Bay Blog

Porpoise & Shearwaters

It has been a quiet week for Dolphin sightings and also quiet on the seal front.  However today we did manage to see seals on each of this mornings trips.  Our evening trips saw one porpoise, some seals plus plenty of Manx Shearwaters heading south.  Not to forget a great sunset!

Posted by : Tony Barber - Monday, 26 July 2010

Bit of a change today as we worked with a BBC film crew shooting a family coasteering in Gwbert.  It's for a programme called Gimme a Break.  If you haven't heard of coasteering it is often described as everything you were told as a child not to do!  A mixture of swimming, scrambling and jumping.  Looks great fun!  Take a look here for more info. 

Whilst the camera crew were on the rocks getting some close up shots I managed to spot a solitary porpoise just off the point by the Cliff Hotel and a few Gannets diving a few metres from us.

Posted by : Tony Barber - Tuesday, 20 July 2010

We managed to dodge the rain showers but still very wet and windy trip today! No dolphins but a few seals and lots of fun!

Posted by : Tony Barber - Thursday, 15 July 2010

The Dolphins were back again today.  Around 8 just off Mwnt.  Also quite a few seals by the Farm park, again about 8 in total. 

Posted by : Tony Barber - Wednesday, 14 July 2010

No Dolphins today :-(  In fact it was very quiet, just a few seals and obviously lots of birds on the Island still.  A lot of the Guillimots and Razorbills have now gone but there are still 15-20 of each on the west side of the Island.

Posted by : Tony Barber - Tuesday, 13 July 2010

A great sighting of Porpoise today, about 1/2 mile to the north of Cardigan Island to start with.  There was a lot of Gannet activity which we went to investigate and then initially saw 6-8 Porpoise.  Then whilst watching we spotted another 4 or 5 to the west towards Cemaes.  A first for me was to see one porpoise jump clean out of the water showing us its pale under belly.  It was obviously getting rather excited about something.  We see dolphins jumping regularly but not porpoise.  If only I had my camera! 

Posted by : Tony Barber - Monday, 12 July 2010

Quiet today so no trips and tomorrow is Sunday so a day off :-)

Posted by : Tony Barber - Saturday, 10 July 2010

10 Dolphins today, just to the east of Cardigan Island.  Plenty of Gannets diving which gave the location of the Dolphins away.  Again not many seals although there was a few by Cardigan Farm Park and a couple more over at Cemaes Head.

Posted by : Tony Barber - Friday, 9 July 2010

Better weather today and LOADS of Dolphins around.  We counted just over 20 on on 1 trip.  There was 1 pod just off Mwnt, then by another just off the eastern point or Cardigan Island.  The tide was running quite strongly with some breaking waves and a couple of the Dolphins looked like they were playing in the surf, jumping clean out of the water.  Then another pod to the east of Cemaes Head.  Not many seals though we didn't have a lot of time to go looking for them!

Posted by : Tony Barber - Thursday, 8 July 2010

A bit to wet!

No Trips Today!  We do still run trips in the rain but it was a bit to heavy today.  Looks like it will be a little better tomorrow?  Not such a bad thing as it is my birthday so at least I get a day off :-)

Posted by : Tony Barber - Wednesday, 7 July 2010

Dolphins spotted on both of our trips again today, although I have to admit that one the 2nd trip it was just a rather fleeting glance of 1 solitary dolphin. 6 - 7 on the first trip however at approximately 12.45 just to the the east of Cardigan Island.

Posted by : Tony Barber - Tuesday, 6 July 2010

Quote - "The best £24 I've ever spent!"

A recent quote from a passenger is above! Dolphins on 3 out of 3 trips today. All 3 sightings in between Cardigan Island and Mwnt. I'll get some more details off the crew and post again tomorrow.

Posted by : Tony Barber - Monday, 5 July 2010

Underwater Dolphins

We went all the way down to Mwnt and everything looked quiet.  Just before we were about to set off to look in some caves a passenger spotted a dolphin close in to Mwnt headland. Thankfully for us the wind blew us slowly in that direction and a pod of around 8 came to see us. We got some lovely underwater views of them passing under the boat. A still is below, I hope you can make it out!

4-5 seals around the farm park and not so many auks on the island.  it looks like they are starting to disappear.

Great Dolphin Sightings

The great sightings continue. We spotted a couple of Gannets circling just east of Cardigan Island so we went to investigate.  We stopped and whilst bouncing around a little waiting, a dolphin popped up for a breath about 2 metres away from us, giving us all a surprise. A pod of around 8 then stayed with us for the next 15 - 20 minutes. They didn't appear to be feeding, just happy to hang around with the boat. We then decided to leave them in peace and headed off slowly (5 knots) back towards the island and they decided to follow us playing in our bow wave. I took some video footage which I'll edit and try to post up to you tube. In the meantime here are a couple of stills. Not great quality but you get the idea. After a few minutes they left us and we continued to Cardigan island only to then spot Top Notch, one of our regular dolphins and her calf just by the island.  After a few minutes watching we went off to find some seals and saw 4 - 5 around Cardigan Farm Park.  Oops, forgot to mention, still plenty of Auks on the Island.

Dolphins on 2 out of 3 trips yesterday so our 100% run is over :-(  Both sightings in between Cardigan Island and Mwnt at approx 12:00 & 13:15.  Not many seals but we did find one in one of our caves at cemaes head of 2 of the trips.  Still plenty of Auks on Cardigan Island.

Posted by : Tony Barber - Thursday, 1 July 2010