The day began very well with a warm welcome from the CLdN crew aboard the Performance, and after a greatly appreciated breakfast on board we headed to the bridge, ready for the crossing to Warrenpoint.

The trip started off well with a Grey Seal seen not long after departure from Heysham and a short while later a Harbour Porpoise was sighted.  No further cetaceans were seen on this leg of the survey, but I was treated to my first sighting of a Manx Shearwater!  Robin’s guidance on how to identify them in flight was invaluable and I was soon able to identify them easily by their distinctive flight pattern – a series of fast wing beats followed by the eponymous ‘shearing’ movement, flying low over the water with one wing held higher than the other.

Also seen on this outward journey were a variety of gull species, a Great Northern Diver, Razorbill, Guillemot, and my personal favourite the beautiful Gannet!

After a comfortable night’s sleep and a hearty Irish breakfast at The Whistledown Hotel in Warrenpoint we boarded the Progress for the return to Heysham, and after the ship left Carlingford Lough we headed up to the bridge to start the second leg of the survey, with the conditions perfect for marine mammal sightings.

A Grey Seal was spotted not long after departure and with the sea state at 2 we were very hopeful that we would be able to see more marine mammals and cetaceans that were out there.  However, things stayed quiet for a while and Robin and I began to think that these almost perfect conditions were going to be wasted.

Soon though, our luck changed with the help of some ‘magic’!  First off, my ‘magical chair’ – the crew had kindly offered us a chair to rest our legs while surveying and it seemed that every time I sat down Robin or I saw a splash or a fin!  We had soon spotted many Harbour Porpoise which were seen surfacing near the ship, followed hot on their fins by a pod of nine Common Dolphin.  Our second piece of ‘magical’ equipment was Robin’s pair of binoculars, through which a Harbour Porpoise and even at one point a Minke Whale seemed to appear, every time he raised them to his eyes!  What a day it turned out to be after the rather slow start.

Alongside all these marvelous marine mammal sightings, the second day of the survey saw many more seabirds recorded, including large numbers of Guillemot resting on the water, and a number of Kittiwake flying alongside the ship.

Once again, our thanks go to the CLdN staff and crew of Performance and Progress who made these very enjoyable crossings.

Robin Langdon and Vicki Payne, Research Surveyors for MARINElife (Registered Charity No. 1110884; Registered Company No. 5057367)