Monday 8th August 2022 11 am -1 pm.
Wind= light from the north. Bright sunshine with no glare, sea state 0-1 , low tide @ 10.55. perfect conditions!
So the sea sat azure and calm with hardly a ripple when we arrived at Strumble at 11 am. I unfolded my chair sat down raised my binoculars to my eyes and saw a Fin Whale, its long long back, black against the blue of the ocean. I shouted to our Sea Trust survey team, but only a couple of bystanders saw it. It was about two miles out and left an impressive footprint, but though we waited for it to resurface, we waited in vain. Andy was anxious to get a view and you would think that given that it had to travel several miles in either direction to surface out of view, it managed to evade several pairs of eyes that searched in vain.
We then started seeing Porpoises and then Common Dolphins, and were recording them much to our surprise, as it was dead low water.
About twenty minutes later i picked up two more Fin Whales probably five+ miles away. Thankfully there was a white sail in line with them so given that marker, everyone seemed to get at least a glimpse. Again we waited but these two disappeared as mysteriously as the first animal!
Porpoises continues to show as many as four at a time with at least two mother and calf pairs. Another pod of around twenty Common Dolphins passed by heading west and flocks of feeding gulls and auks were scattered across the sea with chirruping baby auks giving a soundtrack of the late summer to add to yet another wonderful Strumble scenario!
Fin Whale Image from Rich Crossen/Whales in Wales archive. Porpoises : Fran Eggby.
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