Strumble diary : 24/9/26 Choppy uninspiring grey sea, but i did see dolphins and a sunfish!

I snatched a half hour stint at Strumble this afternoon but looking out on arrival, all i could see was a unoformlyshort chopped up sea produced by a breezy sou-westerly.There was very little seabird activity and in the half hour i was there, only five gannets passed by. I searched the uninspiring overcast seascape more in hope than expectation, until i thought i saw a fin-tip among the messy water, about a mile out. A bit more inspection of the area, showed a couple more dorsal fins and then a bit of body, revealing a couple of Common Dolphins. They were moving quite fast from west to east hardly showing at all in the mixed up sea. It was hard were hard to follow them, at that distance and at one point I lost them and then spotted another fin moving in the opposite direction. It took me a few moments to realise it was a sunfish not my disappearing dolphins. I watched what would likely be my last Sunfish of the year until it was lost to sight in the slop. Eventually i caught up again with the dolphins, which had now become four or five and seemed to be feeding, all concentrated on one spot. By now it was time to head off home but i had to reflect on the fact that Strumble had turned up the goods again, even if i had to dig them out!

Cartlet Lady Trip 22/09/2026 (Kens Take)

 A truly, truly magic day deserves an epic account so I apologise in advance as this could be a long one which I hope you all enjoy. Thanks to Cliff for his intro of the day in his previous post and to Richard Crossen for a superb video linked from his post below. Do take a look if you have time.

So following on from Cliff's starter here's dinner and pudding. :-))

We left the Haven in a mix of mist and murky drizzle with hopes of better conditions offshore. The sea was like glass which is shown well in Richard's video although there was a residual swell from the previous few days. We were well out before we saw our first dolphin (yes a single) which was unusual, followed over the next few miles by a further two. Normally by this distance we would be seeing larger pods so it didn't look too promising at this stage. A couple of Bluefin Tuna broke surface but nothing much then for several more miles.

Thankfully we then encountered larger numbers of Common Dolphin with some very lively characters that couldn't wait to get on the bow and enjoy the ride.

 We  were sixteen miles out by this stage and the dolphins just kept coming and coming seemingly out of nowhere, much to our relief and the delight of our paying guests. Mile after mile, pod after pod it was dolphin central and boy were we enjoying it. The weather was improving but still overcast at times giving very flat light, making camera focus difficult at times, so it  was a case of firing away to up the percentage of decent shots. We hit the jackpot at twenty six miles with the sighting of a big blow up ahead. Fin Whale I thought, but as we got closer more blows, then more, until we realised there were at least six and possibly eight or more feeding in an area of about a quarter mile radius. Now don't get me wrong, I was over the moon but you don't realise the size of these beasts until you see one up close and I'm so glad I brought a variety of lenses with me as my long 200-800mm spent very little time on the camera as I couldn't fit even 2/3rds of a whale in the frame. One was so close I had to use my wide angle lens to capture it. They were busy feeding with some great lunges as they devoured tons of fish at a time. A truly magnificent sight with dolphins bow riding them as they sped along. Further off to perhaps a mile or so there were more blows sighted so there could have been a dozen or more.

This shows the length well head and tail fluke some sixty feet or more apart.

 

So while I'm standing on the bow, or trying to at least, the dolphins are still coming to the boat, as well as huge numbers moving with the whales. I managed to catch a few flyers in between whale shots as we waited for them to surface again.

 All good things must come to an end though and skipper Andy called time to turn for home. There was one final twist though. As we turned away from those magnificent whales what seemed like a patch of boiling water appeared off to starboard. Tuna!! and hundreds of them in what we call a Tuna thrash. They were hitting a shoal of fish with no mercy shown. I've never seen the likes before. As we approached I just kept shooting in hopes of catching a breach or two, but these seemed different to the big silver sided Bluefin we're used to seeing. Smaller and more bronze in colour and after research at home I think they were possibly Yellowfin but I'm open to being corrected. The speed they move is incredible and the poor fish have little or no chance when they attack.

 

So that in Cliff's words was dinner and pudding. I hope you enjoyed this posting and it gives you a flavour of what is out there off our beautiful Pembrokeshire coast. It certainly gives me a thrill every time we venture out and I feel fortunate that I can at least bring some of it back to show you all. 

Thanks as always to Skipper Andy for a fabulous day on the high seas. 

 

 

Epic Pelagic Yesterday

 

A day that had it all - fog, sunshine, drizzle - but it all turned out amazingly well in the end with glassy seas, hundreds of Dolphins, great views of a minimum of 6 Fin Whales and the amazing spectacular of a feeding frenzy of a large shoal of Tuna.

Many thanks to Cliff Benson for organising the trip and to skipper Andy Rickard for a comfortable, safe trip and getting us out to where all the action was!

A video of my photos and footage of the trip can be found  here . The very final sequence of the Tuna is from Ken Barnett - thanks Ken!

Cartlet Lady survey trip 22/9/26 Starters!

!

The forecast had been for no wind and no rain but the latter turned out to be a lie, as low cloud descended upon us as we made our way out of the Milford Haven, out onto a relatively calm sea. The misty drizzle continued as we motored on in a sou-westerly course and after half an hour we came upon a single Common Dolphin which hardly set the assembled paying passengers alight. A couple more similar encounters of two and then three Common Dolphins, were equally uninspiring, dampened by the overcast skies and occasional drizzle. My hopes of a perfect day shrank like a wooly jumper in a hot wash, until after another fruitless hour we spotted a larger pod in the murk. And then the larger pod extended into another, and another, and over the next hour we ran through a minimum of three hundred Dolphins, many of which rode our bow-wave, with others out on the periphery, giving splendid views. A Blue Shark put in a brief appearence and Blue fin Tuna shot out of the sea on our bow. a little later Skipper Andy spotted a blow! over to you Ken for the main course and pudding!

We need to thank Valero Pembroke Refinery,management and their workers for their support and generous fuel donation without which we could not afford to continue with our work,supplying valuable conservation data to Local and Welsh Government via the West Wales Biodiversity Recording Centre. >

Strumble Diary 16/09/2026

 The rising tide would have been inviting early this morning except for the, as it turned out, stiff North wind, although the forecast said Nw'ly. I arrived just before 8.am only to see large swells and turbulence off the lookout which was fine for the sixteen or so birders inside the lookout but not for what I was looking for. I decided to try the afternoon dropping tide instead as the wind was due to drop and be more Westerly.

Two, pm then and the tide race  was yet to form. Simon, the one birder still there told of a good mornings birding and Rissos spotted earlier,(drat). So I settled in and started my watch. As it turned out a quiet one at that with just three sightings total, all brief and no images. A lone very close in Sunfish saved the day and after my watch a quick look down by the Lighthouse turned up two Seal pups and a few adult seals as well.

 

 

 

A couple of small flocks of Scoter passing.