{"id":1182,"date":"2011-08-04T09:47:57","date_gmt":"2011-08-04T09:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1182"},"modified":"2011-08-09T07:22:23","modified_gmt":"2011-08-09T07:22:23","slug":"a-tale-of-3-pelagics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/northumberland\/druridge\/a-tale-of-3-pelagics","title":{"rendered":"A tale of 3 pelagics"},"content":{"rendered":"

After\u00a0our stunning pelagic on Friday<\/a>, we had 3 more evening trips in 5 days, all concentrating on the southeast Northumberland coast.<\/p>\n

Saturday was a massive contrast with Friday; only 2 brief White-beaked Dolphins<\/strong><\/em>, but Gannets<\/em><\/strong> and Fulmars<\/em><\/strong> were in great abundance and 3 Great Skuas<\/em><\/strong>, 2 Manx Shearwaters<\/em><\/strong> and\u00a05 Sooty Shearwaters<\/em><\/strong> added to the birdwatching interest.<\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/a><\/p>\n

Monday was the day that the weather forecast was really, really wrong.\u00a0 Just 20 minutes out of the Tyne, the heavens opened and most on board headed for the shelter of the wheelhouse.\u00a0 With the North Sea appearing to be coming to the boil, fortune favoured the brave, and the 2 participants who stayed on deck with me during the deluge were the only ones lucky enough to see the White-beaked Dolphin<\/em><\/strong> that surfaced just a few metres away from us.\u00a0 Manx Shearwaters<\/em><\/strong>, Arctic Skuas<\/em><\/strong> and lots of Gannets<\/em><\/strong> provided entertainment once the rain had ceased, but the dolphins remained elusive.<\/p>\n

That brings us to yesterday evening.\u00a0 A very calm sea and cetacean reports from earlier in the day (12 unidentified dolphins<\/strong><\/em> south past Tynemouth at 06:30, porpoises<\/strong><\/em> just off Cullercoats from the SarahJFK <\/em>and 2 White-beaked Dolphins<\/em><\/strong> in Newbiggin Bay at 17:15 all seemed to bode well).\u00a0 We’d just passed between the Tyne piers and started to head north when we came across 8 White-beaked Dolphins<\/em><\/strong> and 3 Harbour Porpoises<\/em><\/strong>!\u00a0 After enjoying several views of them, I explained to all on board that it isn’t usually that easy and we continued north.\u00a0 Arctic Skuas<\/em><\/strong> were seen as we passed St Mary’s Island but the real entertainment began when Andy spotted a distant fin north of Blyth.\u00a0 After a wait of several minutes the dolphins<\/strong><\/em> began to surface in ever-increasing numbers, eventually we were surrounded by over 30 animals bow-riding, breaching and milling about.\u00a0 As the dolphins<\/strong><\/em> began to drift away, presumably to feed once they’d finished playing with our boat, we continued north into Newbiggin Bay.\u00a0 Our return journey produced more dolphin<\/strong><\/em> sightings, including one animal repeatedly ‘spyhopping’, and some incredible views of animals swimming slowly around the boat.\u00a0 The only downside (if there really was a downside) was the murky, overcast conditions made it seem like dusk almost from the moment we set sail.\u00a0 We can choose times\/dates appropriate to what our clients want to see, we can use our knowledge and fieldcraft to maximise the chances of encountering any desired species…but we can’t control the weather.\u00a0 Wouldn’t it be a dull life if we could though?<\/p>\n

\"White-beaked<\/a><\/p>\n

\"White-beaked<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After\u00a0our stunning pelagic on Friday, we had 3 more evening trips in 5 days, all concentrating on the southeast Northumberland coast. Saturday was a massive contrast with Friday; only 2 brief White-beaked Dolphins, but Gannets and Fulmars were in great abundance and 3 Great Skuas, 2 Manx Shearwaters and\u00a05 Sooty Shearwaters added to the birdwatching […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,105,139,90],"tags":[362,122,185,363,240,364,365,841],"class_list":["post-1182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-druridge","category-north-sea","category-southeast-northumberland","category-white-beaked-dolphin","tag-arctic-skua","tag-fulmar","tag-gannet","tag-great-skua","tag-harbour-porpoise","tag-manx-shearwater","tag-sooty-shearwater","tag-white-beaked-dolphin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1182"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1192,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1182\/revisions\/1192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northernexperiencewildlifetours.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}