Thursday 20 August 2015

Dolphin sightings in the Bristol Channel from Mark Hipkin

Some Common Dolphin sightings that will be of interest to you.

Port Eynon - 21st July 2015 - 12+ in rough conditions

Port Eynon - 2nd August 2015 - 6+ in rough conditions

Common Cliff - 12th August 2015 - 10+ in calm conditions

Swansea Bay - 17th August 2015 - 15+ in very calm conditions

Today’s Common Dolphins sighting in Swansea Bay was mega for me! First time since 7/8 September 2010 that I’ve seen them from my patch - Crymlyn Burrows. They were on view from 08:20 to 10:50 well spread over the bay early on with groups of 4, 4 and 7+. Later a minimum of 10 were fairly active just off Aberavon Beach. It was also interesting that the Common Dolphins occupied the same sorts of areas that I frequently see Harbour Porpoise feeding i.e. along the shipping channel leading to River Neath and off Aberavon Beach. No Harbour Porpoise seen today however. Towards the end of my stay the group could be seen drifting past Port Talbot Harbour heading in the direction of Sker Point.

Clearly seems to be a decent numbers of Commons in this area so well worth highlighting their presence to any reader who might be interested.

I also attach a couple of pics from the phone taken through the scope, poor quality I know but they were about 3 km away at the time!




Looks like there was Risso's present as well from photos, obviously pretty distant and hard to be sure!