Sunday 20th September

September is flying past, but we are still almost as busy as the summer. Today we had an four hour followed by a three hour tour, and the water was thick with dolphins. We also saw plenty of big bluefin tuna in among the dolphins, moving fast and being followed by gulls and gannets. We also saw several grey phalaropes – there seem to be an extraordinary number round the Cornish coast this year. Again, a near total lack of shearwaters – what’s going on there? At the end of the trip we saw a few seals round the island, but it was high tide so only a couple.

This aftenoon the dolphins had scattered somewhat – there were still lots of them out there but they were mainly dashing around after the tuna. Everything was moving so quickly! As soon as one feeding group set up, the bait ball had broken up and the gulls were moving quickly after the tuna waiting for the next one. Further out to sea we found some dolphins who were at more of a loose and end more sociable, and we found our first harbour porpoise for a while. A moth also landed on the boat to rest!