Bottlenose Dolphin in Fishguard Harbour today.

Did Clette come back to see us ??? on Tuesday 11th February last year a sub adult Bottlenose Dolphin arrived in Fishguard Harbour . It had an exceptionally recognizable split dorsal fin and was subsequently identified as Clette a solitary dolphin that had been hanging around Penzance and later moved on from us to Baltimore in Ireland, 

Local Fisherman Titch Rees just came in to report a strange dolphin banging into his dinghy as he made his way from his fishing boat to shore on Monday. He described it as not full grown with a split fin. The same day  a dolphin bow-rode the Stena Europe into Fishguard harbour and was reported to us by the Quay wall gang who tie up the ship. I showed Titch a picture of Clette which he positively identified as being the dolphin that was banging his boat. Given the strange behaviour I am pretty sure Titch was right, wonder where Clette is now?

Porpoises and Risso's from Nick!

Nick McIlvenna	18:54 (16 hours ago)
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>    Plenty of gulls offshore and a few groups of Porpoise and ten Rissos dolphin came around the West of Ramsey Island and put on a good show while travelling North towards Strumble Head passing us on St David's Head. Plenty of breaching,tail slapping and blowing in what was a tight group of  mixed ages leisurely covering about 6 km in 45 minutes with the tide.


  Nick

Our last Stena Europe ferry survey of 2014 and a pretty chilly one! Yesterday we had a few porpoise sightings before the sun went down in spectacular fashion. Ireen and Alicia came along with Ireen's boyfriend Peter. Aaron Davies completed our team. 

This morning looked good as we left Rosslare harbour but we had a series of really frustrating distant splashes we found impossible to resolve. Ireen did establish one pod of about a dozen dolphins probably commons but difficult to be sure in silhouette  As usual Strumble gave us a couple more porp's but even more frustrating apparently a dolphin bow rode the ship into harbour and was only seen by the quay wall gang as we berthed. None the less we managed a December Survey in good conditions by the skin of our teeth with ten sightings to add to the count!

There did not seem to be any porpoises attracted by whatever all these gulls and auks were feeding on off Strumble but it was a pretty impressive sight.

Sea Trust Pembrokeshire College new wildlife guiding courses, get qualified! new skills for the New Year..

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WOW Spotting porpoises in Ramsey Sound...

one of our classrooms!

Bottlenose Dolphin watching in Newquay

Seabird colony N Pembs...

Common Dolphins off Pembrokeshire Coast...

Stop Press: new dates and courses for Wildlife Observer Wales courses, works out at £25 per day with 10% discount if you book all the new wildlife guiding package. 


WOW 2015

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Strumble diary, yep you guessed it... more porp's

Several Porpoises seen at Strumble this morning as the tide neared its peak. Most were pretty distant but I managed to get these in amongst the tide race about half a mile away... A distant diver passed by as did a single gannet but otherwise only the usual occasional auks and gulls...

Strumble Diary, plenty to sea...

Quite a gang of us at Strumble this afternoon and despite the cold dull weather, plenty to see for those of us willing to brave the elements. 

Stephen and Tina Davies joined Rhian, Cristina and the walrus at the Strumble lookout. Apart from some amusement with a seal eating a fish then being pestered by gulls, we also recorded quite a few porpoises.

Our Click Count survey gave us an average of 11.75 porpoise sightings for the hour... I doubt if there was anyone else in the UK or Wales getting comparable results but the odds are we were the only ones out there looking!

Stormy Strumble dairy

Wdig birder, Adrian Rodger and my old mate Ricardo Davies got there before us and clocked up a few nice birds, We hung in there for an hour trying to get some pic's or video but failed to get any of the four or five porpoises we glimpsed in the mountainous seas. Maybe we should have been with Adrian a bit earlier to get the porp's but we did clock up another Manxie for him, and a Skua Sp. ... (Probably a Juv Pom) 

Extract from Strumble Head Seawatching blog... 

Time: 08.00 - 13.30

Weather: Cloudy, Rain Showers
Wind: WNW 6/7 - NW 6/7


Common Scoter - 6 ( All Males )
Red Throated Diver - 10
Great Northern Diver - 4
Fulmar - 350
Manx Shearwater - 13
Pomarine Skua - 3 ( All Juvs )
Long Tailed Skua - 1 ( Juv )
Bonxie - 4


Porpoises showing occasionally in the rough sea conditions.


Only Richard Davies ( Ammanford ) & myself braved the very chilly conditions this morning but it was worthwhile.

Strumble diary: Wet and windy but still porpoises...

Very wet and windy at Strumble today although from the south west. We were in the lee a bit, being north facing and sheltered from the bigger waves but the driving rain reduced light and visibility. We saw several Porpoises in several different places including a tail slapping individual but I failed to get a pic' On the other hand Cristina did get some video! and another Manxie (or the same?) passed westwards again also a red throated diver passed by floating along on the strongly ebbing tide... Cristina's Video to follow...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktd8oUDioWo&list=UU9WgsTMCKUMJ7PDPcHDCABQ

Strumble diary: more porps but no porp pic's...

Another stormy day at Strumble... and yet in amongst the maelstrom created by the northerly gale and big tide we still spotted half a dozen porp's feeding beneath the gannets and gulls. 
Sadly the best I could do pic' wise was the splash of one as the gannet dived in... Still, another day, another porpoise day at Strumble. Surprise of the day was a Manxie (Manx Shearwater) seen passing as I thawed out in the car..

Better late than never! some great video shot by Mark Hipkin from (rather well named) Common Cliff on the Gower!

Mark tried to get this to us earlier but our web page messed up....sorry Mark click on the link for Marks footage!


My initial attempt was some narrative to go along with the amazing sighting that Emma-Louise Cole and I experienced from Common Cliff, Gower, last Thursday. We had 27+ Common Dolphins and I took video of them with my iPhone through the scope. The video is on youtube and I attach the link but I’m afraid I won’t have time to make the sighting any more personal by recollecting the narrative.

If it’s of use to you then please feel free to use it.Keep up the good work with the blog, I enjoy your enthusiasm very much indeed. It continues to be my pleasure to have a link from the GRC Forum Blog (here in Glamorgan) to your very interesting local blog, which has been place permanently in our sidebar for well over 12 months.

Best wishes and best of luck.

Mark Hipkin

http://youtu.be/xR0mqK-PFHA

Strumble Diary, surf porps!

With north westerlies gusting at over 30 mph Strumble was truly awesome today. We thought our chances of getting porpoises were slim but of course its Strumble Head, and of course they were there but a bit tricky to snap! Not brilliant porpoise images but still proof if proof were needed that Strumble deserves to be protected!!!

Strumble Diary Thurs 4th Dec

Just a few more Strumble porp pic;s from today. It was getting dark and although the sea state was good the tide was not right, none the less probably five or six different porp's about...

Strumble Diary... Video link...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSyn10U3wu0&list=UU9WgsTMCKUMJ7PDPcHDCABQ

Strumble today; did we mention that Strumble Head is a very good place for porpoises, an all year round nursery, feeding and place where thy gather in larger than average numbers in fact fulfil all the criteria required for special protection ....

Rhi's Strumble pitstop!

 Hey Cliff,

Spent a fab hour at Strumble watching porpoises. They were showing well,counted up to ten at one point. Sea state was ideal really. Also enjoyed the company of three roaming ponies trying to assist!

Well worth my pit stop before heading home to Cardiff .

Good to see you,

Rhi

From Liv' (yesterday)

Olivia Chivers We saw a porp at Newgale today while out paddleboarding...near to pointz castle....cheeky little fella ( or lady) looked like a lone one having a fish! 

Risso's Report from Rich Campbell...

Stop press news from Sean and Rich of at least three Risso's spotted off Strumble yesterday afternoon.Titch Rees a local fisherman also had "a big single one" seen several times over the past couple of months, last seen by them on last Thursday. Risso's have become another regular feature of Strumble with sightings throughout the year, some of them extremely spectacular. Perhaps they should also be included as a SAC species. (Archive images) 

Strumble diary:even more porp's today...

More Strumble porpoises today unfortunately we both had low batteries and missed out as the porp's moved closer...aaargh. Some of Cristina's video to follow. There were loads of them showing in the end we estimated at least thirty with at least one mother and calf.