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.

Hiking "the cliff"

The masters students are doing projects related to behaviour of the dolphins when they come in contact with boat. They spend most of their time up on "the cliff" using a theodolite to collect distance data. Kat and I wanted to find out where this cliff was so we walked up to it. It was actually quite steep but not too high. We


went for a nice meander on the coastal path again. It was sunny again but quite windy and we were being pushed against the cliff face so we were happy to get up a bit higher out of the wind. The path goes through all different pastures and they were full of sheep on this day. We saw a seal in the water, but no dolphins because it was sea state 5ish! It was still a really nice afternoon hike, and I got some good pictures of New Quay.

Boat Survey Fun

Today I was on boat watch again, but this time I was flying solo! Kat came on the boat to film, but it was a bit rough so we weren't sure how well it would go. We went out on the 2 hour boat ride and it is quite easy to zone out when you are on the ocean and forget to keep an eye out for dolphins at the same time you are righting down data(gps coordinates, sea state, etc.). Luckily Kat and the captain was paying attention and we found two

dolphins off of Ynys Lochtyn. They were close to the boat doing half breaches and foraging probably. We think it was a mother and juvenile, the picture at the top of the page is the juvenile mid breach. Luckily after I took down the sightings data(behaviour, gps coordinates, number of animals etc.) I was right beside the camera so I could grab it and get some good shots. The tide was pushing us away from the animals so we only got to watch them for about 5 mins, but it was well worth the trip!

Great Sightings!

It was nice and flat on Thursday and we had some good sightings of dolphins from the pier on our 7-9am land watch. We actually saw two different sets of dolphins, a harbour porpoise and a seal. We were wondering if we might get to see a harbour porpoise being attacked, but nothing happened.
It was my day for boat watch, but I am still training so I was shadowed by Danielle. Since it was so calm we got to stand on the front of the boat, and I was able to spot the dolphins first! It was amazing! The dolphins were so close we could watch them swimming under the water. Danielle was doing the photographing, and I could actually tell her when the dolphins were surfacing so she could get good photos. We drove on to look at the bird colonies. We saw the same dolphins on the way back as well.
On our lunch break we went to the pier to see if there were any dolphins around, and we spotted our favorite dolphin Chris! So these are some pictures of her!

Sunny Adventures

Yesterday was my day off, but I unfortunatly had to go in to the office for distance training. When we spot an animal, we are supposed to give an estimate of how far away it is. To learn how to estimate it we practice with stationary objects that we know the distance to. So we did our training on the pier, guessing how far away different bouys were. It was hard, and as the British say, I was rubbish at it. I don't think it is an innate ability though, so I will have to practice! We did it from two different level(sea level, and up on top of the pier), it was much harder to estimate from above.

My new buddy her is Kat. She is doing a masters in biological film and photography and her final project is to make a film about Sea Watch. Anyways, she goes out on all the boats with us filming the wildlife as well as us doing our job. We planned to go on an adventure because Kat has a car(she is from England)and it was a nice day. We decided to go up to Birds Rock. Birds Rock is a place for colonies of guillimots, kittiwakes, and other nesting birds. We go by it on the boat surveys, but you can also get to it from the land. From the land it makes for a great place to spot dolphins from. To get to the cliff you walk through a farmers field with sheeps and cows!



There was a group of sheep on the road when we got there, which were really cute so I had to get some pictures. We went for a nice trek throught the countryside, and the views were spectacular as expected. This picture is of the coast to the West. The crocodile head shape at the end is called Ynys Lochtyn(pronounced in-is lock-tin) and it is the turn around point for the 2 hour boat trips we go out on.

Land Watch

So the sea calmed down enough for us to do the 7-9pm land watch, which we didn't want to do because we were having movie night! Any ways, the first 15mins turned out to be the longest of our lives! The sun was setting, the sea was choppy, and it was windy and cold. Not ideal conditions but some how we managed to spot 3 dolphins! They were milling about and feeding mostly, but at the end they got a bit excited and did some fast swimming where they pull most of their body out of the water, called porpoising! I had my camera so I took some shots of them porpoising, but the light was low and my shutter speed was too fast, so the images all ended up dark. I brightened them up on the computer but they are really grainy. I'm abit embarrassed to put them up, but they are my first dolphin shots so here they are! The picture at the beginning of the post is the sunset over the fish factory, and the last picture is of new quay with an arrow to our house!