Risso's just keep rolling in!

Risso's: Steve Rosser

Some more incredible Risso's reports!
Firstly I was surprised and delighted to open an envelope which contained a cheque for Sea Trust, £250 in Gift Aid from Iolo Williams! I rang him immediately to thank him and He also told me that whilst filming on South Stack, Anglesey a couple of weeks ago, an estimated 90 Risso's passed by, some hanging in the tide race and giving an incredible display including breaching!.. This morning in amongst the crop of emails some more nuggets of gold...

From Adrian Rogers...

Went back up to Strumble this afternoon at about 3 o'clock with Rich Dobbins where we met Wendy James from Ceredigion. After about 45 mins of fruitless looking for birds Richard commented on the large number of Porps showing & Wendy then said she was sure there was something bigger out with them . Sure enough we all watched two small groups of Risso's go East just beyond the tide race one with least 6 individuals & the other with at least 3. The larger group contained two large animals & four smaller , the smaller groups animals all appeared to be the same size...

And then from Chris Grayell,
Hi Cliff

a pair of Rissos dolphins at Strumble today, c.0840 hours only just beyond tide race, heading east, both looked the same size (large), but nothing remarkable (scars/markings, etc...)about either.

Chris

This really has been an exceptional year for Rissos sightings which leaves me wondering why Its definately not all down to good watching conditions or more observers Iat least I don't think so... any ideas?

Porpoises - Jack Sound

Sightings for earlier this week from Sash Tusa - The calmer sea today provided excellent views of Porpoises in the tidal race flowing North out of Jack Sound (between mainland and Skomer). There appeared to be at least 5, and possibly as many as 7 adults, and a single very black calf, all showing well through late morning.

More Risso's.

Extract from Mike Young Powells posting on Bird Blog,,,
...Strumble late pm when also some Risso's Dolphins.
Wow this is really turning into a record Risso's season . I spent some time at strumble yesterday but apart from several Porps with pups did not manage to connect with Risso's and thought it might be a single day event. maybe I just caught the tide/time wrong and they are hanging about will try and get more detail from MYP.

Sowerby's BW... the full monty!

Hi Cliff,

This animal was a 4.25 metre male Sowerby's beaked whale found stranded on Sunday 25th October at Kenfig Nature Reserve, Bridgend, Wales, UK, Grid Ref: SS 784 805. The carcass was in a state of moderate decomposition. Both the tips of the lower jaw and the rostrum had been broken off, but unerupted teeth were still present in the lower jaw. It has been designated SW2009/340.

Several ribs were broken as well as the damage to the beak so I think the carcass had been working its way up the north Devon coast from rock to rock. There was a report of an unidentified cetacean stranded at Lynmouth in an inaccessible location on the 18th Oct which was probably this animal. Both stomachs were empty. It wasn’t a pretty carcass so you may not get pics.

Regards

Rod.

Rod Penrose, Strandings Co-ordinator (Wales)
UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP).
World Wide Web: www.ukstrandings.org
UK & Republic of Ireland 'TURTLE' Database Manager.
Tel: 01239 682405

So there we are folks another mystery solved! By the way any live or dead strandings should be reported to Rod as he has the equipment and contaacts to deal with this kind of thing.

Sowerby's Beaked Whale Stranding

A Sowerby's Beaked whale, Mac IWDG

From: Steve Rosser

Hi Cliff
Just seen this on Glamorgan Bird Club sightings page posted by Dave Carrington the manager/boss of Kenfig yesterday. No photo posted as of 13.30 today.

Sighting Location
Kenfig NNR
Sightings
Just heard that a dead beaked whale species has been found on Sker Beach (Kenfig Sands) about half way along. I'll post a photo on the forum when the wardens email one through to my home. The whale is due to be removed tomorrow.
Steve

Thanks Steve nice one! I spoke to Rod Penrose (strandings) seems it was a Sowerby’s Beaked Whale which was decomposing/damaged etc and may have been an animal reported off the Devon Coast a couple of weeks ago but not confirmed. Allthingsgood, cliff

Despite the weather/time of year, people are looking!

Ali Ross watching over Ramsay Sound

Hi Cliff. Hope you are well. Just catching up with porp news from Ramsey Sound. A mother & calf seen on Mon.19th.Oct. at the south end of the Sound in slack water just out of the ebb tide race. A mother & calf also seen today, Sun.25th.Oct. I had 3 sightings of them moving down the Sound on the edge of the ebb tide. Numbers of porps seen recently varies from only 4 or 5 to a dozen or more on a couple of days. All the best.....Alison
Occasionally I read about or watch on TV, people in the tropics watching or working with cetaceans in smooth seas and crystaline waters. It aint, don't work like that here!
But as I spent most of yesterday working here at my desk, I thought Alison would probably be out looking at her Ramsay porps, and good old Ray was there to log the Risso's at Strumble.
I suppose the fact that we have so many great observers out there is one reason why we record so many cetaceans and other wildlife. The two things are almost a chicken and egg thing but neither would exist without the other, that I am certain of. Keep up the good work!
allthingsgood, walrus

Strumble Rissos

Sighting from Ray W at Strumble Head pinched from the Pembrokeshire Birds Blog - I had at least 7 and possibly up to 12 Risso's Dolphin; one pod about half-way out, the second on or just inside the tide race. There were no calves and the dolphins ranged in colour from dark to very pale gray. They were active and there were two spectacular breaches. And for Cliff, the Porpoise calf that was tail-slapping a couple of weeks ago was at it again (was the same one I wonder?) this time perhaps worried by the proximity of the Risso's rather than the seal as was probably the case last time. Thanks Ray.

Dead porp

Hi Cliff Just to let you know that there is a dead porpoise on the strandline c.100m to the right from the main car park at Freshwater West. They say that Ivory Gulls can smell these things from some distance..... Cheers Clive (Hurford)
Thanks Clive, will report to Strandings, allthingsgood, walrus

Porp stuff

Porpoises, Ramsay Sound: Malcolm Barradell

In the sound today, my best time with porpoise for months, not lots but more than recently and a group hanging around forging just above Penmaenmelyn for over three hours, arriving there when the tide was still in flood and staying through to the ebb sometimes only 20 metres off shore, may be some pictures. will download later.

cheers for now
Malcolm (Barradell)

A brief look at Strumble this afternoon with Lizzie Wilberforce, showed active porpoises including one individual that probably breached as high as I have ever seen, almost as if in slow motion. Just had some images from Malcolm taken yesterday, looks like a mother and calf to me?

News from the Isle of Man

14-Oct-2009
Over 90 Harbour porpoises heading south
Brian Maddrell had a wonderful collection of porpoise sightings in the late afternoon on Wednesday 14 October.
For over an hour a constant stream of harbour porpoises swam past Dalby Point, all heading south.
Luckily the sea was mirror flat calm and the animals could be seen across the water from close to shore to 3 or 4 miles away. In total Brian recorded approximately 92 animals swimming quickly down the coast.
This snippet from the Manx Whale and Dolphin Watch website may be of interest especially those who see unexpected flocks of porpoises !
Much as I love Pembrokeshire the Manx scene looks pretty exciting!
http://www.mwdw.net

Risso's, grey ghosts...

This is some of my footage of Risso's Dolphins, a maternal group we discovered on a Cartlett Lady Survey trip earlier in the month.

It was close to shore and some of the landmarks are recognisable. I would stress that the group of Risso's were on the move. We have seen the same thing off Strumble and all across the Irish Sea.

As you will see, we treated them with huge caution and they were extremely cooperative, which is quite unusual in my experience!

Film Editing : many thanks to Gaynor Mc Morrin Fishguard Arts Society, incorporated stills courtesy of Rich Crossen. allthingsgood, cliff

Dolphin soup!

Nice report Rich , I should say that we should have been out with Nick yesterday, had he not suffered an out "of the blue" electrical glitch that scuppered what I felt was possibly our last chance to take advantage of the calm weather we have been experiencing recently.

Nick and I were both gutted at having to abandon yesterdays survey but luckily, Andy stepped in at the last minute and I managed to get a crew together for the Cartlett lady.

And so, as Rich says, we had a phenomenal day! (See Photos here) after an unpromising start which nearly caused me to abandon "The Box" everything started to come together and we began a day of almost continual Dolphin encounters. At times there seemed to be so many dolphins riding the pressure wave on our bows that there were more dolphins than water , a dolphin soup! That there were good numbers of calves and subadults within the pods was also encouraging! Thanks to all involved and particularly the Sea Trust supporters like Rich, Gaynor, Alison, Steve, Miguel and Andy... but for me the biggest thrill was being able to show my granddaughter's Phoebe and Lizzie the reason for which I am so often absent for family events. I think they understand why now!

Bristol Channel Dolphin Bonanza!

With a glorious day in prospect the chance to do a Sea Trust survey in the Bristol Channel was too good an opportunity to miss. We set off this morning and for the first couple of hours, as we headed in the general direction of Lundy, found the sea unexpectedly lumpy, caused by a fresh breeze overnight. This did not interfere with our sightings, however, as when we headed over towards a fishing vessel to check whether anything was following it we quickly saw a good sized pod of 50 or so Common Dolphins. These came over to the boat and almost every adult had a calf with it.
The sea eased off during the day and we continually encountered new pods of Dolphins - mainly adults but also good numbers of juveniles and calfs. Many were seen with the splendid backdrop of the Pembrokeshire coast around the Castlemartin area. The final grand total was 1200 Common Dolphins, of which 200 were juveniles and 111 calfs - oh and 2 Porpoises. Well done to Miguel for keeping the tally and many thanks to Cliff Benson & Sea Trust for the opportunity to take part in the survey on such a wonderful day. Thanks also to Andy Rickard, skipper of The Cartlett Lady.
The number of animals seen demonstrates the value of such surveys and I am left awestruck at the richness of Pembrokeshire's waters.

Perfect conditions, different days...

Photo's, Steve Rosser

Perfect conditions, different days.
Steve Rosser and I took advantage of the incredible weather to do another Stena Europe Survey, yesterday and today. with silken seas and little glare we encountered the kind of conditions I dream of for cetacean watching.We got off to a great start with two groups of c'10+ and then c'2o-30 Porpoises as we made our way out past Strumble, (unusually compact groups) and then kept picking up more, many with calves untill suddenly they stopped appearing about two thirds of the way across. It went very quiet despite the glassy conditions until far in the distance, splashes were seen and eventually we came upon a pod of 30-40 Common Dolphins which charged in to our bows. A Few more porpoises completed our trip as we passed the Tusker and we were well content, though slightly wondering where the Risso's were.A good nights sleep and a new day dawned calm and still for our return survey from Rosslare to Fishyguard. We ticked off a couple of porps and then big splashes at extreme distance had me suspecting they were Risso's breaching. We approached at what seemed like slow motion , such was the distance between us due to the incredible visibility. At least 25 -30 Risso's were arrayed across our bows as we approached, with the usually taciturn officers of the bridge grabbing binoculars and pointing excitedly! No sooner than we had these logged than we contacted four seperate pods in succesion, some with calves, at least 50+ individuals!After such hectic activity, I was pretty happy for a break and again we spent time scanning the glassy surface for somtime with no reward.As the Welsh Coast and Islands became clearer odd porpoises began to apper , again, several with calves. Usually concentrated coastally it seemed odd that as we approached and passed Strumble no porpoise broke the flat calm surface.A couple more weeks like this would make up for a lousy summer! allthingsgood, walrus

'Flocks' of Porpoise

A trip from St David’s to Grassholm and beyond produced the expected sights of still chick rearing Gannets together with a very large pod of Common Dolphin. The pod contained many young animals. The glassy conditions allowed us to see many Porpoise on the return leg from the Smalls to Ramsey than we could normally do. When we started counting !! we reached between 40 and 50 animals in the space of a few miles. Although we often see really good numbers of Porpoise in this area it is only on days like today when some reasonable idea of numbers can be appreciated.

Dead whale on Prestatyn beach

The dead whale referred to in recent correspondence was identified as a Northern Bottlenose Whale (Hyperoodon ampullatus) Please follow the link to the Daily Post report dated 13th October 2009:-

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/2009/10/13/whale-found-on-north-wales-beach-has-final-journey-55578-24913794/

I hope you dont mind me giving a plug to the above event. Mark Carwardine is a patron of ORCA (Organisation Cetacea) which like

'Sea-Trust' is a partner member of the 'ARC' (Atlantic Research Coalition). Mark will be giving a talk at Oxford Brookes University on the filming of the BBC 2 series 'The last chance to see'. Visit the ORCA website for further details on this event www.orcaweb.org.uk

You can see Mark and Stephen Fry this Sunday on BBC Two at 8pm in 'Last chance to see'.

They have close encounters with grey whales in Baja Mexico (something close to my heart!). They also search for the awesome blue whale.

Mystery Cetacean in North Wales

A report via Andrew Crowder/ Bird Forum of a stranding in North Wales ....

I wanted to alert folks to photos of a probable Northern Bottle Nosed Whale at Gronant - check out Birdforum.net, select Forums & scroll down to Sea-creatures..........

I had a day out birding when visiting my parents in N Wales. Unfortunalty I discovered more than I bargained for. When reaching the beach at Gronant dunes I discovered a dead Whale. Someone had already alerted the coast Guard who arrived later on.I am not sure what whale this is, I think Bottlenose ?It looks to be a fairly small one in whale terms but a lot larger than a Dolphin so I guess a juvenile??It had a small quantity of blood escaping from its mouth and one of its Gills so it may have been in contact with a boat.Birds had already started to peck at it. The tide was coming in so what happens to it next is in natures hands I suppose Sad sad sight.... the other side of nature loomed large and lifeless in front of me!! Dave

Well done Dave, where would cetacean nuts be without Birders (see yesterdays post from Graham). A beaked whale but not sure its a Bottlenosed Whale. Small detail; it could not have been bleeding from gills as cetaceans only breath through a blowhole. I have added a picture above the whale in question, of a Sowerbys Beaked Whale stranded here in Pemb's back in 2004. I have tried to contact Rod Penrose of Marine Strandings but no luck so far, any more info would be much appreciated allthingsgood, and thanks Andrew!

When the "cat's" away.

At 2-30 p.m. today six Risso's Dolphins moved past Strumble Head into Cardigan Bay. There were no calves. One was dark the others pale, one of them largely white.

Save this mans sanity!

Hello, My husband and I have just returned from a short trip to anglesey. We were near south stack on Monday 5th october 09 on the cliff edge where my husband thought that he saw the back of what he thought was a whale. Whatever it was it was really big, there was a boat in the area for a long time, it looked to be following something!
It is driving my husband nuts as he really would love to know if he was just seeing things or if it could have been a whale sighting.
Do you know of any other sightings in the area on this day ?
Kindest regards.
Ellen.
Hmmmn know the feeling... any one got anything wize to say on the subject?

Golden days

Many will know that for me Strumble Head is the centre of the universe , but it can be lovely or vicious. Today was lovely, I met up with the Strumbler Graham Rees, no wind and balmy, no good for birds for Graham but with the tide beginning to drop a barren sea was transformed with porpoises everywhere you looked. We estimated 100+ but no real way of accurately counting. Adrian Rogers was also having a great time watching autumnal sea mammals as can be ascertained from a photo he sent! (above ) Just to say , Mark

W had the impression (Pembs bird blog) that Porp's were few and far between at Strumble this season. It was certainly and scarily the case early in the spring /summer but they seem to have got back to something like normal now n a view Graham and I agreed on from different perspectives . None the less tidal conditions and sea state are a bit critical, with best porps probably half ways between tides.

If it's Sunday, it must be Risso's !

Pic: Steve Rosser

I decided to have a look at Strumble this morning, hoping for some interesting birds after yesterdays gales. There were some and they will be up on the Pemb's Bird blog presently, but there were also cetaceans.The interest started with some intregueing porpoise behaviour , a mother and smallish calf and repeated tail slapping. It was difficult to tell exactly what was going on but there was a seal in the vicinity. Its just possible that the adult /mother porpoise was trying to protect its young calf, which was last seen "porpoising" away from the area.Soon after Adrian Rogers found us some Risso's Dolphins, quite distant and moving away. there were at least three, possibly more which eventually disappeared in their characteristically enigmatic way!

From Alison Ross...

Hi Cliff. I hope you are well. Just some reports from Ramsey Sound. 7 hours of watching over 2 days, Mon.21st.Sept &Tues.22nd.Sept. with no porpoise sightings at all. On Mon.28th.Sept. I watched about a dozen porps moving up the Sound in 2 separate groups on the turn of the ebb tide. Work prevented me from going up there again until today Sat.3rd.Oct. The weather was'nt that favourable but I decided to go anyway. A large group of gannets circling above the tidal race looked promising & indeed, the porpoise were there in the ebb tide standing waves. I had almost continuous sightings for 2 hours. I'm really not sure of how many were there but I had many multiple sightings, the most being of 6 together. I'd just like to say a belated thank you to everyone who made the trip on the Celtic Wildcat on Sept.19th. possible. It really was an incredible experience. All the best.....Alison.

Strumble Head 30th September

Whilst sea-watching at Strumble on the morning of the 30th I think I saw 2 distant Risso's Dolphins. Got my bins on them but couldn't find them in my scope.