Northern Experience Wildlife Tours

Category: Bottlenose Dolphin

  • White-beak season; 4hr evening pelagic 15/07/26

    After a few late withdrawals, due to the alternative evening entertainment from Atlanta, we still managed to sail with a full boat. There had been a sighting of dolphins breaching out near the Tyne Anchorage, and at this time of year that would almost certainly mean White-beaked Dolphins! Heading along the Tyne, under leaden skies, we had an update…”There are dolphins just north of the piers now, I’m sure they’re White-beaks”.

    As we left the river and scanned along King Eddie’s Bay and Longsands, there were ten or so White-beaks well dispersed and quietly feeding. One or two had a quick look at us before heading back towards the shore, and we drifted well away from them. We decided to head slowly southwards, and passed the dolphins who were now either side of the mouth of the Tyne. As we picked up speed they started chasing us down and then we had them bow-riding to Souter Lighthouse, where we also had brief views of three Harbour Porpoises 🙂

    White-beaked Dolphin [Lagenorhynchus albirostris], off Souter, South Tyneside, 15/07/26 (c)Northern Experience Images
    White-beaked Dolphin {Lagenorhynchus albirostris], off Souter, South Tyneside, 15/07/26 (c)Northern Experience Images
    White-beaked Dolphin [Lagenorhynchus albirostris], off Souter, South Tyneside, 15/07/26 (c)Northern Experience Images

    Suddenly, they all vanished. Our final sighting was one animal that had been bow-riding for ten minutes then disappeared with a vertical dive into the inky darkness below, just as someone spotted dolphins close to shore below the lighthouse. I lifted my binoculars and was surprised to see Bottlenose Dolphins heading south! We drifted for a few minutes without any further sign of them, then continued steadily towards Roker, where we were joined by six bow-riding Bottlenose 🙂

    Bottlenose Dolphin [Tursiops truncatus], off Roker, 15/07/26 (c)Northern Experience Images
    Bottlenose Dolphin [Tursiops truncatus], off Roker, 15/07/26 (c)Northern Experience Images
    Bottlenose Dolphin [Tursiops truncatus], off Roker, 15/07/26 (c)Northern Experience Images
    Bottlenose Dolphin [Tursiops truncatus], off Roker, 15/07/26 (c)Northern Experience Images
    Bottlenose Dolphin [Tursiops truncatus], off Roker, 15/07/26 (c)Northern Experience Images

    They eventually departed when we were off Hendon, and it was time for us to start heading back towards the Tyne. As we approached Marsden Rock another Harbour Porpoise was typically undemonstrative as it slowly surfaced, then the White-beaked Dolphins reappeared 🙂 The group included at least three mother/calf pairs, with one of the calves so small that it was possibly only a few days old! There was more bow-riding, in failing light and a deepening swell, and dolphins were still widely dispersed off South Shields as we made our way through the piers. Other than sailing along the Tyne, there were probably only 20 minutes during the entire evening where we didn’t have dolphins in view!

    White-beaked Dolphin [Lagenorhynchus albirostris], off South Shields, 15/07/26 (c)Northern Experience Images
    White-beaked Dolphin [Lagenorhynchus albirostris], off South Shields, 15/07/26 (c)Northern Experience Images
    White-beaked Dolphin [Lagenorhynchus albirostris], off South Shields, 15/07/26 (c)Northern Experience Images

    Most of our pelagic trips for the remainder of this year are already full, but we’ve just added some 4hr daytime sailings in September www.newtltd.co.uk/calendar. Bookings went live on Monday and they’re filling quickly, with only September 25th 09:00 having more than three spaces still available, so if you’d like to join us on the final day of Martin’s 30th season organising pelagic trips off the NE coast book soon!

  • Triple crown; NEWT’s North Sea pelagic 07/07/21

    Wednesday’s 4hr pelagic had a forecast that promised rain, although we only had a few drops, and it took just a few minutes for our first cetacean to appear as a harbour porpoise crossed the mouth of the Tyne in front of us. 90 minutes of intense scanning eventually produced bottlenose dolphins off Whitley Bay and they swam alongside us for an hour as we headed slowly south, finally leaving as we passed the mouth of the river again. On a glassy sea we headed beyond the Tyne and with conditions so perfect I spotted fins that were 2nm ahead of us…and then the white-beaked dolphins appeared 🙂

  • Light on the water; Bespoke Photography 10/09/2020

    Yesterday was a trip we were really looking forward to after what has been a really challenging year in so many ways. Emma and Janine have been on a couple of photography holidays that I’ve led since late 2018 and yesterday’s trip was organised for Janine’s birthday. Water and wildlife were the specific requests so I’d discussed how to structure the full day with Sarah and we thought we’d got a workable plan…

    We started with wildlife; Dunlin, Redshank, Bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew and Turnstone all exploiting the rich food supply available on freshly uncovered sand and seaweed as the tide fell. Low-angled sunlight and mirror-calm water were everything we could have wished for and after a morning of wading birds we headed off for an excellent lunch, and outstanding views from our window table, at the Jolly Fisherman.

    Post-lunch we stretched our legs and walked towards Dunstanburgh Castle as the tide turned and surf started breaking over the rocks in the foreground while we sat close to the rising water. Juvenile Gannets were diving offshore and I was thinking that there must be plenty of fish when I spotted a couple of dorsal fins and for the next 5 minutes we watched a group of around 10 Bottlenose Dolphins that seemed to be on a mission to get somewhere away to the south 🙂 Heading back south down the coast our final stop was at Howick Haven/Rumbling Kern as the tide started to flood in below the Bathing House.

    Lovely entertaining clients who are pleasure to spend time with, fantastic light, obliging wildlife and the Northumberland coast. There can’t be many better ways to spend a day 🙂

  • NEWT’s 4hr North Sea pelagics July/August 2020

    After a break of a few months we got back up and running in July, starting with our 4hr evening pelagics (and some 4hr daytime pelagics organised due to high demand!)

    Here’s a gallery of images covering a few of the trips where we found dolphins. 10 trips in total – 5 found White-beaked Dolphin, 4 found Bottlenose Dolphin 🙂

    Bottlenose Dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, White-beaked Dolphin, Lagenorhynchus albirostris, North Sea, Northumberland, whalewatching, whalewatching North Sea, whalewatching UK, whalewatching Northumberland, dolphin spotting, dolphin spotting UK, dolphin spotting North Sea, dolphin spotting Northumberland
    Bottlenose Dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, White-beaked Dolphin, Lagenorhynchus albirostris, North Sea, Northumberland, whalewatching, whalewatching North Sea, whalewatching UK, whalewatching Northumberland, dolphin spotting, dolphin spotting UK, dolphin spotting North Sea, dolphin spotting Northumberland
    Bottlenose Dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, White-beaked Dolphin, Lagenorhynchus albirostris, North Sea, Northumberland, whalewatching, whalewatching North Sea, whalewatching UK, whalewatching Northumberland, dolphin spotting, dolphin spotting UK, dolphin spotting North Sea, dolphin spotting Northumberland
    Bottlenose Dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, White-beaked Dolphin, Lagenorhynchus albirostris, North Sea, Northumberland, whalewatching, whalewatching North Sea, whalewatching UK, whalewatching Northumberland, dolphin spotting, dolphin spotting UK, dolphin spotting North Sea, dolphin spotting Northumberland
    Bottlenose Dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, White-beaked Dolphin, Lagenorhynchus albirostris, North Sea, Northumberland, whalewatching, whalewatching North Sea, whalewatching UK, whalewatching Northumberland, dolphin spotting, dolphin spotting UK, dolphin spotting North Sea, dolphin spotting Northumberland
    Bottlenose Dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, White-beaked Dolphin, Lagenorhynchus albirostris, North Sea, Northumberland, whalewatching, whalewatching North Sea, whalewatching UK, whalewatching Northumberland, dolphin spotting, dolphin spotting UK, dolphin spotting North Sea, dolphin spotting Northumberland
    Bottlenose Dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, White-beaked Dolphin, Lagenorhynchus albirostris, North Sea, Northumberland, whalewatching, whalewatching North Sea, whalewatching UK, whalewatching Northumberland, dolphin spotting, dolphin spotting UK, dolphin spotting North Sea, dolphin spotting Northumberland
    Bottlenose Dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, White-beaked Dolphin, Lagenorhynchus albirostris, North Sea, Northumberland, whalewatching, whalewatching North Sea, whalewatching UK, whalewatching Northumberland, dolphin spotting, dolphin spotting UK, dolphin spotting North Sea, dolphin spotting Northumberland
    Bottlenose Dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, White-beaked Dolphin, Lagenorhynchus albirostris, North Sea, Northumberland, whalewatching, whalewatching North Sea, whalewatching UK, whalewatching Northumberland, dolphin spotting, dolphin spotting UK, dolphin spotting North Sea, dolphin spotting Northumberland

  • Finale; NEWT’s North Sea Pelagic 14/09/19

    After two cancellations due to pretty awful conditions offshore, our final 10hr Northumberland Ultimate Pelagic for 2019 survived the weather and fittingly, given recent changes in cetacean distribution off our coast, was topped and tailed by Bottlenose Dolphins around the mouth of the Tyne with White-beaked Dolphins in the Farne Deeps sandwiched between the start and end of the day…

  • Dolphins and a stunning sunset 🙂 NEWT’s North Sea Pelagic 03/07/19

    We set out from Royal Quays in better conditions than on Friday and Laura quickly found the Bottlenose Dolphins just around the corner in King Edward’s Bay again 🙂

    With Puffins, Guillemots, Razorbills, Gannets, Kittiwakes, Fulmars and Common Scoters all seen as we headed north towards Newbiggin, Laura spotted more dolphins and they came to bow-ride the JFK Two as the dipping Sun bathed them in beautiful light as Jupiter rose through the Belt of Venus and a stunning sunset provided a backdrop to St Mary’s Island as we headed back to the river 🙂

  • Back to sea; NECP Transect Survey 25/02/19

    As many of our regular readers may already know, I was diagnosed with a rare and progressive illness last year and had surgery at the start of January to alleviate the worst of the symptoms. One of the most frustrating things, as well as having to have a couple of months break from NEWT safaris, has been having to stay onshore and not do any survey work for the North East Cetacean Project. Monday was the first time in months that I’ve felt well enough to consider spending a day at sea so I left the house as a beautiful sunrise was developing and drove to Whitley Bay to collect Andy. We met up with Caroline at Royal Quays and then on to the St Aidan.

    Once we were out of the Tyne it was obvious that conditions were as good as we’d thought they’d be. Heading north we had four sightings of Harbour Porpoise, although they were all typically shy, and as were about to have lunch a loud shout of “dolphins” from Andy heralded the arrival of 40-50 Bottlenose Dolphins that stayed around the boat for 45mins 🙂

    It’s good to be back 😉

    Bottlenose Dolphins [Tursiops truncatus] off Dunstanburgh, Northumberland 25/02/19
    Bottlenose Dolphins [Tursiops truncatus] off Dunstanburgh, Northumberland 25/02/19
    Bottlenose Dolphins [Tursiops truncatus] off Dunstanburgh, Northumberland 25/02/19
    Bottlenose Dolphins [Tursiops truncatus] off Dunstanburgh, Northumberland 25/02/19
    Bottlenose Dolphins [Tursiops truncatus] off Dunstanburgh, Northumberland 25/02/19
    Bottlenose Dolphins [Tursiops truncatus] off Dunstanburgh, Northumberland 25/02/19
    Bottlenose Dolphins [Tursiops truncatus] off Dunstanburgh, Northumberland 25/02/19

  • NEWT’s Guide to Bottlenose Dolphins in Northumberland

    A lot of our clients are very familiar with Northumberland’s marine wildlife so the question “Where have these Bottlenose Dolphins come from? I can’t remember them being here until the last few years.” is a regular one…

    Until 2012 Bottlenose Dolphin was a rare animal in Northumberland waters and when I was researching/writing the cetacean species accounts for ‘Mammals, Amphibians and Reptiles of the North East’ there had only been 11 sightings of 10 or more animals since the first Northumberland record in 1966.

    21st October 2012 was the day that everything began to change, with a loose group of ~150 dolphins moving down the coast from Berwick to Newbiggin before vanishing. Small groups broke away and took a liking to Holy Island and Bamburgh, with the group off Bamburgh hanging around through the winter and riding the waves alongside human surfers!

    With small groups becoming regular from 2013 we were involved in trying to identify individual animals from photographs by comparing them to the excellent photo-identification catalogue developed by Aberdeen University. That’s when we noticed an interesting pattern – the animals we were seeing were mainly females that were already adults when they were photographed in the Moray Firth in the late 1980’s and had gradually departed the Moray Firth for a life further down the east coast of Scotland around the Forth and the Tay. In the case of the most distinctive dolphin we’ve seen, #116 ‘Runny Paint’ – the dolphin with the extraordinary white stripe along the base of her dorsal fin on the right hand side and four dashes on the left hand side – she’d left Moray in 2001. The ‘proto-colonisation’ of Northumberland seems to have been led by some elderly ladies

    Over the last few years there have been increasing sightings of the dolphins, which now seem to have an extended home range, primarily from the Tay to the Wear but extending as far as Moray and the Yorkshire coast, and it seems likely that there are now calves that have been born in English waters. We don’t know how many dolphins are involved in total, with observer estimates often varying wildly even for a single group, but somewhere between 50-150 is probably in the right ballpark

    We’ve seen them on land-based trips, boat trips to the Farne Islands and, of course, on our regular pelagic trips off the Northumberland coast and there’s no doubt that they’re a spectacular addition to Northumberland’s marine fauna but that might not be good news for some of our other cetaceans…

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    Bottlenose Dolphins spent over an hour playing around the boat on our 4hr evening pelagic off Whitley Bay and St Mary's Island on 29/06/18