Strumble and Breakwater 09/09/2018

Quite a busy day today on the cetacean front. Gone were the Common dolphin of the past couple of days and back were the Strumble porpoise and bottlenose off the breakwater. So with the ebb tide underway and clearing skies I set off for Strumble. Volunteer Loraine was already there and a couple of birders were avidly watching over the sea. Once we started seeing porpoise they were increasing all the time but most sightings were brief and difficult in the large swells. It made for an exciting session though with top concentration needed at all times. As the tide dropped away the porpoise moved off to the west so I decided to head back.
 As I came down Stop and Call hill I could see gannets over the breakwater so I decided to check it out. Cliff and Holly were already there but it seemed the dolphin weren't. Back to the lab then and while there I spotted gannets over the inner bay. A quick look through the binos and sure enough the dolphin were there. Back out to the breakwater then and a good hour or so of watching first three and then more arrive. Sadly the larger group seemed to just pass through but it was nice to see them all the same.

An unusual and somewhat amusing sight if taken out of context was seeing a Pheasant of all things swimming in the sea. But alas the pheasant had been resting on the blocks when we startled it. Now as they can only fly short distances and seeing it's nearly a 1/2 mile between the breakwater and the fort side of the bay the poor thing had to ditch. It did manage to take off again but over the distance we lost sight of it and are not sure if it made it to the other side of the bay. See the last six images.