Friday 31 August 2012
Fishguard latest
Thursday 30 August 2012
Musselwick Porp
Tuesday 28 August 2012
Catch up
Saturday 25 August 2012
Porp stuff
below: porpoise mother and calf off Srtrumble cb.
The lousy weather continues and Mondays " Celtic Wildcat" trip is cancelled.
On Thursday Cristina and the Walrus trekked over to Point Anglas south of Fishguard Harbour and I filmed this mother and calf porpoises from the cliff top. (see video...)
We also found a young seal and its mother at Strumble in fact there were two mothers and calves both calves only a day or two old. The male beachmaster which is a huge pinkish grey animal has ruled the roost there for many years and was in attendance as well. This year the pups are quite early sometimes they dont really get started until September at Strumble. Incredible to thinhk that in a couple of weeeks these pups will have moulted out of their white coats be abandoned by their mothers and start their new lives independantly. Porpoises have been showing nicely over the last few days at strumble but you will need binoculars to see them.
http://strumbleheadseawatching.blogspot.co.uk/
From Richard Stonier at Strumble yesterday"Common Porpoise - showing exceptionally well for most of day. Estimate at least 100 animals.
Chris and I went to Mwnt at 1pm we started on the headland and.
We saw a group of 13 or more Bottlenose dolphins with including 3 or 4 calves.
came in giving great views right in front of us to the head of Mwnt
and they were milling around in front of us.
At 13:30pm for about 15 minutes more.
Bottlenose Dolphins arrived at 13:45pm.
We started to see 7 bottlenose dolphins at that time
before we left the headland it was quite a downpour
of rain and then we abandoned the watch and we got very
wet wet wet when we went to the car at the car-park
Cheers
Stevo
Tuesday 21 August 2012
Skomer - Sunfish and seal interactions
as well as octopus and... really quite harrowiung at the time, a baby porpoise. This is probably just another indication of how opportunistic they are but the first record I know of! well done!
Sunday 19 August 2012
Stunning Strumble Weekend.
http://strumbleheadseawatching.blogspot.co.uk/
Saturday...
(Sunfish - 2 Seal eating an Auk surrounded by inquisitive ManxiesCommon Dolphin - 2 pods (10 and 25) Bottlenose Dolphin - 1 pod (12) (The 10 Common Dolphin swam East very close inshore and 15 mins later the Bottlenose came out of the bay, mingled for a while then went back where they came from. The 25 Common Dolphin were more distant in the bay Common Porpoise - Showing well
Sunday
Sunfish - 4
Common Dolphin - 3 pods (c.20, c.8 and c.5)
Risso's Dolphin - 3 pods (c.12, c.12 and c.6 . The Sunfish were very active and seen to leap a number of times)
Thursday 16 August 2012
Porp's there and here!
Dad and I went to Mwnt at 1pm but nothing to report on Bottlenose Dolphins during our 2 hour watch.
There was something we have not often seen at Mwnt before. Whilst walking around Mwnt Head at about 15:05pm at the end of our watch, a single Harbour Porpoise was milling around seeminglyforaging at the time.
We watched it for about 5 minutes then it started swimming off eastwards up the coast and we continued walking back to our car at the car-park.!
Cheers Stevo
Well spotted Stevo! we also saw some porpoises off Pen Anglas this afternoon under about fifteen gannets. It was a long way away and pretty choppy so we just got odd glimpses of at least three at one time. There was also some tail slapping going on making quite big splashes!
Port Eynon 14th Aug...
Paul Lear
Tuesday 14 August 2012
Porpoise and Sharks!
Whilst we were out with Nick on the Celtic Wildcat last week he told us of a breaching Thresher Shark which he unfortunately failed to get a pic' of. Nick also regularly fishes for sharks, and anglers had caught both Blue and Porbeagle during the day (which are caught, tagged and released alive).
A couple of days later , Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Group based In Newquay (Ceradigion) had an all day trip out into Cardigan Bay and along with both Common and Bottlenose dolphins they saw another or perhaps the same Thresher Shark. This time Sarah Bebb was quick on the draw! Thanks for the link Michael
See....
Thought u might like to see this.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42275318@N03/7773224284/in/pool-chanonry_village/
Michael Rich
Monday 13 August 2012
Stevo and Chris at Mwnt
Chris and I went to Mwnt at 1pm at about half and hour later a sighting of a single Bottlenose Dolphin milling about in the area for 15 minutes
and then it was still there at 13:45pm.
A mother and calf pair was sighted at 14:15pm for another 15 minutes.
They were traveling very slowly heading eastwards that was at 14:30pm.
We still saw them at that time heading out of view as we departed from the headland at Mwnt
P:S well done Christina and Sea Trust gang for seeing so many interesting stuff in the St George's Channel from the Stena Survey
I think we are getting a lot of mackerel shoals out there with so many Cetaceans in their peak period
Cheers
Stevo
Saturday 11 August 2012
Amroth Porps + Ians Porp's and Sunfish
A late report (my fault sorry Ian), of four Porpoises seen by Ian and son Robert whilst fishing off the rocks near the Copper Mine in Ramsay Sound on Thursday Evening. Apparently two were feeding under Gannets whilst the others were some ways apart.
Just goes to show , wetting your throat or wetting a line, porpoises can pop up anywhere on the Pembrokeshire Coast!
Having just spoken to Ian, he and his wife Sylvia also had a porpoise mother and calf from his boat on Friday Morning a couple of miles north of Fishguard Harbour. A couple of small sunfish also turned up.
For those wanting to see Sunfish its a good time as they arrive here in numbers in August into September. Their presence is usually given away by a long flipper like Dorsal fin flapping above the surface. This often attracts gulls coming to feed on parasites on its body. The fish is really quite an oddity disc shaped with a flipper like dorsal and anal fins top and bottom which are its main means of propulsion. The tail is a vestigal frill at the rear which is hardly noticable unless you get a good look. The body and head are pretty much incorporated into the afore mentioned disc darker above silvery below. This can be seen well when they lie flat on the surface along with the prominent eye mouth and pectoral fin.
Strumble is a good place to see them but you will need binoculars and a lot of patience!the video below is of a small one seen from the Celtic Wildcat last week...
Celtic Wildcat in the Celtic Deep!
Unfortunately we did not connect but had several excellent Common Dolphin encounters. A couple of the larger pods (35-40 ) had very small calves which came in to bowride us. Are the Fin Whales here this year? lets hope we get another chance to find out! We did mange to connect with A Minke Whale , (perhaps two ) which gave brief views, as did a Blue Shark.
A small Ocean Sunfish also flip-flapped past us, a first for several of our crew. They are one of my favourite seacritters and although not particularly rare they can be elusive, so nice to get one for our passengers
As usual at this time of the year the Gannetry on Grassholm was awe inspiring and several basking seals were a nice finish to an exhilerating trip in which we covered just under 100 miles of ocean! Click on the Dolphin for more pics from the trip. Thanks again to Nick o' Sullivan, Celtic Wildcat Skipper for getting us all safely out there and back!
Friday 10 August 2012
Risso's Dolphins
Grassholm
Thursday 9 August 2012
Birds' Rock, New Quay
Arriving at the look-out, I could immediately see a huge, feeding event with diving gannets, gulls and what I took to be Storm Petrels. My first thought when I saw these birds was that they were House Martins - but they were dipping under the surface and then sitting on the water. It was impossible for me to even guess how many there were. A couple of other observers and I just thought "thousands". This feeding event, or series of events stretched over a distance of at least a mile. Bottlenose dolphins were well in evidence, lazily feeding under this enormous number of birds.
Over the following two hours over a dozen dolphins showed, with some breaching. They were not shy and approached several boats. At about 14.00 I noticed an unusual shape in the water and then realised that it was a Bottlenose "spyhopping". The first time that I have observed this behaviour.
A Proliferation of Porpoises
This morning the conditions were even better with a glassy sea and some cloud cover for most of the trip. The visibilty was terrific with the Welsh coastline in sight soon after leaving Rosslare. 10 Rissos were seen on this leg, one of them sneaking up behind and showing well - a large, very pale individual - as it crossed astern the ferry. Somewhat disappointingly, given the perfect conditions, no Common Dolphins were seen but this was more than made up for by the number of Porpoises. The morning total was 83 (yes, eighty three!) individuals with the majority again seen on the Welsh side. I guess this just goes to show how common Porpoises are in the Irish Sea and Pembrokeshire waters but they are only seen in their true numbers when the conditions are just right.
Porpoise photo from last week's Wildcat trip.
Friday 3 August 2012
Fishguard outer breakwater today
Skomer - Risso's!
Seen by Dave and Emily Astins.
Saundersfoot Porpoise
Thursday 2 August 2012
Rod's the man!
I spoke to Miss Glasier to find out where she was (near Aberystwyth) and then passed her on to Rod Penrose Welsh Marine Mammal Stranding coordinatore.
Just had a message from Rod, apparently it was a female Common Dolphin, unusual that far north into Cardigan Bay for Stranded or dead animals Rod's the man :Marine Strandings Network
Fishguard Bottles Again
There was a treat in store for me on a visit up to Fishguard to see Cliff Benson on Sea Trust business this morning. As I arrived Cliff told me that he had heard from a local fisherman (Paul Welsh) of several dolphins near the harbour entrance. We hot-footed it to the outer breakwater and saw 5 individuals altogether. 3 of them stayed some way out but a mother and calf spent an hour or so close in to the end of the breakwater clearly fishing as the tide started to ebb. As shown in the pics the mother had a disinctive chunk out of the rear of the dorsal fin - an animal which Cliff has photographed at Fishguard before.
Wednesday 1 August 2012
From Nick o'Sullivan (Celtic Wildcat)
I was reading a post for Monday 30th July by Adrian who saw a dolphin with a badly damaged dorsil fin. I have also seen that dolphin ( or one very similar) out at the Smalls Light area ( about 10th July, it was only a fleeting site as it and about six others were on a mission heading south west.
CheersNick
Newquay not bad either! (from Facebook)
We saw 19 dolphins from the harbour wall yesterday, including a mother with its calf. We also saw an Atlantic grey seal that came right up tp the harbour wall!