Unfortunately we only got out on two occasions this week,
Thursday the 29th and Saturday the 31st.
Thursday was the first sign that the bay was once again full
of activity. In excellent conditions we first had a sighting of a single
harbour porpoise which only surfaced twice before disappearing. Then on the
evening tour we had our first common dolphin encounter for the day a small
group of 8 dolphins that were foraging and didn’t pay much interest to the
boat. This was followed by a group of 10 that were also foraging but approached
the boat and played in its wake for a while.
Common dolphin (c) Paddy O'Dwyer - IWDG
Finally a group of 20 common
dolphins that we spotted from distance approached the boat at speed and were
the most playful of all the groups after a short time we left this group and
returned to Ventry harbour. When we taught that we had seen everything for the
day a group of 5 harbour porpoises passed us in a tight group, it’s the largest
group of harbour porpoises we’ve recorded here this summer. It’s great to see
things picking up after a few lean weeks in the bay.
Common dolphin (c) Paddy O'Dwyer - IWDG
Despite poor conditions on the 31st we had a
group of 12 common dolphins that took a quick respite from foraging and approached
the boat to bow ride for a short time before returning to their foraging. There were also reports of a minke in the area. Next
week will probably be my last as part of the bursary programme so let’s hope it
produces a few exciting sightings.
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