pelagic seabirds

Today was living proof that you don’t need sunshine and calm blue seas to have an amazing trip. We took some students from Cornwall College Newquay out this afternoon, and there were grey skies, a bit of mizzle and some rolling southwesterly swell. However the sightings were fantastic. After watching a couple of seals bobbing…

What a four hour trip we had this morning. Spotting conditions were more or less perfect and we saw more or less everything. There were three groups of common dolphins in all, who gave us some great views as they swam beside the boat. There were very large numbers of harbour porpoises seen, hunting quickly,…

Conditions were excellent today which was handy, as we had a very busy day. On the morning Ocean Discovery we had great encounters with common dolphins, grey seals, harbour porpoises and seabirds. This afternoon there was much excitement in Penzance Harbour when the paddlesteamer “Waverley” arrived as part of its summer tour of the country….

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…

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…

It was a long day with two Ocean Discovery trips and an evening Bay Discovery,  and there was lots of wildlife around to wish Josh happy birthday. There were common dolphins around all day, though we had to go a long way to find them on the afternoon Ocean Discovery. However we did find two…

We had a Discovery Voyage this morning followed by a private three hour charter this afternoon. After the strong wind of yesterday and overnight there was quite a chunky swell running but the wind had switched northwesterly, so conditions weren’t too bad at all. In the bay first off we found masses of common dolphins…

Today the conditions were trickier than they had been, with a brisk southwesterly wind whipping the sea up into a choppy state. That meant the afternoon trip was shortened to two hours, but this morning we got the full three hours in. At this time of year, we start seeing more of the exciting offshore…

On this morning’s three hour Ocean Discovery tour we saw our first big feeding frenzies of bluefin tuna of the summer. This is an amazing sight (and sound!), as the tuna rush around hunting prey, and making the water look as though it is boiling. Occasionally they launch themselves out of the water and you…

It was a bit of a drab day today and it got much drabber still this afternoon. The wildlife sightings were great though. On the morning three hour trip, we first watched seven seals round the island as they hauled out on the rocks. Two of the females were in a very moany  mood –…