Week 8 July 29th - August 4th

Unfortunately our fantastic trip last Sunday was not to be repeated this week as the weather changed for the worst. As a result we only made it out on three days this week.  Tuesday the 30^th was the first day we made it out since our humpback encounter unfortunately some high swell on the north side of the islands meant we couldn’t go back to the site where we had seen the humpback, instead we remained in the shelter of the bay. Although it seemed last week that every cetacean in the south west was west of the island it seems there were still some in the bay. We saw a minke whale early in the day and this was followed by two harbour porpoise sightings. The fist harbour porpoise sighting was of three animals and this was followed later in the day by two animals.

Minke whale (c) Paddy O' Dwyer - IWDG

Although we were out on the morning of the 3^rd conditions were very poor and we had no sightings the afternoon trip was cancelled due to the bad conditions.

Things had improved the follow day and we back out in the bay. We came across a single group of about 30 common dolphins who appeared to be acting quite strangely. They were skimming along the surface at quite a pace and didn’t seem to be too concerned by the boat, some approached to bow ride briefly with most content to just swim along parallel to the boat. The group was a good mix of adults, juveniles and a few calves this type of group appears to be very common in the bay with groups encountered west of the islands seeming to be composed of mostly adults. 

                                                                     Common Dolphin (c) Paddy O' Dwyer - IWDG