Strumble Diary 17-18th August 2026

 Two for one in this entry combining two surveys from this week. Firstly Tuesday 18th. The morning brought the rising tide and a reasonably overcast sky. The wind was light from the NW giving a moderate swell. It was a relatively quiet session with not a single fin spotted in the first hour or so. Almost at the top of the tide a small pod of Common Dolphin crossed East to West quickly heading out to the open water of the channel. Shortly after a single Porpoise moved up the tide showing twice before that too moved on. I ended the session shortly after.

 Afternoon Wednesday 19th August

This was a much better day weatherwise with mostly blue skys and a strong Westerly breeze. I was on the dropping tide and looking forward to some decent action in the swells. My first sighting was a single Common Dolphin way out to the NW in the outer tide race. My eye was taken by a Sunfish with gulls in attendance some 300Mtrs or so out from the lookout which slowly drifted away on the tide. Then the Porpoise started coming in and although mostly distant at this stage of the tide were active and showing well. More came in as the tide dropped away over which I had a good hour and fifteen minutes of almost continuous action. There was a break then as the porpoise moved off until just before leaving a pod of several Commons came from the North and quickly rounded the Lighthouse and out of sight.

 

 

A Challenge Completed? Maybe!

This year we've been very fortunate to have a small group of five Bottlenose dolphins that seem to have taken up residence in Fishguard Bay. This allows us to frequently record their actions on an almost daily basis.  It became apparent early on that one in particular had a strange growth on the right side of it's head close to the jaw line. 

 

 Naturally, it made it very easy to identify and pick it out amongst the other dolphins. It also sparked my curiosity and made me want to study it a bit closer, so I set myself a challenge of getting closer more detailed shots of the growth. This has taken many attempts and hundreds of images to try and catch the animal on the right side and close enough to get the detail I wanted. Being that it's the most active and playful of all five it was not an easy task. However, I have managed to build up a better picture (excuse the pun) of what's going on. The following images are the best I've been able to capture to date.

First of all I thought it was just a growth, somewhat like a skin tag gone wild so to speak, but there's more there than I thought. An image from a few weeks ago made me think I saw a tooth in the growth and that's what set the challenge off in my mind. 

 It would seem that this is the case. It has indeed got teeth in the growth which came as a surprise as I got better images. So I feel that this is not so much a growth but rather a birth defect which occurred in the womb. 

 

Another surprising fact that came to light with better images is that the upper right jaw to which the growth is attached does not have any teeth at all. See images directly above and below.

 It had vanished from the group for a week or so and I was quite worried about that but a few days ago it returned, to my relief. 

Having watched it closely over the past weeks it does not seem to affect it to any great extent. It obviously still feeds well and looks really healthy despite the growth. It's very active and is usually the one to instigate social/play activity and frequently breaches. Playing with seaweed seems to be a favourite thing along with close touch, eg, rolling and bumping with the others which they will often do for prolonged periods between foraging.

 

 

 

I'll continue to follow it for the remainder of the summer and bring updates on any changes that may occur. My hope is that you all find this as interesting as I have. Ken B.

Breakwater Bottles Give Stunning Show. 16/08/2026

 With time to spare in the afternoon I decided to take a gamble on the Bottlenose being at the northern breakwater. All quiet when I arrived so I set up my tripod and chair and started scanning the sea for any sight of them. lloyd's family arrived by sea with Lloyd and Aled in a kayak and Dawn and Andrew in a rowing boat. (Lloyd is sea Trust staff and Dawn a volunteer) Just after they arrived I spotted two or three Bottlenose out to the North heading toward Pen Anglas. It wasn't long before they started heading our way and initially I counted seven scattered around at varying distances. They were quiet at first and then three broke away and started some socialising/play. Over the past few weeks I've noted that the dolphin with the facial growth was most often the one to instigate this activity, so today was no exception. He/she was right in the thick of it and the others seemed more than happy to join in.

I was in my element with dashes and splashes leaps and rolls happening almost continually. The Nelms family down at sea level  were having some great views as the dolphins moved all around them. After I'd got a good number of shots covering as many of them as I could I turned my attention more on the one with the deformity, as I'd set myself a challenge a few weeks back of trying to get more detailed shots of it. I'll collate all the images and post a more detailed blog entry concentrating on that animal later.