The day dawned cloudy with occasional drizzle, but we were fortunate to leave dock 15 minutes early as the Liberation was below capacity for cars and passengers facilitating rapid loading. After the safety presentation we were invited onto the bridge by Captain Stephen Ainscow and took up station in the starboard bridge wing surrounded by banks of screens holding all types of data.
As we slipped slowly out of Poole Harbour there were good views of the Brownsea Island lagoon, flooded at high tide, and holding a plethora of birds either roosting on the banks or feeding. Many Cormorant were drying their wings, with Black-tailed Godwit and a large group of Little Egret feeding in the shallows. Shag dotted the channel marker buoys as we left the harbour and headed out into the open sea.
No seals were seen as their favoured sandbanks were flooded by the tide, but a few Herring Gulls soared overhead.
The official survey started, and I was soon kept busy entering all the data on course, speed, sea state, and weather onto the effort data sheets whilst keeping eyes open with Glynnis for sightings of seabirds and cetaceans and recording what we saw.
The crossing was smooth, but no cetaceans were seen until approaching St Peter Port when a small pod of three Harbour Porpoise swam past the boat giving fleeting views. A surprise sighting of a Peregrine flying alongside the boat towards Guernsey was also made and a single Manx Shearwater flew by.
We arrived in St Peter Port Harbour just in time to witness the tradition of the firing of the midday gun on the castle walls.
Whilst docked in Guernsey we were entertained by a group of immature Great Black-backed Gull fighting over a fish which proved too big to be easily swallowed. After a few minutes they lost this prize to an adult Greater Black-backed Gull, which again could not swallow it whole so paddled across the harbour to reach dry land to eat it there. A Cormorant tried to steal the prize but was seen off by the mighty gull.
Our onward journey to Jersey on calm seas proved frustratingly quiet, with few sightings and again on the return from Jersey to Guernsey.
Leaving Guernsey and passing Alderney we passed Ortac rock which was now virtually devoid of roosting Gannets, but several, both adult and juvenile, wheeled overhead and flew past the ship as we sailed north and back to Poole. No more significant sightings were made as the sun set to the west giving a beautiful sunset.
Many thanks to Captain Ainscow and his team on the Condor Liberation who were exceptionally friendly, helpful and welcoming throughout the sailing.
David Jenner and Glynis Northwood-Long, Research Surveyors for MARINElife (Registered Charity No. 1110884; Registered Company No. 5057367)
Weather
Outward: bright with mainly overcast skies and occasional showers, winds NW, sea state 3-4 on the Return: sunny, winds S, sea state 2-3, excellent visibility throughout.
Species recorded
Marine mammals
- Harbour Porpoise Phocoena phocoena 1
Seabirds
- Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus 5
- Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo 2
- Gannet Morus bassanus 58
- Great Black-backed Gull Larus marinus 6
- Guillemot Uria aalge 4
- Herring Gull Larus argentatus 44
- Manx Shearwater Puffinus puffinus 12
- Mediterranean Gull Ichthyaetus melanocephalus 1
- Shag Gulosus aristotelis 3
- Skua sp. 1
- Gull sp. 1
Inland birds
- Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus 1