Porthcawl Porpoise Annual Sumary

I have continued my cetacean surveys at Porthcawl this year completing one each month in good conditions. The porpoise are usually a long way out so the survey is a telescope job. The results end up in Sewbrec, the South East Wales Biodiversity Records Centre. The results this year are: Jan 0 Feb 0 Mar 3 Apr 2 May 1 Jun 0 Jul 0 Aug 1 (a casual sighting in 50 mph winds while birding) Sep 4 Oct 2 Nov 2 Dec 1 While common dolphins have occasionally been seen there were no records this year.o

Nice one Steve and a great effort, Just goes to show how lucky we are here in the wild west! 

Its otter than you expect on the Outer Breakwater...

This was the surprise of  a warm afternoon stroll around the outer breakwater Fishguard Harbour. People who see otters in the sea often jump to the conclusion that they are Sea Otters. Sea Otters are very different animals


 Our Eurasian Otter (Lutra lutra ) is at home in both  fresh or salt water 

The Sea Otter below, is found in the Pacific and has a characteristic snub nosed pale head,

Marshal Hedin from San Diego, Sea Otter 

Strumble Diary 21/12/2019

A beautiful start to the day with clear blue skies as I left the house. Sadly it didn't last though. As I arrived at the lookout there were twelve gannets circling some three hundred metres out with porps below. This was well before the tide race formed so quite a surprise given the short action sessions of late. The clouds were already gathering bringing showers up from the SW. The light dropped progressively over the four hours of the session eventually forcing me to curtail the session. A good showing porpoise wise though with around twenty five for the session.

Strumble Diary 20/12/2019

It was a fine day and I managed to grab a few hours away from the Christmas madness. tide times were good and I got out there before the tide race formed. As it did so several porpoise came in to forage but the sightings were brief. They stayed around for about half an hour or so with about twelve animals in total. The action died away but I hung on for a while. I sighted some twelve to 16 Rissos 3-4 miles out moving toward the west and tracked them for a while. Lloyd then spotted two or three closer in but still beyond the tide race and just in camera range. The avian highlight was a passing Peregrine Falcon in the bright sunlight. Not the best of shots of it as I was set up for shooting cetaceans not birds in flight.

Strumble Diary 17/12/2019

As usual this time of the year time is scarce as things get busy for Christmas. Given the really nice day today I managed to grab an hour for a short survey. When I arrived Holly and the Tuesday crew were there so I settled in and joined the watch. The ebb tide was starting to show some turbulence off to the NNE and the seas were calm. We spotted one or two porpoise on the fringes of the turbulence but the sightings were very brief. Volunteer Maire spotted a large fin way off but the rest of us failed to spot it. A short time later Holly spotted a small group of Rissos (5) moving toward the west and this time I did manage to get a brief sight of them and a couple of shots as well. Shortly after that I spotted a further three Rissos very far out and that was that as they slipped below the surface and were not seen again. A short survey then but a record of the Rissos still being in the area. In case this is the last chance I get to post before Christmas I wish you all a Happy Christmas and a prosperous new year.

Strumble Diary. a Pen Anglas porp!

Gales and heavy rain have restricted our surveys and even hardy porp man Ken has blanked. But today, Fran led a survey to Pen Anglas with Saturday volunteers Hannah W.J. along with  Hannah and Liz Cook. Despite a cold westerly wind,  Hannah W.J. to get this shot of the only porpoise that they saw! Well done Hannah well done all!

Strumble Diary 04/12/2019

Well today kicked off much as yesterday did. Fine weather but a tad cold, wind from the south and a calm-ish sea. I arrived as Holly and the Wednesday crew were parking up. We started the survey together and were joined by two new volunteers alongside Alan and Mire two of the regulars. A weak tide so therefore not a good tide race but one did form. The porps were again slow to show and sporadic, but with 12-15 for the session ity didn't turn out too bad. The bonus as yesterday was the sighting of at least four Rissos dolphin although the sighting was brief lasting some five minutes in which they surfaced just a few times before gliding back under the waves as they move off again.

Strumble Diary 03/12/2019

With clear blue skies and the wind having gone around to the south things were just a little warmer at Strumble today. I arrived around 09.30 ish as the tide race was forming although as we are on small tides it wasn't quite the raging torrent we see at times. Early on three porpoise passed through not staying to feed though. Things went very quiet then until I spotted a pair of Rissos off to the NW. A mother with juvenile which looked to be feeding in a similar area to where we saw the larger group yesterday. Holly and Rob arrived later and we spotted the Rissos again, this time to the NE of the lookout beyond the tide race. Again they seemed to be feeding as they hung around for a good while until the boat that's doing surveys at Strumble moved closer to their position. This seemed to scare them off and we didn't see them again. As the boat moved toward Fishguard we had sporadic sightings of a few more porpoise just moving through which brought the count up to eight for the session for me. With the tide race all but gone and the fingertips getting ever colder we decided to call it a day shortly after 1pm.

Strumble Diary 01/12/2019

I arrived at the lookout around 10.30am and looked out over a calm sea with excellent visibility allowing for the best conditions for some while. It was between tide so I knew there weren't going to be many porpoise around but there is always a chance of seeing Rissos this time of year. First sighting was of a single porpoise travelling through against what was left of the tide race followed by another some ten minutes later. Two other brief sightings a bit later and that was it for the first hour.     Scanning around I spotted an old beam trawler right out on the horizon and it was while watching this that I spotted a Risso tail slapping some 3-31/2 miles out. Keeping an eye to the general area several more appeared as if answering the call of the tail slap. Holly and the Monday crew arrived and soon we were all watching the distant action. The Rissos were well spread out and the estimate was 18-20 animals in small groups of twos and threes. As they moved west one in particular got very active and breached several times with others less active splashing around in it's vicinity.
   As they moved out of view our attention returned to the porpoise and in fading light we observed several more moving in as the ebb tide was just getting going. Sadly we had to go too but were happy with a reasonably productive session. No clear images of marked animals due to the poor light but a good record of the day regardless.

From Andrew!

Andrew Crowder	Sun, 1 Dec, 16:10 (20 hours ago)
to me

Hi Cliff,
Ruth & I had a short but productive visit this afternoon (1/12/19) in beautiful, if cold, conditions.
Arriving at 2:00 I picked out a single porpoise straight out in front and then a few minutes later Ruth picked up several animals out beyond the lighthouse. When I got on them we were able to identify 3, possibly 4, Risso’s Dolphins - 2-3 large adults and one markedly smaller individual . We watched them feeding for about 15 minutes after which we lost them but within a couple of minutes we watched 4 porpoise approaching who began feeding in the same area. Given their proximity it appears these porpoise are not intimidated by Rissos as they would be by BND?
Andrew & Ruth