seabirds

Another long busy day today, but August is nearly over so make hay! This morning’s four hour trip set off in the calmest conditions imaginable – no wind at all, but a long lazy swell kept the sea moving a little. After watching a few seals round the island, things were quiet in the bay,…

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…

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…

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…

This morning’s trip was cancelled because of the bad weather but we set off on the Ocean Discovery this afternoon wearing lots of waterproof layers in case of more rain. What a good thing we did, as we had a fairly Biblical downpour. However rain does not affect wildlife sightings, and there were small groups…

We had a great day today with two Ocean Discovery trips, lots of wildlife spotted and some big happy smiles. This morning we found a big pod of harbour porpoises in an area we used to find them frequently. They were feeding with some gannets and Josh managed to snap some of the fish in…

We had two windy trips today, an Ocean Discovery and a Discovery Voyage. This morning we watched several seals hauled out on the island before heading up the coast then sailing offshore. There were a few seabirds soaring past us including kittiwakes, fulmars and gannets, but it was largely quiet until by chance a large…

It was a long day today  – today and tomorrow we are taking out the whole of the Year 2 group from a local primary school. This meant 3 back to back trips with them today followed by a “normal” Bay Discovery at the end of the day, and the other class are coming out…

July already. It didn’t particularly feel like it out there though – people  had their woolly hats on! On the Ocean Discovery this morning we found a pod of  three porpoises in the bay. They surfaced several times, giving everyone good views. We also saw a non breeding puffin, and a family of guillemots; mum,…

Today felt cold! We had a four hour then a three hour trip, and the four hour this morning was surprisingly quiet. We saw a variety of seabirds including gannets, shearwaters, lots of terns and kittiwakes. There were a few seals bottleing round the island, and we saw the splash of a breaching sunfish. This…