Tuesday 31 May 2016

Dolphin Heaven

The dolphin wildlife trip on Sunday will remain ingrained in everyone's minds forever! We encountered a porpoise as soon as we left "The Heads" where Milford Haven ends and the open sea begins and then headed SW into an area that we knew had great potential for common dolphins.
After about an hour and a half of no sightings I was beginning to get worried that we would be out of luck but pods of dolphins started coming towards us but passed by quickly as they were in transit, only playing in our boat's wake for a couple of minutes. It was virtually impossible to get a good shot of them as you couldn't predict where and when they would surface next. Feeling a bit frustrated we carried on, trying different boat speeds to try and find the best shaped wake and pressure wave under the bow that would entice them to stay with us and play.
It then all came together 13.5 miles offshore as literally hundreds of dolphins took their turn in surfacing just by the side of the boat with up to 6 bow-riding just a metre away from us for over an hour. They then broke away to feed but returned again for another hour of constant action. The colours became better and better as the animals were lit with lovely rich, soft evening light.
Shearwaters were commonly seen seen and on our transit to Skokholm later on, we were joined by several gannets who used the boat's air turbulence to fly back towards Grassholm allowing some unique shots to be captured by everyone.
The next trip in Dale Sailing's luxury Nelson 38 will be the Celtic Deep where who knows what we will find. The adventure continues!

Friday 13 May 2016

Kittiwake in flight

Skomer Island is looking stunning with almost all the bluebells, thrift and sea campion fully in flower. The kittiwakes were busy flying to and fro from the Wick to Moorey Mere to collect mud for building their nests. Shot with a Nikon D810, 300mm at F5, 1/400sec, ISO 64.