seabirds

Today was definitely the busiest November day we have ever had, with two Ocean Discovery trips. It was a grey gloomy day but the fog stayed away and we had some great sightings. On boat trips we saw lots of grey seals, bluefin tuna feeding and leaping and absolutely loads of common dolphins again. These…

It’s all still going on out there. This afternoon there was so much life in the bay and we had a wonderful trip, with some very happy people aboard. There were multiple areas where bluefin tuna were busting up at the surface, accompanied by screaming seabirds taking advantage of the fleeing fish – gannets, herring…

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 a three hour Ocean Discovery trip this morning in sunny breezy conditions, with ten keen interested passengers on board. It was a little choppy, but we had a great trip. There are still Cory’s shearwaters around, along with lots of feeding gannets and kittiwakes. There were several seals hauled out on the island,…

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,…

We had a great day today with some of the Master’s students from Exeter University, who came out on the boat to try to spot some marine vertebrates. They certainly did that. We started off with some amazing views of bluefin tuna – real whoppers were breaching close inshore near some fishing boats. We also…

It was really gloomy today for our Ocean Discovery and Bay Discovery trips, but all things considered we were really lucky not to get wet, especially after yesterday’s thunderstorms. We had a couple of excellent trips with some really good wildlife sightings. This morning we very quickly spotted something round jumping repeatedly out of the…

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….

The wind finally calmed today which was very welcome. On the first Ocean Discovery trip we had an amazing encounter with a single Risso’s dolphin. We initially spotted it sleeping, then waited stationary for a few moments and then it surprised us by noisily appearing right next to the boat. In the still conditions the…

We had two Ocean Discovery trips today and the weather was an enormous improvement on yesterday’s wind and rain. This morning we had an extraordinary porpoise encounter. There were lots of gannets further east in an area where we have been seeing lots of porpoises so we headed over for a look. Sure enough we…