seabirds

The heatwave didn’t show up in Mount’s Bay today but the wildlife certainly did. This morning we started with a small group of porpoises, then a much larger group feeding inshore under gannets. Heading further out we could see an absolute mess of seabirds on the far horizon, and as we approached saw the tell…

We were back out on the water today. Although Storm Floris wasn’t nearly as bad as it was further north, it was still pretty draughty yesterday which left us with some swell. This morning spotting conditions were tough, leaving us with groups of gannets and grey seals to watch on the low tide. This afternoon…

There were common dolphins everywhere today. It was a beautiful day with a lovely sailing breeze. We found them on their own, with feeding gannets, and with feeding shearwaters. We also spotted that tell tale stop start of tons of gannets piling into the water when they are following and feeding with porpoises – we…

It was a damp, windy day today but definitely could have been worse. The bluefin tuna are here with a vengeance now, accompanied by huge numbers of seabirds including thousands of shearwaters, gannets, kittiwakes and other gulls. Common dolphins are hunting with them and the pace is very frenetic. The seals and porpoises are far…

It was another lovely day with a perfect sailing breeze.  We saw a group of harbour porpoises early on this morning followed by a few small groups of common dolphins . There were a couple of seals bottling round the island at the end of the trip. This morning everything was a bit more lively…

We had two Ocean Discovery trips today and both were cracking. As we head towards August, the harbour porpoises start feeding in the bay in enormous numbers, and this morning they were here a week or so early. Often the general public aren’t as impressed by the idea of seeing porpoises in the same way…

Another great variety of wildlife spotted today with grey seals, loads of common dolphins, several groups of harbour porpoises and some Risso’s dolphins on the morning four hour trip. Seabirds again included lots of storm petrels and diving gannets. This afternoon’s three hour trip was really chilled – we watched some common dolphins feeding with…

I was unsure all week about whether Friday trips would be possible based on the wind forecast. We were able to head out on an early Ocean Discovery this morning in the end and we’re glad we did, because there was an amazing feeding frenzy going on in the bay. Hungry  dolphins raced around herding…

The weather forecast decided yesterday it would be misty and drizzly today. I hoped it was lying but it wasn’t. However it was one of those summer days when a southwesterly wind and poor  visibility brings in a lot of seabirds close to the coast. Most of them were Manx shearwaters and gannets, and one…

We saw several grey seals hauled out on the rocks during the morning Ocean Discovery trip, including males, females and juveniles. Sailing westwards, we picked up a few shearwaters, gannets and guillemots but on the whole it was quieter offshore so we decided to go a different direction on the afternoon tour. The brisk north…