Tuesday 17 October 2017

The calm after the storm reveals some more Risso's



A brief visit to Strumble this morning was rewarded by meeting up with some old  birding mates Chris Grayell, veteran "Strumbler"  Richard Davies and the much travelled and much respected  cetacean man  Elfyn Pugh. The birders were filling their boots with four species of Skuas and other nice bits and bobs.  Ace camera man Ken was also there but having a frustrating time with the porp's that kept foiling his attempts to snap them. I managed to get onto a Juvenile Pom' Skua and a pale phase Arctic Skua, thanks to Chris and Rich.  But then latched onto a small falcon that sped out  from the coast with winnowing wings, gaining height rapidly. I suspected it was a Merlin but as it was flying away at speed it was not until I noticed it was after another smaller bird and began circling higher and higher making repeated stoops as its prey eluded it that this typical Merlin hunting technique confirmed my suspicions. It was the most prolonged attack I have ever witnessed and eventually they just disappeared out of range, so no way of knowing who won! Soon after I had to go so left them all to it

Strumblers!
Elfyn.
Strumblers.
It was a pleasant late Autumn afternoon, so I decided to go back to Strumble. The tide was just beginning to make and after searching hard, I noticed gannets feeding over a few porpoises a couple of miles out to the South West. They were no more than specks but obvious in the good light and relatively calm sea. I did miss a close one that popped up a couple of times and then disappeared without trace. 

Searching for more porps I thought I noticed a tall fin, and so it was, tall and raked with others including a very pale one The dark one was I believe the one I am sure we watched pup last week it has a dark fin with a kind of lightening bolt scar. They were all at least a mile away and hard to locate in the camera lens but I managed to crack off a few record shots.








They were moving at a steady pace surfacing erratically heading north east into the bay. I reckoned on at least eight including calves but they were hard to photograph and I kept losing them. A few minutes after they passed out of sight I started looking for the porpoises again hoping that they would have moved in closer with the tide. I searched in vain though added to the Skua list with another close-ish Jv' Pom and a dark Arctic as well three more distant Skua Sp. A pair of Chough passed by at speed calling before diving down out of sight below me. Whilst I scanned around I noticed more distant tall raked fins but these were heading off in the opposite direction three or four, that soon disappeared beyond the lighthouse. The light was fading so I packed up and headed home, another good day at the office!