More Common Dolphins today 24th January 2023.

 Another survey on the North Cornwall coast today and within 5 minutes of leaving harbour we were surrounded by common dolphins eager to spot humans in their oceanic domain.

Well into 200 animals came alongside or appeared in our view in the following hour and it was yet again an amazing sight.

Some of the students onboard had never seen a dolphin in the wild so it was quite an experience for them. I've now seen many thousands but they still excite me and I'm always trying to better the last picture.

Here are a few from today... it's our 4th consecutive day of surveys tomorrow so fingers crossed for more of the same!

Mother and calf

Common Dolphins off North Cornwall coast 23rd January 2023.

 

Probably well over 200 Common Dolphins off the coast today and in very enthusiastic mood, bow riding, leaping and generally putting on a show!

They came to us as we surveyed for seals down the coast from Newquay towards St.Ives and were a joy to watch. We'd previously seen a few Harbour Porpoise en-route but they are rarely showy and usually dive deep when a boat comes along but these were totally the opposite.

Yet on our return journey back to harbour we met a few smaller pods and they weren't interested in us and were just lolling around on the surface...maybe they'd just fed and were digesting!

Thanks to Cornwall Seal Group Research Trust and skipper Chris Lowe aboard Atlantic Diver.

Newquay sea safaris and fishing.

Anyway here are some photos to portray the scene!...... Often they were too close even for a wide-angle lens!

More Otter pics from the Amble marshes, Wadebridge, Cornwall 7.3.22

Otter having a clean and roll in the grass

 

 

This otter has been around our reserve, Walmsley sanctuary near Wadebridge since November and has been uncharacteristic in its habits, showing openly at all times of the day whether in sunshine or the darkest of gloom.

Many visitors to the reserve have had their first ever sighting of a truly wild otter and it has been so good to see peoples faces when they've watched it swirling in the water and diving deep only to be betrayed by the line of bubbles with which we've been able to track its progress.

It's not always easy to see which makes it even more exciting when we do catch sight of it and because of its high metabolism it does seem to be always eating. I've watched it with sticklebacks, with newts and also with what I think is a large Rudd.

 

One of the largest fish I've seen in the reserve, possibly a Rudd.

In the 25 years I've been warden of this site I've never come across such a "showy" animal and feel privileged to watch and photograph it at such close quarters.

Here are a few more photos from the past few days.

Common Dolphins & birds off the North Cornwall coast. 4th August 2021.

Juvenile Common Dolphin

A mid morning phone call from my good friend Will Delacour resulted in a fantastic afternoon of wildlife watching and photography.

The tides are small at present so we only had a short window in which to get out to sea from Wadebridge and back in again on the same tide.

So we left at 1:30 pm and got back at 5:20 pm and saw masses of good stuff in between!

I've never seen so many Mediterranean Gulls in the estuary before, must have been well into 300+.

The Common dolphins didn't disappoint either with lots of small pods on 6-8 animals either busy feeding or lolling around after feeding.

Also lots of jellyfish around, compass, moon & purple/blues.

We noticed a few gannets circling in the air and immediately saw dolphins feeding below them and by the time we neared the feeding frenzy dozens more gannets arrived & were diving in amongst the gulls and dolphins.An amazing sight with the blue sky full of white gannets and the sea awash with gulls, shags & dolphins!

 

Gannets filled the sky

dolphin amidst the gulls

Diving gannet

Manx Shearwater

Needless to say I took many hundreds of photos so here are a few more dolphin pictures....

2 adults with a calf

2 adults with a calf