Tuesday 21 July 2009

National Whale and Dolphin Watch – day 4

Conditions were much better today…sort of. Persistent heavy drizzle meant wet optics, but a light offshore breeze meant no waves and the thick cloud meant no shadows; perfect viewing conditions; but the thick low cloud also reduced visibility to less than 1000 metres at times. All this means that any chance of a Storm Petrel has been well and truly scuppered!
A Grey Seal gave us the run(swim) around. It would pop up briefly then disappear for ages before reappearing miles away from its original location. We lost it for a good while, apparently it had come very close inshore because some anglers fishing a little way along the prom said they’d "almost been able to shake flippers with it!" There was a second one a long way to the south, about half way to Formby!
No sign of any Cetaceans or anything else for that matter, apart from three House Martins whizzing up and down along the face of the sea wall.
Is it just me or have these flying mini Orcas been in very short supply this summer.
Sorry no pics again today – if you want to see excellent Cetacean shots check out Monika’s blog, not from the UK though, more’s the pity.
Where to next? More NDWD tomorrow.
In the meantime let us know what Cetaceans are lurking in your outback.

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