Wednesday 16 May 2018

Porp's from Phil!

Hi Folks

Apologies for not passing on these sightings earlier -

Monday 14th May -  whilst keeping watch on the Porthgain Chough nest site I watched a single porp feeding about 500m to 1000m out immediately north of Pen Clegyr, approx.  grid ref SM 332805 to 337805. It/they were seen regularly for nearly an hour between 6pm  and 7. It was doing forward rolls (or tumbling) but popping up in different places, so difficult to say whether it was just one or more. I didn't see more than one at any one time.

Sunday 14th April, circa 1.30 pm - around 6 porps were seen feeding in the tide race to the north of Cerrig Gwylan, aprrox grid ref SM325797.

Sunday 11th March circa 1.30pm - a Sunday afternoon stroll between Abereiddi and Porthgain, and we had wandered out to the end of the headland to the north of Traeth Llfyn to watch the gulls on the aptly named Cerrig Gwylan. On scanning the sea to the north to watch a Gannet I immediately saw a porp almost breaching. For a moment I thought it was a Common Dolphin but on scanning around there was an amazing sight for the Porthgain coast  of between 20 to 30 porps in a bit of a feeding frenzy. They were joined by around 10 - 15 Gannets, feeding in the tide race to the north of Cerrig Gwylan, approx. grid ref SM325797. The sea was quite choppy but they were showing well surfing down breakers, a few seemed to be in pairs as well. They were busy for 15 mins or so before things quietened down and they seemed to disappear northwards.

Hope these are of interest.

All the best.

Phil Lees