Whales in Wales: Strumble Diary & Other Bits 09/09/2016

Such a packed five hours I don't know where to start. Let's try 9.40am and I'm watching at least three bottlenose in the inner harbour from Harbour Village but they are moving toward the end of the breakwater. I speed down but by the time I get there they've moved out. Back to plan A and it's off to Strumble, where I find Adrian watching with a report of Common Dolphin sighted but way out. On the rising tide the porps were very active but conditions were choppy to say the least. As the session progressed Adrian and myself whitnessed more breeches that I can ever remember in a single week never mind a single session. Eighteen in all I counted and who knows how many I missed. Then we were informed of a Basking Shark sighted to the west of the lighthouse and by the description of size,shape and movement I have no reason to doubt it. Next in the list came another Sunfish and that's the second I've seen this week. Porp numbers were large and I'd say 70-80 in all.

Adrian was busy recording various Gulls when a cry of "Osprey" uttered forth which got my attention too. It was far out but I did manage to get a few shots for Adrian's blog "Strumble Head Sea Watching". I also managed some shots of a Wheatear which is also on his blog. As the action started to slow the rain started to fall so at near 1:00pm we called it a day. Off then to the Ocean Lab to give Cliff the info on the session and he suggested a quick trip to the breakwater. Despite being hardly able to stand out there we stood our ground and surveyed the bay. We were thinking of leaving when we spotted a couple of porps outside the breakwater and Cliff threw a glance with the binos back across the bay to see several bottlenose against the cliffs by Needle Rock. A dash up to the pill box bunker for shelter and we watched them for several minutes until they headed out to sea. Phew!! What a lucky boy I am. More images than normal today but I feel they're worth showing.