Thursday 10 May 2018

Strumble Diary 10/05/2018 (And Some)

I know sometimes I moan about the weather, the light, the sea state, and many other things over the year but I can honestly say I'd take a hundred such days for one like today. It can only be described as a porpendously awesome day. You may have heard us describe some sessions as porp soup they were so numerous, well if that's the case today was the thickest soup I've had in all the time I've been watching at Strumble. I arrived there at just before 7.30am roughly 3 1/2 hrs before low water and already there were porpoise showing in the fast developing tide race. As the hour went by and Holly arrived we were seeing more and more. Then Phil Lees from PCNP arrived and we all enjoyed the spectacle. I honestly thought it would all be over by the time the team from Countryfile arrived as it would be normal for the action to wash west with the tide. But no. They just kept coming, wave after wave all through the morning and as I prepared to leave four hours in they were still creating a stir under the gulls and gannets. At one stage I think every porpoise in Pembrokeshire had passed through to entertain us. I was on a porpoise high for sure with a flat camera battery and over four hundred images in the bag the hardest choice was going to be which ones to put up on the blog.

Now I do have a soft spot for surfing porps so forgive me if it seems a bit top heavy with these but I do think this is when they look their dynamic best. As the water was so clear with excellent light I did something I've wanted to do for a while, so I've been a bit creative and given you a second out of a porpoise's life in one image, well in fact just under a second as there's nine images and the camera shoots ten frames a second These images were then montaged to show the sequence of surfacing from breakthrough to submersion. ENJOY!!!