Sunday 3 March 2024

Strumble Diary 03/03/2024

 A beautiful sunny morning with a fair westerly wind gave fairly calm conditions at Strumble this morning. It was a rising tide with medium flow so not a very strong tide race. A half hour in and a small pod (10-15) commons came in to feed and stuck around for about 3/4 hour before moving up the tide race in a NEl'y direction and went out of sight shortly after. From then until the end of my session half a dozen or so porpoise in the now remnants of the tide race but not showing very well at all. A few visitors about took my attention for a while but I love educating people so I didn't mind that at all and it's a lot easier now with the interpretation panels to assist.
















Thursday 29 February 2024

Not in Wales but nice! Kai Koura NZ Feb 27th.

 Dusky Dolphins, around 200  probably the most acrobatic of all dolphins!



A Southern Royal Albatross



Sperm Whale







Strumble Diary 29/02/2024

When I arrived at Strumble today the Thursday survey team had been on effort for their first hour. They had been observing common dolphin since they arrived. As the tide dropped away the commons moved around in front of us feeding (most likely) on small shoals of fish. As one group moved off around the point more would come in from the west. Later the porpoise joined the party, at first one then two more. At this stage it was time for the survey team to end their session and return to the Ocean lab. 

I continued my survey and was kept well occupied as with more porpoise and commons sharing the tide race and darting in all directions. My best estimate on numbers for the duration of my survey would be 50-70 common dolphin and 10-12 porpoise. The first two images were taken on the 24th Feb.





















Friday 23 February 2024

Strumble Diary 23/02/2024

 The forecast was for showers but the skies were bright so I headed off for a morning survey. I arrived at 09.35 with the wind being a stiff WNW and a good swell running with wind against tide. My first sighting was thirty or so Commons feeding off to the NW at about 3/4 mile or so. Too far for pics in the large swells and they quickly pushed west with the tide but at least they were there. As the tide dropped away the porpoise started to come in and move up the tide race. Frustratingly they were in stealth mode and were not showing well at all. Through the session I had 15-20 sightings but as observed in the images below all were too poor to be useful.

The commons however seemed to revel in the conditions and I had two small groups move through only too willing to show themselves with multiple breaches as they navigated the swells. I was delighted to capture a mother and calf pair as they charged along at speed. I later observed several more porpoise downtide beyond the lighthouse but again too caught up in the large swells for meaningful pics.