Survey Route: CEFAS Peltic survey

Sadly, we didn’t go out with a bang, no fantastic late sighting but there was a steady trickle of birds. The best of these was a lovely juvenile Arctic Skua

Highlight of the afternoon was finally adding Bottlenose Dolphin to the cetacean list for this year

Some Common Dolphin put on a good show with plenty of leaping close to the Endeavour, some of the results are shown here.

We did quite well for Common Dolphin too, six encounters totalling 76 animals, including one pod of around 60 animals that made a very energetic approach to the Endeavour.

As soon as I saw it I realised it was a Fea’s-type Petrel, a real rarity in UK waters, and normally a resident of either the Desertas Islands in the case of Desertas Petrel, or Cape Verde if a Fea’s Petrel.

As we were hauling today’s star bird did a few circuits of the Endeavour – a beautiful Short-eared Owl. It had started raining, so it was obviously quite keen to find somewhere to land but there was too much activity on board, so after a couple of circuits it disappeared

Minutes after coming off transect we came up to a feeding frenzy made up almost totally of Great Shearwater – about 5000 of them.

As we approached there were not only Gannet but also a large number of Great Shearwater and a few Cory’s Shearwater. This completed our full set of shearwaters for the day. Also, in the melee another Balearic Shearwater was spotted.

Not long into the transect a group of Gannets were seen circling ahead of the ship. Beneath them there was splashing in the water and then a whale blow was sighted, most likely a Minke, and the splashing was being caused by a pod of 10 Risso’s Dolphin feeding

Also, a first for the Peltic survey, a Cetti’s Warbler