable we may well have doubled that figure.

Given half decent conditions we have been seeing Risso's on most of our ferry crossings since the spring and generally this has been a long term trend over several years. Unfortunately we do not usually get close enough to get really good ID photo's although Rich has still managed to capture good record shots.

What seems obvious from our records, some of which go back as far as the 1980's is that Risso's are frequent, probably resident in the Irish Sea. Also that the Irish Sea as a whole, not just Cardigan Bay, is an important breeding area for these grey ghosts of the cetacean world. The fact is, there are very few records for the greater part of Cardigan Bay despite quite a lot of cetacean recording effort.

The main areas in which Risso's are mostly spotted are between the Pembrokeshire Islands up to Fishguard and across to the Wexford coast, along the Irish Coast to to Arklow, The Isle of Man and then off the Anglesey/Lleyn peninsular with hardly any records between The Lleyn and Strumble Head/Fishguard. They have also been regularly spotted in Pembrokeshire waters in all four seasons from land and sea!

Commons, Risso's, Basker and plenty of Porpoises at Strumble

Monday, 7 September 2009
Commons, Risso's, Basker and plenty of Porpoises at Strumble
Richard Stonier and Graham Rees continued to clock up the marine mega fauna at Strumble over the weekend with sightings of Common dolphins with a probable Risso's on Saturday The Risso's or at least a larger dolphin with a largebroad based fin wsas seen amongast a pod of commons feeding off Strumble on Saturday morning in choppy conditions. If it was a Risso's and Richard seemed pretty sure it was, then this is the third example of Risso's associating with Common dolphins in recent months. At pod of least 6 Risso's including a small calf passed by heading East early on Sunday. Later a very large Basking shark passed by close in giving excellent views. This morning Richard Graham had another encounter with Common Dolphins which came close in and small calves were seen but no more Risso's!
Risso's do get around a bit which is only to be expected but not often proven. Marijke De Boer has managed to prove that Welsh Risso's wander at least as far as Cornwall see; http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8233000/8233875.stm

This is all good stuff but some time ago we offered to work with WDCS on a project looking at Risso's in the Irish Sea. We record many more sightings than they do so I think it would make sense but so far no response...

Rough Stuff

A couple of days using time available due to the rough weather which ultimately caused the partial cancellation of our Dolphin-othon, was spent getting back to my birding roots which was a holiday of a kind.

And yet in conditions beyond any I would deem reasonable for a survey, I (we) saw loads of Porpoises. My abiding impression was of the early morning today when in a chaotic wind against tide troubled sea, three porpoises breached together, (less a breach than the sea leaving them!) stranding them momentarily stuck in mid air as the wave suddenly subsided.

Generally I do my cetacean surveys with binoculars which give a reasonable overall view but miss out on the finer points of observation. Had we been passing by on Stena Europe ferry, very little of what I saw with a telescope from the shore at Strumble would have been visible from the ship.

This is not to say our surveys aboard the Stena Europe are flawed, we never expected to see everything but we get a basic impression based on a long term consistant and balanced methodology

However more intimate casual observations may give additional and valuable insights that put everyting else into perspective which must prove useful in the long term and help to build the greater picture.

Additional stuff

Hi Cliff,

Some additional info that I sent on earlier to Rich.

"It was certainly unusual, both the Common and the Risso's were seen jumping clear of the water occasionally, there was obviously a bit of a feeding frenzy going on - with lots of Gannets etc getting in on the action. The Commons were in three large groups - all visible simultaneously across the horizon - and the Risso's were loosely attached to one of these (which was useful for comparison purposes). I remember seeing Risso's occasionally from Port Eynon when I seawatched from there (and in the Bristol Channel from the Swansea-Cork ferry) so I guess they must get around. Perhaps the sightings reflect the distribution of observers? I haven't seen anybody else seawatching from the south coast this summer - whereas at Strumble......"

Cheers

Clive


Hi Clive,
Thanks for the more complete version. The bit that was not clear was that the Risso’s were associating/feeding? with the commons. As you say, it also does sound like you probably had a lot more Commons than your conservative estimate. Interestingly Janet Baxter (see June reports ) had a similar instance of Risso’s and Commons feeding together back in June which opens up a couple of interesting questions, such as what were they feeding on, were they both feeding on the same thing?

I have seen literally thousands of groups of Commons in recent years , and also pods of Risso’s but never seen them associating. The generally accepted principle is that Risso’s feed on squid and squid is not generally that common here, although we do see Risso’s regularly. Maybe there is more squid about than we used to think was the case, maybe the they were all feeding on squid or maybe Risso’s have a much more catholic taste than previously thought. Perhaps food shortages/gluts brought on by climate change or fishing practice is making animals adapt their diet.

Another interesting phenomena is that I never see birds with Risso’s, or in my limited experience with Sperm Whales as if the birds recognise that as bottom feeders that they are unlikely to derive benefit from following them...

Hmm so much to know, so little in the way of resources to find out with. Thank god for the unsung army of reliable observers out there watching.
Allthingsgood, cliff

South Pembrokeshire Cetaceans

Some great sightings from Clive Hurford for the south coast of Pembrokeshire:-
On Friday 21st Aug - 2 Sunfish near the Garland Stone on Skomer. Subsequently, on Monday 24th Aug, there were good numbers of cetaceans in the sea between St Govan's Head and Lundy, a conservative estimate would be 75 Common Dolphins, 3+ Risso's Dolphins and a small number (<10) of Harbour Porpoise. At one point it seemed that the sea was alive with dolphins, and I suspect that my figure for Common Dolphins is a serious underestimate. Since then, I have seen small numbers of Harbour Porpoises most days, with a few Grey Seals offshore and a reasonable assortment of seabirds.

Nicked from bird blog!

Monday, 31 August 2009
Martin's Haven: Gannets & Porpoises
Standing outside Lockley Lodge at about 1800 this evening during a break in the weather, we watched the spectacle of a group of about 30 Gannets circling over, following, and feeding amongst a much larger than usual group of Porpoises. We counted at least 6, and as many as 10 Porpoises feeding actively around the area of the entrance to the Haven; we normally only get 2-4 in Jack Sound. Several times the Gannets seemed to dive near-simultaneously almost on top of the Porpoises.// posted by Sash T @ 8:18 PM

Record day for sunfish yesterday with 9 in one day. Today another record day for sunfish.......Sunfish can grow up to 4 metres across in warmer waters but the ones we get off Strumble and the UK tend to be circa 1 metre across. This individual appeared very close inshore and we watched it dumb-founded. We estimate that this was a fully grown sunfish.....it was huge. The dorsel fin (pictured with buoy for size comparison) was at least as big as a basking shark fin and unlike the thin fins we are used to on "normal" sunfish it was chunky!This was almost certainly a sunfish - it was moving quite rapidly against the tide and was flapping this fin as it moved in typical sunfish style. You can see from the pictures that it had a large chunk missing from the tip of the fin....try to fill in the missing bit and you can see how big this fish was. (You might think from the pics that this is a shark but it was flapping the fin constantly from horizontal to vertical as it swam - just like sunfish).At all times we could see the body of the fish (all infront of the fin which helps to prove it was a sunfish).......in a different league to the sunfish we have seen off here in the past. I am not going swimming in the sea anytime soon! (Although I think they eat squid and jellyfish)
// posted by Richard Stonier @ 5:46 PM

Not sure 9 dosn't just equall the record from memory, I think I have a record of nine in a diary somewhere, but It was before computers and god knows where it is! Not much doubt about the big Sunfish though , well done Richard, and nice observations fro Sash!
On my visits to strumble recently lots of very active porps showing but conditions too rough for a survey, nicee though!