If at first...

Couldn't find any Porpoises at Strumble this afternoon so gave the Fishguard Harbour outer breakwater a try. I eventually saw a couple very distantly having been put onto them by a couple of wheeling Greater Blackbacks!
From Alison Ross:
Hi Cliff. Hope you're ok. No sightings of porpoise in Ramsey Sound over the last 3 weeks despite regular watches up there until today, Sat.28th.Nov. when I had 2 sightings of a single porpoise moving up the Sound at the start of the flood tide. I went round to St. Davids Head to see if there were any there but had no sightings. This time last year sightings of Porpoise in the Sound were excellent. What a difference a year makes! All the best.....Alison.

Worst November for cetacean monitoring

Splashy Porp & Distant Risso's: Images; Steve Rosser

After a couple of fantastic months of sightings in September and October, winter came with a vengance. This will be the first month without a Stena Ferry survey since Adrian Rodger and myself did the first one in April 2004. It almost looked like we might salvage things with a last minute trip this weekend but the weather window that had looked promising slammed shut with more gales forcasted. It has been pretty stormy, predominently from the SW, which at least makes watching from north facing Strumble possible. It can't go on forever and we often seem to get a settled spell around the end of December which seems to produce Risso's for the more resilient watchers. They are not usually very showy but will occasionally breach making a huge splash. More often they pass like grey ghosts, easy to miss and often hard to relocate after surfacings. Of course our Porpoises which were absent for some time in the early summer after the scallop dredging are back and seem to be pretty active; as Mark W witnessed yesterday...

Small pod of porpoises seen, one leapt clear of the water, (1st time I have seen one airborne!).
// posted by MarkW (Pemb's Bird Blog , yesterday)

Whoops!

After lunch, Alison Ross and I had a quick dekko at Strumble, as she had suffered some long blank hours looking for porpoises in Ramsay sound recently. The porpoise famine was soon broken and in amongst the huge breaking rollers porpoises popped up here and there. The seas were so big that on occasions Porpoises seemed to find themselves surfing in the crest of a wave , only for the wave to suddenly collapse, leaving them momentarily hanging in mid air, or so it seemed!

Wooltack Point 21 & 22 November

A couple of sea watches on Saturday morning(about one hour) and Sunday morning (3 hours) produced sightings of Common Porpoises. In both cases the tide was flowing strongly north, although this was not always apparent on the surface due to the strong wind and wave action.
On Saturday we saw what appeared to be two small groups of 2-4 porpoises, but on Sunday just a single group of 2-3. Unlike the summer, there were no Gannets overhead to "mark" the porpoises out to observers, but good numbers of other gulls and auks in the area (highlights were a Grey Phalarope and a Bonxie).
Also very good numbers of seals: at least 4 directly off the Point, and another 2-3 round the corner in Wooltack Bay

In between the storms...

A lull in the weather found me taking a quick look at Strumble this morning in the hope of connecting with the Risso's if they are still about. The sea was lumpy and tide dropped well behind the lighthouse. I scanned around for some time with no result before copping a porpoise and half grown calf in amongst some big tide race breakers. Nothing more untill I looked at the gap behind the lighthouse between Ynys Meicel and Ynys Onnen, a couple of porps were just visible in the less sheltered turbulence.

Really nice to get Dan's contribution, well done Dan, nice bit of footage as well!

Pod of 8 Bottlenose Dolphins off Newquay

Afraid this sighting is over a week old now, but still worth posting!

We don't tend to see our Bottlenose Dolphins as regularly this time of year, so it really brightened up a dull Autumn day with this sighting....images taken whilst on Charter to the Environment Agency last week (water sampling throughout Cardigan Bay).

Whilst taking samples off Newquay, and at rest, 'Razorbill' was approached by a pod of 8 Dolphs (one tail slapping - must stress the engines were not running and they approached the boat). A short video is viewable here (via our razorbillribs You Tube Channel): Environment Agency Charter Nov 09 – Pod of 8 Bottlenose Dolphins off Newquay

The main pod moved past, but a couple of them hung around and gave a nice 'display'.....Dan

And again...

Porp in Ramsay sound in rough conditions ;Malcolm Barradell

In what has been a truly remarkable run of sightings which must be making Strumbles claim for Marine Conservation Zone status undeniable, Paul Grennard and Mervyn Jones clocked up another 3 adult Risso's this afternoon. Some may say the amount wildlife seen at Strumble is because of its popularity as a look out spot but this is the reason it is so popular; there's a heck of a lot of wildlife around Strumble!

Another place that would presumably qualify for MCZ status and is already protected as a Marine SAC is Ramsay Sound. Alison Ross has been keeping an eye on things there... .

I was up at the Sound again today. There is absolutely no shelter up there from a wind coming from a westerly direction! & to sit out in it for 4 hours! I must be mad!! Not a single porpoise sighting in the ebb tide race where I have seen good numbers recently but I did see 3 individuals moving north up the Sound at the end of the ebb tide. Lucky to see the first one as it was only just breaking the surface. At least there were some porps there & it was well worth getting considerably cold for! All the best.....Alison

Rogers Risso's start the month!

Good Afternoon Cliff ,
Seawatching this morning at Strumble were myself Rich Dobbins , Paul Grennard & Mervyn Jones. We had a sighting of four Risso's at approx 9.30 , one of them a very large animal breached at least twice. Two more were seen shortly after ten o'clock , then four more were seen at around twelve fifteen. All were largish animals & they all were heading in an Easterly direction.
Adrian
Of course by the time I got there, the Rosso's had gone but I caught Paul and Mervyn as they were leaving who were pretty pleased with the Risso's performance. None the less, despite the galeforce fed maelstrom, I still managed to spot a couple of porp's surfing and surgeing through the white water.