Strumble Diary 11/09/2019

Tides at Strumble are a bit awkward at the moment as the action times are falling either very early on the dropping tide or late afternoon on the flood tide. So with a trip out around 13.30 I wasn't expecting too much in the way of porpoise but always hopeful of a dolphin or two.  True to form the porpoise numbers were low with a few animals at distance in the remnants of the ebb flow. These drifted off after a short while and I was left looking at gannets sat on the water getting some rest before the next bit of action later in the tide. Forty minutes or so later while scanning around I spotted a breach about two miles out to the NE. Too far to positively ID the animal responsible but I could see it was a dolphin of some description. All quiet then for some time before I then spotted a distant group of some twenty or so commons moving down from the NE, my culprits I thought. Their progress was slow to start with as they were feeding as they went and now had a multitude of gannets for company. Within ten minutes they were speeding up and heading west into the flood flow. I watched them until they eventually were too far out to follow and with the tide now racing past and no porpoise to be seen i decided to call it a day and head home.