A pretty exciting if frustrating 30 minutes watching Bluefin Tuna repeatedly breaching clear of the water just off Strumble Lighthouse. Sadly unable to get any pic's! but shared the unique experience with several other onlookers!
And again today seen by Strumble Photo ID team (but no pics)
Seen breaching again today (6th) lunchtime by Sea Trust team off Pen Anglas!
I arrived at Strumble at 08.30 at the top of the tide in hope that there may be some action left from the rising tide. No such luck however and I sat for the next four hours seeing nothing but sea, birds and clouds, such is the life of a sea watcher. It was around 12.50 before I saw my first porpoise close to the point followed closely by two others. Scanning around I spotted a small pod of Commons way out to the NW heading out towards the shipping channel. A flurry of porpoise activity in the tide race kept me busy over the next hour or so before it all died away and I made my way home for lunch. Highlight was a marked animal which was the same one I'd seen a week ago and is shown on the previous blog entry.
Well two days could hardly be more different. If yesterday's conditions were near perfect today's were borderline abysmal. With XC Weather app saying wall to wall sunshine all we had was solid cloud for the whole day. I've left the first image as it came out of the camera to show how dreary it was. Needless to say the images are not to my usual standard but one saving grace was a marked porpoise so at least I came away happy for that at least.
Joined again by Harry we watched as the porpoise began to move in on the ebb flow. Mostly distant at first but with some coming closer as the tide race got underway. That one marked porpoise was foraging in front of us for well over an hour, moving around and frequently catching my attention. Eventually it moved off and I was able to concentrate on other animals which were now feeding in the tide stream. Although also distant for all of the session there were a good number of Commons around mostly foraging off to the NW with some coming in off the lighthouse so I was able to get a few shots of them.
A stunning morning at Strumble today with as near perfect conditions as I could possibly wish for. Calm waters, perfect visibility and thinly veiled sunshine. An 8am start and within minutes I spotted commons moving in from the NW with further scans showing more arriving from the East. These were quite distant but the clear conditions meant I could still get reasonable images of them. As the ebb flow got stronger more came in and some closer, with Porpoise starting to show as well. By this time, as you can imagine, I was more than happy. But then the icing on the cake. Scanning around I spotted the unmistakable fin of a Rissos dolphin, then another and another and eventually a total of five including a young animal. I tracked them in front of me for thirty minutes or so as they circled and constantly changed direction up until their final dive from which they just simply disappeared. It always amazes me when this happens as it's as if someone has flicked a switch and bang they're gone.
