birdwatching

After the easterly wind of yesterday, it was rather quieter out there for fins today. We saw some amazing seabird feeding on both morning and afternoon trips though, with gannets, Manx shearwaters, kittiwakes and other gulls, and guillemots all feasting on small baitfish. It was surprising not to see any dolphins or porpoises with all…

The forecast was really mixed and uncertain for today. It did end up raining a bit, but not tall the time, but the camera mostly remained safely stowed. Sea conditions were pretty floppy after the wind overnight though, which made spotting conditions tricky. We saw another large ocean sunfish and a feeding grey seal, but…

Another beautiful day, with sunshine and light easterly wind. A small group of common dolphins approached us as we headed offshore, and there were two very small calves with them. The little ones jumped excitedly  but unpredictably so very hard to capture on camera! It was described by one of the ladies on board as”Magical”!…

A quieter trip today with no marine mammals spotted – at least no alive ones. We did find another dead seal and also what we figured used to be a bottlenose dolphin which had been dead a long time and been pushed down the Channel by the easterlies. The teeth looked massive. We saw a…

It was bright and mild today but breezy with a bit of a swell. On our Ocean Discovery trip this morning we saw two groups of grey seals hauled out on the island as the tide got lower – as it was a really big spring tide it got very low indeed. These were a…

We had two Ocean Discovery trips today and they were both crackers. It was still a little choppy and splashy but the easterly wind dropped down through the day and there was some warm hazy sunshine. We found some big groups of common dolphins this morning, some of whom were eager to bowride with us….

It was warm and sunny today for this afternoon’s Discovery Voyage, though there was a brisk easterly breeze making it rather choppy in places! There was a lot of wildlife out there to see, with two groups of common dolphins (one of them joined us as we sailed for a bit of bowriding), and some…

After a murky start this morning it turned into a beautiful atmospheric day. There was no wind at all, and banks of mist hanging around which slowly cleared. This morning we were really pleased to find large numbers of common dolphins around again, after a quiet few days. There was a large group of about…

We  had a four hour followed by a three hour trip today in windy northerly conditions. Even so, we had some great sightings – during the morning we initially found some common dolphins then sailed southwards where we found two minke whales feeding among the bluefin tuna and shearwaters. As we sailed back towards the…

What a day we had for seabirds today. As so often happens when there’s been a bit of a southerly blow, it brought all manner of exciting pelagic species within reach on our four hour and three hour trips – no chumming necessary! It started off so murky and wet that we kept close to…