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Forecasting; NEWT’s 4hr North Sea pelagic 02/06/21
Yesterday’s 4hr evening pelagic looked in doubt a few days ago, with stiff easterlies and 1.5m waves in the forecast. As the day approached, the forecast was looking much more promising, so I left the office under clear blue skies and bright sunshine for the 25min drive to the marina. Half way there and Jo…
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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,…
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Heading offshore; NEWT’s North Sea pelagic 14/08/18
Yesterday was the first of our 10hr ‘Northumberland Ultimate Pelagic’ sailings for this year and it started well with two Harbour Porpoises at the mouth of the Tyne, then another two a couple of miles further north. As Gannets soared by, Fulmars circled us and Kittiwakes and Lesser Black-backed Gulls tagged along in our wake,…
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A grand finale; NEWT’s North Sea pelagic 10/08/18
Friday was our final 4hr evening pelagic for 2018 and so far we’d managed to run 12 out of 13 pelagics (with one cancelled due to poor weather conditions), with those 12 producing Bottlenose Dolphin on 2 trips and White-beaked Dolphin on 6. Allan had been out with the boat during the day and, incredibly,…
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Dolphins in the dark; NEWT’s North Sea pelagic 08/08/18
Wednesday was our penultimate 4hr evening pelagic for this year, and after a few splashes that we couldn’t pin down to anything specific we were heading back south as the sun dipped below the horizon and White-beaked Dolphins appeared 🙂 Light levels were challenging, and didn’t help with achieving the sort of exposure times necessary…
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More dolphins and another stunning sunset 🙂 NEWT’s North Sea pelagic 03/08/18
Friday evening and I was (vaguely) back in action. Three days in hospital had left me drained, but with the sea forecast to be flat calm I couldn’t think of a better way to continue my recovery than by spending a few hours out on the North Sea… Broken cloud hinted at a good sunset…
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Posting by proxy; NEWT’s North Sea pelagic 01/08/18
Friday 27th was the first of our 4hr evening pelagics this year to fall victim to the weather, so it was great to see a much better forecast for the start of August…unfortunately I found myself having an unexpected few days in hospital so Steve and Paul organised our clients at the start of the…
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Sunset and Moonrise gallery; NEWT’s North Sea pelagic 25/07/18
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Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes, turn and face the south 😉 NEWT’s North Sea Pelagic 20/07/18
With a glassy calm river outside the marina, and a great forecast for the evening (after the rain had passed a couple of hour earlier), we had a dilemma. Allan had seen a group of White-beaked Dolphins in the deep south (or County Durham as its residents call it…) a couple of hours earlier so…
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Weather window; NEWT’s North Sea Pelagic 10/09/16
My obsession with the weather forecast tends to intensify whenever we’ve got a pelagic wildlife trip coming up, and even more so when it’s one of our 10hr ‘Northumberland Ultimate Pelagic’ sailings. In the far reaches of the Farne Deeps even a fairly benign wind direction like southwesterly (which isn’t a problem in nearshore waters)…