ocean sunfish

After the fog and murk of the week, today’s sunshine was very welcome. This morning there were Risso’s dolphins everywhere, right in the bay in all different directions. And looking at reports from other areas of Cornwall, other people are reporting the same. There appears to be a lot of cephalopod spawning going on right…

Didn’t I say yesterday that dull windy conditions are usually way better for wildlife spotting than a sunny warm day when the wind is blowing from the east? We had two Ocean Discovery tours today and that statement was completely vindicated by fab sightings on both. This morning we had a great encounter with another…

Despite the dreary windy conditions we had a fabulous trip today. It’s always worth heading out at this time of year even on an unpromising looking day. After hoisting the sails on leaving the harbour we sailed south and spied a bit of bird activity, including some of the familiar looking pecking by great black…

The first trip we had this morning was with some students from Newquay College. They came out to learn about data collection techniques, and hopefully to have a good sail and find some wildlife, and got all of those things. A brisk westerly wind meant great sailing conditions, and we found a very cool ocean…

We had some amazing sightings today. On the morning trip we started off with a male seal hauled out on the rocks, followed a short while later by a young female who had caught a massive conger eel! The poor eel was skinned and eaten alive, and it shows that even small, cute looking seals…

We had a couple of awesome trips today in warm, calm conditions. This morning we quickly found a grey seal fishing in the middle of the bay who looked at us in an unhurried way for a while before diving down again to continue. A bit further on we found a pod of common dolphins …

July already! It was suitably summery in terms of the wildlife found today, if not the weather. This morning we saw more harbour porpoises than we have seen since last autumn. We start seeing much larger groups from July onwards as they come in to the bay to feed on the fattening fish, but I…

It was such a beautiful day today after a dull start. This morning we had a four hour Discovery Voyage and we saw some excellent seabird action, including a sooty shearwater which sat on the water right next to the boat, looking back at us! We also saw some grey seals, two ocean sunfish, and…

We had two Ocean Discovery trips today and had great sightings on both. This morning we found a small group of common dolphins who stayed with us a while, lots of feeding seabirds and an ocean sunfish. We also saw a herring gull divebombing a heron, which we haven’t witnessed before. This afternoon we watched…

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…