Last week was National Whale and Dolphin Watch so I have been too busy to write a blog about what happened the week before! It was a very eventful week, full of strange animal incidents. There was a dead seal washed up on the beach that we went to take a look at. A cormorant that needed rescuing (read blog below). We also got to go and see a field necropsy of a juvenile bottlenose dolphin which was a few weeks old so it was quite stinky!

At around 4:00pm Monday afternoon, the Sea Watch volunteers in the New Quay office received a frantic call from volunteer Jess down on land watch at the pier. She had spotted a bird struggling in the water with something stuck on its bill! Not sure whether or not it would survive much longer, she called up for someone to come rescue the poor creature. Volunteers Danielle and Jenna headed down to the pier to take a look and try to plot a recovery plan.

After looking around for some kind of net to catch the bird in (it had swum out to far for them to grab from land), a local boater was asked to assist with the rescue by taking Danielle out in his boat so she could catch the bird. The bird was wary of the boat and dived every time it approached - so this plan was quickly abandoned. Plan B was soon decided upon and an attempt to herd the bird into the rocks by two kayakers(father and son) while Danielle stood ready with the net.

After a few tries it was plan C was created, this time to herd the bird towards Dolau beach. Danielle and Jenna bravely waded into the water with the net stretched between them waiting for the kayakers to bring the bird in.

After several misses with nets and buckets, the father of the kayaking duo was able to grab the bird and attempted to pry the shell off, but unfortunately the bird got free. After a few more catches and losses the young boy, Panos, caught him by the tail. A very kind onlooker offered his keys as a lever to get what turned out to be a massive clam shell off the cormorant's beak.

After being examined by a bird of prey handler, it was determined that there was nothing wrong with it, and it was released back into the ocean. All in all, the rescue lasted one and a half hours. We were all glad that it had a happy ending, and hopefully the cormorant will have learnt its lesson too!

A big thanks to all those that helped out in the rescue.

The Adventurous Sea Watch Team
www.seawatchfoundation.org.uk

Long Time No Blog

Life has been very busy here as of late. The new group of volunteers turned up on the 19th, which means that me Helene and Danielle have been picking up the slack while the newbies are trained. The weather hasn't been very nice lately, and quite a bit of chop on the water. So we have only had one proper survey in the last couple of weeks. Unfortunatly, we went out for 6 hours in the drizzle and chop, and only saw 1 dolphin,our friend Chris. It was quite bizarre to only see her becuase she was sitting on top of a huge school of fish! Oh well, hopefully our luck will turn around soon.

On the days when it isn't too rough, the spotting from the pier has been quite good. Moneypenny and her calf have been coming in quite close. The calf is getting cheeky-er everyday, and was splashing around and showing off it's belly today. So here are some pictures of mummy and baby from a few different days!

BBC Panorama

The BBC Panorama crew came out on the boat with us on Sunday. It was an early morning wakeup call for us all, and the sea did not look promising for spotting dolphins. We got down to the boat for 7:00am, but the crew was about 15 minutes late! While we were waiting for them 3 dolphins showed up in the bay behind us. We were really happy to have that happen because we didn't want to have to venture out past the headland where it would be even rougher. When the crew arrived we were able to head out and move between the different sets of dolphins. Among them was Moneypenny with the newborn, and Chris. It was a bit rough, but no one woofed their cookies, which was good. Our part on the show probably will be only a few minutes long, but there will probably be some great footage of the back of my head while I take pictures!

You can just see the tiny grey newborn under the water beside mum in this shot

This is Moneypenny and the calf underwater again, they are hard to photograph!



In this photo you can make out a sideways reflection of new quay in the dorsal fin. Use your imagination!

Check out this link, it is a short clip Kat put together for Sea Watch because we have National Whale and Dolphin Watch coming up in August. This was taken on the first dedicated survey we had this period. Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/user/seawatchfoundation#p/a/u/0/eEN-uzQM8N8

Going to be Famous!

Not too much has been happening lately, besides the usual land watches boat surveys and office work. On thursday The Times came by to do a story on Sea Watch. This meant we had to get up for a 7 am boat survey in rough seas and rainy weather. We weren't sure we would see anything, but luckily there was three dolphins hanging out in the harbour. As we approached the dolphins we discovered it was a mother and newborn as well as another adult dolphin. The adult dolphin is named Bond because in the dolphin catalogue his number used to be 007. We have now named the female Miss Moneypenny because they were travelling together. Back on June 17th(my first dolphins seen from the tour boats) we spotted Bond and Miss Moneypenny together, but there was no calf with her. Therefore this new baby has to be just a few weeks old. The size difference was incredible, even compared to the older calves, this baby was tiny! When dolphins are young the surface very quickly and throw most of their body out of the water. At one point the calf surfaced by itself and everyone on the boat actually said awwww, which isn't something you often hear from hardened scientists. After we had enough photos of those animals we moved on up the coast. For a couple of hours we didn't see much of anything. Then it was my turn to go up on top to spot. Within a few minutes I had my own first dedicated survey sighting! There ended up being 5 dolphins foraging in the area with a calf and juvenile amoung them. The mother of the juvenile was teaching it to fish, we know this because the it actually surfaced with a fish in its mouth. There was some leaping and splashing around, but then we were informed there would be missile testing happening shortly so we had to head for home.
Today we actually have people from the BBC show Panorama coming to film us. We have another 7 am survey tomorrow with them and hopefully we will have more great sightings!

A Friday Adventure

Friday was abit of an epic day. Kat and I walked from New Quay to Aberaeron along the coastal path. It took us from 11:00am until 3:30 to get there, with stops along the way. The trail is 10.5 km long. Unfortunatly I couldn't find my alergy pills and I was suffering abit. We caught the bus back from Aberaeron after we stopped in a,
cafe for a coffee nd sandwich. It brought back alot of memories being on the bus because the last time I was on that bus was the day I arrived. It was the last leg of my journey and I was so excited to finally be here. It was nice to reflect and realize that after all the struggles of the last year trying to figure out what to do and find a work position, I ended up right where I should be!
When we got back we went for a quick swim and then got ready to go out because we were going to a concert. A cover band called the Killers of Leon was playing at the memorial hall. They play music by The Killers and The Kings of Leon. It was really a great concert. For the first half they played songs by The Killers and The Kings of Leon, and in the second half they played a mix of songs.
It was a really good but exhausting day. All my muscles ached on saturday and I was abit sleepy on my land watch, but no dolphins showed up so it was alright!

Climbing the Crocodiles Head

On another weekend day with not much to do, I tagged along with Kat who was getting more scenery shots. As I am beginning to realize, scenic shots are always found up on top of cliffs! This days adventure involved climbing over the top of Ynys Lochten(AKA the crocodiles head) to the otherside where there is a nice beach that Kat wanted to do a timelapse of with the clouds moving by. We drove over to Llangrannog(Clan-gra-nog)which is a nice little town nestled in a valley beside the sea. To make it out of Llangrannog and over the croc's head you have to climb up a seemingly endless set of stairs and steep paths. Bear in mind that it was the middle of a hot sunny day, and we were both carrying backpacks so it was a bit of a strain. Once we made it up the side of the head it flattened out, there was a breeze,and the views were amazing as always. We came to two paths on the other side of the head, one which went staight up and one which sort of gently made it's way to the same point. We mistakenly chose the easier looking one, which ended up being brutal! Once we made it to a good spot for the shot we settled in and enjoyed the view while the camera snapped away. We kept an eye out for dolphins because they often hang about in that area and the ocean was like glass, but they didn't show.
On the way back we walked down the nose of the croc because we saw some sheep climbing on the cliffs! I have way too many sheep pictures already, but they are just so cute I just can't help myself. While I wandered around I also saw a chough(chuff) which is quite a rare bird here, and some gulls nesting on the cliffs.
When we got back home we went for a swim, which was the perfect end to the day!

Dedicated survey number 2!

Normally we only go on one dedicated survey per week. For the first couple of weeks the weather wasn't good enough to go on survey(we require the sea state to be like glass for a survey) so we got to do two last week. The second was on Friday and started at 8:00am. We saw a dolphin as we headed out of the harbour but we didn't stop for it, because it was being a bit evasive. We ran into another group of nine dolphins at 8:45ish. We didn't see as much acrobatics as last survey, but we did see some porpoising and bow riding. I was much more restrained with my photo taking this time around, and only took 80 and here are the best ones:

Mwnt Beach

Thursday was my day off last week and Kat and I decided to spend the day at Mwnt(said munt) Beach. The weather was perfect, and I actually got a bit of a tan. As soon as we arrived a man told us there was a dolphin in the bay. Kat went up on the cliff to try and film seals, so I sat on the beach and watched the dolphin foraging. A little later, more dolphins showed up and did some aerial behaviour. I don't really think there are many areas in the world where you have a good chance of seeing dolphins anywhere you go! A few grey seals showed up in the bay as well. Later in the day, Kat wanted to go for a snokel to get some underwater footage. I couldn't help going for a dip as well. When I got out I saw that there was a dolphin in the bay again, so technically I swam with dolphins! Tick that of the bucket list!

In addition to marine mammals, Mwnt boasts the smallest church in Wales and is said to have been built in the 6th century! It was getting a fresh coat of paint while we were there. The views were spectacular(I'm starting to take them for granted)and we had a really nice relaxing day at the beach.

The worlds biggest dolphins!

On Monday we got to go out on our first dedicated survey. We left the harbour at 9:00am and the trip lasted till 4:30pm. On the dedicated survey we are basically looking for dolphins so that we can photo-id them. We are the only group in the area that has a photo-id license, which allows us to get as close to them as we want(obviously not in a reckless way). The photo at the header of my blog was taken by Kat on the first encounter of the trip. Right outside the harbour we caught up with 3 dolphins, and the water was like glass. I was taking effort at the time so I didn't grab my camera but it was nice to soak in the moment. My first good look at a bottlenose dolphin. You could see them swimming under the water which is always my favorite thing to watch, seeing them in their element. After we got enough id photos of them we moved on and quickly ran into a new set of dolphins. These ones were having a blast pulling out all the acrobatics. We found a third group a little bit later. These ones didn't splash around as much, but there were 14 of them so we were pretty much surrounded, and they had a claf with them. The calves are about half the size of the adults, so 2m(6 feet) long, and a lighter gray colour.
I was a little shutter happy, and ended up taking over 800 photos, for both photo-id and personal uses. I winowed it down to just 115, but I can't put them all up so these are my best ones!






You can recognize the calf in this picture by it's lighter colouring.




This dolphin is porpoising, also known as swimming really fast! It also has a very distinctive dorsal fin, making it easy to photo-id!




Calfs are not as graceful as the adults and always raise their heads out of the water when surfacing.