grey seals

We had two Ocean Discovery trips today on a quiet, grey day. On the morning trip we found common dolphins, had great views of harbour porpoises and saw some hunting bluefin tuna. There were also lots of grey seals hauled out on the island. This afternoon everything was rather sleepy – we saw a couple…

It was dolphin soup out there today, with masses of common dolphins almost everywhere we went. We started the day with a four hour trip and headed along the coast first to have a look at the sights before heading offshore. With the dolphins we found all the shearwaters we see apart from Balearics –…

We had excellent views today of a minke whale feeding in the bay with common dolphins all day. The minke’s blow was very visible from a fair distance away which caused some initial discussion about the species ID but it was a minke. The bay was full of dolphins in small groups here there and…

We had a typical August day today with a brisk northerly wind , good sailing conditions and plentiful wildlife. The local haul out site suddenly has a lot more seals there than there have been so far this summer, with adult males and females, and little juveniles too. All the seabird chicks which hatched on…

We had a very busy day today with three trips in strong northerly wind. This pushed a lot of those pelagic seabirds which have been feeding in the bay lately further offshore, where we couldn’t go! There were still thousands of Manx shearwaters inshore though, and also some storm petrels and fulmars. We saw common…

Yet another four hour trip was reduced to three hours this morning, due to fog this time. That cleared by 10am and we were able to head out. There was plenty of wildlife to see – common dolphins (the Risso’s appear to have moved away now), grey seals, a bluefin tuna leaping right next to…

We had a four hour trip this morning followed by a two hour Bay Discovery. The four hour  Discovery Voyage was in the best sea conditions we have had for a four hour in a while and the guests had fantastic sightings! We saw Risso’s dolphins along with some tiny new calves, common dolphins also…

Where has summer gone? It’s like October out there! Despite the cool windy conditions today’s passengers were again rewarded for their hardiness and enthusiasm, with common dolphins and Risso’s dolphins on both trips. There appear to be so many Risso’s around at the moment, as we are finding them in multiple spots all in the…

We were supposed to have two Ocean Discovery trips today, but it got do very windy by the end of the morning, we had to cancel the afternoon trip. And we’re pretty glad we did – it was 37mph at Land’s End this afternoon! This morning however we reefed right down and  had a lovely…

After a fairly good run of weather, June has finished on rather a miserable note with a lumpy westerly sea state and some soggy drizzle! As has been the case the last few days though, the wildlife made up for it this morning, with lots of Risso’s dolphins spotted, a couple of which came over…