Did Someone Say SHARK!!!

 I'd done an early session at Strumble this morning and drew a blank after two and a half hours of the rising tide.The tide race had formed nicely but not strong today and I hadn't seen a single fin so I decided to go home and work on a few old photos. I'd been at it for an hour or so when my phone buzzed with a message on the Whats App group page. It was Brad announcing the presence of a Basking Shark in the bay. Well it was drop tools and run, well a fast walk maybe. I met Brad by the Ocean Lab and I headed off along the breakwater. I stepped it out and thankfully it turned and came back in toward the beach so I was able to rattle off a good few shots and a short video clip before it headed out and away. 

Strumble Diary 12/05/2021 (Porps At Last)

 Having had three to four weeks of little to no sightings at Strumble it was a joy today to see a dozen or so porpoise feeding in the tide race. Although mostly distant at least they were there and myself and the survey team were just so glad to see them back that as long as we could see them we were happy. Some of the images may not be my best ever but for once I don't care, I'm jut glad to get a record of them being back. Hopefully normal service is resumed and we'll see more as the month goes on.

Saving the best for last...

 I met up with Ken at Strumble as the tide was on the ebb,having dodged a downpour getting down to the lookout.  He had had a single brief sighting of one porpoise.before i got there but no pic's The rain kept us indoors for a while and when a closer porpoise surfaced the brick pillars confused the location of the sightings which I am sure Ken would have got on otherwise. But still it was an improvement on the past couple of weeks where sightings have been few and far between at any state of the tide. 

Adrian spotted a couple of more distant porpoises and as the sky brightened we went back outside. The tide was quite big and the southerly breeze created a choppy tide race making spotting difficult but as the tide worked around to pass the light ,Ken spotted several gannets feeding and then as we got on to them it was obviously a bit of a feeding frenzy with at least twenty + porpoises feeding below them.So at last Porpoise in the kind of numbers we expect at Strumble, Too distant for pics but something of a relief!

Strumble Update

Hi Everyone. Well you may be thinking it's been a while since anything porpoise related has appeared here and you'd be right. I have still been going out on a regular basis and daily surveys by team Sea Trust are still happening. For some reason though our lovely little porpoises have decided to move off for a while. We have a theory that it's due to lack of fish as we are between our winter and summer species which always dip this time of year, but having said that we usually do see some so this dip is a bit of a head scratcher. On a trip to Skomer last week Holly saw several Porpoise at two locations around the island so we know they're not too far away and hope they will be back soon. On my latest session my itchy shutter finger needed excercise so after the session I turned to the little feathered critters that frequent the area around the car parks and are nesting in the gorse patches at present. So by way of an interlude please enjoy. The Barrel Jellyfish was taken  cose to the lookout last week.

From Lundy Bird blog May 1st

 Highlights included the second Minke Whale of the year, surfacing offshore from Jenny’s Cove, 

Tomorrow the Cartlett Lady will be going back in the winter after its annual scrub. We will be having a couple of shake down trips and then work out some dates and prices where people can join us on our surveys! stay tuned for more info!

Strumble Diary: Not playing Leapfrog!

So just before our porpoises at Strumble became scarce, Fran managed to catch these porpoises in the act (of procreation!)  Its behaviour that had puzzled us and others in the past, I called it leapfrogging!  It was not until I came across a clear image on a site on Face Book where the males penis was obvious (extremely) that  "leapfrogging" incidents  were clearly mating attempts! A couple of days later later Ken also caught a pair obviously in the act! This mating attempt was shot by Fran on the 19th of April a couple of weeks ago and processed by Holly as part of Sea Trusts  Volunteer Porpoise Photo ID project!

 

Strumble Diary 29/04/2021

 Things have been very quiet of late as Cliff mentioned in a previous post. The persistent North & Easterly winds have not been kind to us this past month. Conditions in these directions are never the best for sightings as well as making things very cold at the lookout. Today was no different with a very cold NE wind chilling myself and Cliff to the bone. We did have sightings though but very brief. I'd estimate 4-6 animals in total but only a couple made it into the camera. A lovely little linnet perched on a rock for me and brightened the morning somewhat.