seals

The wind was blowing quite strongly from the west today so our four hour trip became a three hour. This didn’t affect wildlife sightings though. Firstly we found a couple of gulls feasting on the biggest cuttlefish we have ever seen – this was still in possession of its tentacles which indicates it wasn’t killed…

Everything was very quiet and sleepy this afternoon, including the weather! Firstly we watched a quiet sleepy seal on the island as the tide rose, before he reluctantly slid back into the water. Further south at one of our very reliable cetacean spots we found a small group of common dolphins, which again were resting…

We had an Ocean Discovery today on a flat sea with hardly any wind. First of all we watched a great northern diver catch something and devour it – not sure what the victim was, but the diver gave us good views! Further south in a shiny area of plankton we picked up some movement…

We had a fully booked Discovery Voyage this morning in bright sunshine. We went round to Land’s End and were treated to a shearwater spectacular of hundreds of them feeding in the tidal races, along with fulmars, kittiwakes and other gulls, gannets and lots of auks. There were also lots of seals hauled out on…

A four hour and a two hour trip today. We were expecting an easterly breeze but it wasn’t as choppy as it could have been, and there was warm sunshine. This morning we explored the coast along to Nanjizal, spotting several grey seals in different places as well as a good variety of seabirds including…

A three hour trip today in bright sunshine and a westerly breeze. It feels a little warmer! There were several grey seals hauled out on the island – one group of four were getting very cross with one another as the tide rose and they started jostling for space. Lots of moaning and groaning! We…

The wind switched to a northerly direction today so it was flatter (though chilly!) In the sunshine we found a small feeding frenzy of common dolphins, with lots of seabirds dipping in from above. We could even clearly the baitfish (sprats? photos weren’t clear enough to tell) jumping to try and escape the carnage. It’s…

We had a four hour trip today in bright cold conditions, perfect for sailing. We spotted two minke whales! One of them was probably the same one as we saw the other day and the second was a small juvenile, who do sometimes appear at this time of year. They were very fast, so no…

We saw our first fins in a while today and excitingly one of them was an adult minke whale. We see most of these from July onwards but sometimes do see them in the early spring too. This was spotted by Josh just after we had been watching some resting common dolphins, which were quite…

This morning there was hardly  a breath of wind and we had to get out of the harbour because of the dropping tide, so we went out into the bay and bobbed around for a few hours. Under a gannet in the distance we saw a tall curved dorsal fin surface once – a Risso’s…