Friday 9th August
We had a spectacular day on the water today with awe inspiring sightings on both our morning Ocean Discovery and afternoon Discovery Voyage trips. We quickly spotted a big feeding frenzy of gannets from a distance first thing and as expected, underneath there were lots of hunting common dolphins. Amongst the gannets and dolphins there fluttered several tiny little storm petrels. We sailed south, accompanied by the dolphins and further on spotted several more feeding events, including a big mass of bluefin tuna. Last August was exceptional for pelagic seabirds and this August seems to be heading the same way, with large numbers of Cory’s great and sooty shearwaters among the Manx shearwaters and gannets. We finished the trip with a few seals by the island.
This afternoon was even more productive, with masses more tuna feeding spotted, enormous numbers of Cory’s shearwaters, common dolphins, harbour porpoises, grey seals, and the biggest ocean sunfish we have seen for ages. If you are into your seabirds, now is the time to head out to sea – no chumming needed, just binoculars and a good lens (unfortunately the big lens is not something we have at the moment!). There is something utterly majestic about these massive Cory’s shearwaters gliding effortlessly alongside us as we sail…it’s like tales of the albatrosses in the southern ocean accompanying sailors on their voyages.