Thursday 29 September 2016

Back to Front on the Breakwater

On my arrival today there were fifteen gannets wheeling over the sea at the harbour entrance. It wasn't long before I spotted at least two bottlenose beneath them just mooching around. As I took a few images while waiting for Cliff they started moving further away. I took my eye from the viewfinder and noticed several porpoise moving in from my left and it would seem possible that the number of porpoises had spooked the bottlenose rather than the other way around as may have happened the other day when three porps were caught in the bay as the bottlenose fed off the harbour mouth. The bottlenose quickly went out of sight as we were watching at least five pairs of mother and calf combinations. Cliff now with me suggested they may be creshing whereby several adult calf pairs move to quiet waters to rest their calves and feed quietly. As a bonus of seeing so many close in it became apparent while processing the images that there were a few with marked fins. That should please Anna/Chantelle and keep them busy for a while.