Been a cracking few days.

On Monday we were sitting outside the harbour when the fog came in and as we were waiting for our guests I  got a call from my cousin saying that he nearly hit a Basking Shark as he did not see it until the last second due to the fog.
After asking where he was I decided to go and have a look. After a few minutes I realised I was wasting my time as it got thicker and thicker and you could hardly see your hand in front of your face never mind find a basking shark.

We gave up and headed back to the harbour. At least he gave me all the readings, times etc. Oh well next time hopefully.

We never made it out either and who could blame anyone not wanting to go out in that kind of weather.

A change of weather and a change of sightings. A good few Arctic and Great Skuas passing through. A dozen or so of lingering Guillemots. Gannets galore and a single Puffin.

We had a single Sooty Shearwater near the Longstone Island which is always a pleasure to see.

On Thursday we saw 6 Bottlenose Dolphins and a good few boats got good views too. It was really nice to see a firm favourite of ours "Barracuda" swimming past the boat and they were really showing off to. Some were tail slapping the water and others were jumping clean out of the water. When you here people saying "Oh Wow" a lot you know it was a good jump.

I never get tired of seeing this and its really nice to see the smiles on people's faces which makes it extra special.

Fingers crossed the weather keeps up and we start to see loads so I can keep on blogging.

Oh and did I mention we had our first two seal pups born today. That will be my next post.

 

 

OVER AND OUT

40+ White Beaked Dolphins

Continued from the Not 1 but 5 Minke Whale blog...

We headed a little further out after seeing the last Minke and  we passed 2 Sooty Shearwaters a few more Manx Shearwaters and then nothing. We only saw a few passing Gannets but that was it, until we had 2 White Beaked Dolphins arrive from nowhere. They played with the bow of the boat for 2 minutes but then disappeared.

We looked around a bit more and we were just about to give up and go home when in the distance we saw few Gannets starting to dive and then we saw a few Dolphins jump clean out of the water.

As we looked more and more turned up. There was a least 40+ heading straight for us.

They seemed to be really excited to see us, as they  ignore the fish the Gannets were diving for. At first we were not moving and they seemed to get bored straight away but the second I started to move the boat that's when they got excited and started to entertain us.

This is one hell of a sight and it gives you is real buzz inside.

To be so close to this was just amazing and for them to put a real show on for us made it even more spacial.

I was excited, the guests were excited and even Bud my trusty Collie was excited to as you can hear him.

Over all this was by far the best trip this year so enjoy the pictures and some video footage. 

   

Not Nice

I was really looking forward to seeing my first Puffin of the year but I did not expect to see it like this.

This is a little worrying as I only walked half way along the beach at Beadnell and I saw 21 Puffins, 3 Guillemots, 1 Razorbill, 1 Shag and 1 Gannet all dead.

We complain about the weather and how cold we get and sometimes forget about our wildlife as we have it easy compared to them.

All I had in my head was that these fella's had come all this way to get ready for the breeding season and their life's have been taken away from them because of this bloody weather. Life is not fair sometimes especially as it's the year of the Puffin on the Farnes this year.

There has been reports of lots of dead Auks along the East Coast today and it's not nice to see or hear about.

Fingers crossed we don't find many more and this is just a small incident.

There was a few in one spot so I gathered them together to take the picture. I also checked everyone I found to see if they were ringed but none of them were.

Bonxie (Great Skua)

On Thursday the weather was beautiful and as we were at the Longstone looking at the seals a Great Skua stopped to pinch some food from a Herring Gull. After its first bill full it decided it wanted a bit more but other gulls were not having any of it. The Great Skua has a name for itself for being aggressive but oh boy the gulls showed how they can look after themselves to. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of the birds fighting as it was so quick but I did manage to get a picture of the Skua and even the seals were looking to see what the hell was going on.

We also have had lots of Waders around the rock edges and they looked beautiful in the sunlight. Here is a Purple Sandpiper in the afternoon sun.

Below is a branded Grey Seal sleeping on the rocks. This seal will appear in another blog later, as I have found more  branded seals and tagged seals this year than I ever have, so watch this space.
 

 

And some lovely Gannets passing through Staple Sound on their way back to Bass Rock.

The Mighty Gannet

I could not help myself today and I decided to go out again to see all the birds.

With a handful of guests and a friend to join me we went out in search of the rare bird or a Minkie Whale.

On the way out we could see thousands of Gannets in the sky so it was not hard to guess where we were going. With calm sea's and blue skies it was not hard to enjoy every moment of this trip.

The Gannets stole the show today and their was not as many Sooty Shearwaters today as there were yesterday and all I can put that down to is the wind. Never mind we still got Bonxie's, Artic Skua's, Fulmers, Gulliemots and lots of Seals.

I think the pictures will tell the rest of the story. 

Amazing Sight

Today we went out a little to see if we could find some Minkie Whales but we were greeted by over 4000 Gannets and over 50 Sooty Shearwaters. We also saw a few Guillemots, Fulmers, Razorbills and lots of seals.

The wind picked up alot as the day went on and the seas started to pick up to but myself, the crew and our guests did not mind one little bit a we watched in amazment at the thousands of Gannets diving into the sea.

We spotted a Sooty and got a few pictures to an as we slowly followed the birds north we spotted a group of 37 Sooty's resting on the water. As we manovered the boat closer more and more flew in from the south but as we got the count to 50 they all lifted and we lost count.

I was chuffed with one never mind 50+. They are a class bird and very very quick but the seas were getting a bit rough and it was starting to become a little hard to look for other birds. Never mind it was amazing to see.

We have the same trip going on Saturday at 10.30am so why not join me in the hunt for Minkie's and Seabirds. A sight not to be missed.

To book please just phone me on 07984668093