More Bottlenose at the Breakwater.

 A message from Holly sent me off to the breakwater looking for the dolphins. When I got out there two were busily foraging in the tide flow as it came out of the harbour. One then seemed to leave and I was left with one. Lloyd and Jemma arrived with a Sea Trust camera and the second dolphin returned shortly after. After watching them for a while and with a good few shots already I decided to leave for home. As I did I spotted a third bottlenose further along the outside of the breakwater and managed a few shots before I made my way off the breakwater. Lloyd reported later that a further five came in after I had gone and were very active off Crincoed point as well as the breakwater.

Strumble Diary 21/07/2024

 A lovely sunny morning as I arrived at Strumble this morning. Andy (Wise) was sat in front of the lookout scope in hand surveying the seas in  front of him. I joined in and we sat and waited as the tide race started to form. We spotted a few Porpoise well out but mostly fin tips as they foraged around. Things continued in this vein for most of my session and later, after Andy had left, a group of five porps came in but never quite reached directly in front of the lookout. It was a strong tide and this most probably kept them a bit to the west and as always, eventually they dropped back beyond the lighthouse into the weaker tidal flow. A bit of a ruckus with the gulls attracted my attention and as I turned to my left I could see several gulls mobbing a Heron that was passing by, at one point nearly forcing it down into the water. It quickly made for offshore to avoid the gulls then carried on in toward Fishguard Harbour.

Cartlet Lady Deep Water Dolphin Survey 14/07/2024

 Our first trip of the year out to the Celtic Deep on board the Cartlet Lady with skipper Andy and crew Rob. We were only a mile or so out of the haven entrance when we came accross a small group of commons thanks to Carrie's eagle eyes. We then moved on to Skokholm and Grassholm to see the many Puffins, Gulillemots, Razorbills and of course the Gannets, always though keeping an eye out for cetaceans on the way. Next it was off out to the Smalls Lighthouse and thence to the Celtic deep. As we ventured further out we came across a large number of commons in small pods well spread out over several miles. Some were feeding and some just seemingly travelling around. This gave us our biggest estimated count for the day in which we totalled between 400-500 Commons and several Porpoise. This was a conservative count of dolphins and may well have been closer to 600. Later in the day as we turned and made our way back in the sightings dropped off but we all came off happy at having a great first trip. 

Thanks Andy you did us proud once again.

Here's some pics for you to enjoy and I've also put a few shots of the birds we encountered as the last few images.