


The weekend’s wildlife highlights were; Minke whale, many Common Dolphin and 20++ Harbour Porpoise mostly feeding a mile or so offshore with an attendant “frenzy” of seabirds! Oddly this frenzy is mostly Shearwaters – over 2000 Manx, up to 100 Great (counted from Gwennap Head), c.200 Cory’s , 50++ Sooty, and increasing numbers of Balearic Shearwaters – 5 from our Minack trip on Sunday evening. There are relatively few Gannets associating with this frenzy which implies the birds are feeding on small prey such as sand-eel or fry, fine for the Minke Whales but unusual for dolphins. A few presumed Blue-fin Tuna have been feeding in the same area and, although still not numerous, Ocean Sunfish are increasing again with 4 on Sunday.
Seabird numbers continue to be impressive! Out of the totals mentioned above we have managed to see 3 Cory’s, 2 Great, 5 Sooty, and 5 Balearic Shearwaters amongst the 100s of Manx on the Minack trip, a few Storm Petrels are still appearing well inshore and we saw over 20 following a returning “day-boat” on our 3pm cruise. Although not many are off towards Land’s End 100s of Gannets are still in the Bay area though lately further east off the Lizard. Auk numbers have dropped sharply as the adults are now taking newly fledged young to safety offshore. Skuas are still scarce with only a couple of Bonxies (Great Skua) harassing the shearwater flocks, and although a few Sandwich Terns and Kittiwakes are in the bay there has been little movement so far. Great Northern Divers and the mad/sad Eider drake are still with us, and small flocks of Common Scoter are still passing with over 30 this weekend. A couple of Yellow-legged Gulls are still arriving , but since the strong westerlies have set in there have been fewer Mediterranean gulls.
The Grey Seals are slowly building in numbers on St Clement’s Island again, but we still see too many kayakers getting too close and disturbing them- 2 people even had to be taken off the island by the lifeboat apparently! Wader numbers are already building with Curlew, Whimbrel, Oystercatcher, Turnstone, Dunlin, an early Purple Sandpiper and Common Sandpipers all roosting on the island so this disturbance is even less welcome!
All in all it has been excellent for so early in the season and we even had a report of a Basking Shark from one lucky observer on the 1pm fishing trip! So even though the weather isn’t exactly scorching, the marine wildlife is certainly heating up!
MV Vanessa Jane
/0 Comments/in Uncategorised /by Vanessa ThomasNew addition – MV Vanessa Jane
The MV Vanessa Jane has joined us for the 2021 season! She will be taking customers out on 4hr and 2hr fishing trips, as well as doing bespoke wildlife trips, carrying a maximum of 8 passengers.
If you would like to book her please contact us.
1st Pelagic of the season
/0 Comments/in Birds, Dolphins, Marine birds, Seals /by Vanessa ThomasRisso’s Dolphins in Mounts Bay
/0 Comments/in Birds, Dolphins, Marine birds, Seals /by Vanessa ThomasAt long last our weather has broken with several days of westerly winds and a couple of weak fronts which- as predicted- have brought the wildlife back within sight of land! More reassuring- but harder to explain- has been the return to St Clements of our local Grey Seals – though “Sammy”/”Silverback” was not on his usual “sofa” (low rock) today we saw 3 females, 3 of last years pups and a young bull, and even “Nervous Nigel” (a young male) was on the Greeb where he spent most of last summer! Seabirds have been inshore in good numbers though the weather meant we had to watch from headlands; Wilson’s Petrels off Porthgwarra and Black Head, Storm Petrels, Cory’s and Sooty Shearwaters, Skuas and good numbers of Manx Shearwaters and Puffins- the last 2 making it into the bay with 1,400 and 9 respectively passing Mousehole on Sunday evening. Today’s highlights included Sandwich Terns, a few Manx, the seals mentioned above, and, best of all 10-12 Risso’s Dolphins feeding off Penlee. These dolphins have highly variable pale scarring which makes many individuals easily identifiable so it was nice to see that at least 3 (females?) were animals we have seen in the last 2 years and which calved in the area in 2016. In fact all of the dolphins today appeared to be presumed females with 1-2 year old young!
Marine Sightings – May Bank Holiday 2018
/0 Comments/in Birds, Dolphins, Marine birds, Seals /by Vanessa ThomasFirst Trips of 2018
/0 Comments/in Birds, Seals, Uncategorised /by Vanessa ThomasMarine Wildlife Highlights this weekend
/0 Comments/in Basking Sharks, Birds, Dolphins, Seals, Whales /by Vanessa ThomasThe weekend’s wildlife highlights were; Minke whale, many Common Dolphin and 20++ Harbour Porpoise mostly feeding a mile or so offshore with an attendant “frenzy” of seabirds! Oddly this frenzy is mostly Shearwaters – over 2000 Manx, up to 100 Great (counted from Gwennap Head), c.200 Cory’s , 50++ Sooty, and increasing numbers of Balearic Shearwaters – 5 from our Minack trip on Sunday evening. There are relatively few Gannets associating with this frenzy which implies the birds are feeding on small prey such as sand-eel or fry, fine for the Minke Whales but unusual for dolphins. A few presumed Blue-fin Tuna have been feeding in the same area and, although still not numerous, Ocean Sunfish are increasing again with 4 on Sunday.
Wilson’s Petrel Sightings!
/0 Comments/in Uncategorised /by Vanessa ThomasThere’s much excitement at Mermaid Pleasure Trips, Penzance at the moment! The Wilson’s Petrel has blessed us with its presence on not one, but two of our Mini Pelagic trips. After seeing The Wilson’s Petrel on one of our Marine Wildlife Cruises, we decided to arrange a Mini Pelagic Trip on Wednesday evening. Many keen local birders came along and were delighted to see 2 Wilson’s Petrel even though the sea conditions were not particularly kind! We also saw 35+ Strom Petrel’s, 2 Great Shearwater, 2 Cory’s Shearwater, 2 Sooty Shearwater, 200+ Max Shearwater, Bonxie, Arctic Skua, Juvenile Yellow-Legged Gull, and even some common dolphins! Yesterday evening we set off again with more keen birders in terribly wet conditions and were delighted to encounter 4 Wilson’s Petrels along with Great Shearwaters.
We are running another Mini Pelagic Trip on Tuesday evening at 5pm and a Pelagic Trip on Saturday at 6.30am. Please call to book on 07901731201.
Wilson’s Petrel seen on Saturday’s Pelagic Trip
/0 Comments/in Uncategorised /by Vanessa ThomasWell it had to happen eventually! Our first pelagic of 2017 looked like it was going to be a shaky start; 2 people never showed, the seas were much higher than expected and comfortable!! As a result the rafts of shearwaters etc feeding on the growing “slicks” were scattered and gone. In fact we could not get out to where we prefer to “chum” and had to turn back east to get the swell behind us before finally trying a bottle of cod-liver oil.
Wilson’s Petrel on Saturday’s Pelagic Trip
/0 Comments/in Uncategorised /by Vanessa ThomasBird and wildlife seen so far this week!
/0 Comments/in Birds, Dolphins, Seals /by Vanessa Thomas