Well, it's been far too long since my last update but I have been keeping busy, I promise! Oh lord... there's a month to catch you up on. This could be a long one, you might want to make a cup of tea first.
After my family left following their much enjoyed holiday I was desperately hoping for some improvement to the weather so I could get out surveying, but no such luck. So, I stuck to various bits and bobs of office work, reading, and acquainting myself with the C-POD analysis software. I also worked on a press release about my project, to encourage members of the public to report cetacean sightings to add to my data.
On the evening of 13th August, Alex and I took a trip to Douglas to check out
Summerhill Glen, which is lit up each evening.
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| Dinosaurs, of course |
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| Plastic bottle chandelier |
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| Changing colours |
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| Summerhill Glen |
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| Lights on the water |
The following day, despite the conditions not being brilliant, Alex and I did a three hour watch at Port St Mary and had five sightings of porpoises and saw two Risso's dolphins which was brilliant. Things were a little too rough at the Calf to survey there, and unfortunately, the next day we managed just 45 minutes before conditions deteriorated.
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| Rough conditions at the Calf |
So, more office work abounded, including compiling tide times to look at alongside my C-POD data, and sorting out a list of things I need to remember on the boat when we go out to check the pods.
Wednesday 20th we attempted a watch at Port St Mary in the morning but it wasn't quite good enough. We headed back after lunch with the repaired theodolite and managed a fleeting glimpse of a harbour porpoise. I also heard that following my press release to local media, I have been asked to do an interview for Manx Radio.
We had a few more days of office work before we headed down to Port St Mary for the
Deep South Music Festival on Saturday and Sunday. The layout was a little scattered around a field meaning it was a little tricky enticing people in to talk to us as they wanted to head straight to the music, or take the kids to the bouncy castle! But we did speak to people on both days, and those we spoke to were very interested in our work and many made a small donation to us which is always great. It is only in its second year I believe, and hopefully it will continue to grow over the next few years.
On the Sunday of
Deep South Tom and I helped Jen and Alex set up the stall then went down to the harbour at Port St Mary to meet our survey boat so we could head out to check the C-PODs. We passed the C-POD near to Port St Mary and headed out to Calf West where we managed to successfully haul the pod, change the batteries and SD card, and redeploy. Everything seems to be in full working order so fingers crossed for some good detections on there. We then headed back to do the pod at Port St Mary only to discover that the high water and strong tide had pulled the surface buoy underwater and out of sight so we couldn't locate it. After a little searching in vain we decided to head North to Langness region to try and track down a lone bottlenose dolphin which has been seen hanging around the area almost every day for weeks now. We managed to spot it, despite its erratic surfacings, and got one decent shot of the right side of the dorsal fin for ID. It appears that it is not a fully grown adult, and it is not especially well marked, again suggesting it is relatively young, so it may well be a young adult that hasn't established itself in a pod yet. We returned to see if the C-POD buoy had resurfaced but with no luck, so headed back to harbour and swapped with Jen and Alex to let them go with the boat back round to Peel and do a survey, whilst Tom and I stayed at the festival feeling a little dejected at our unsuccessful C-POD search.
Unfortunately, the conditions were really quite bad, and the poor girls got completely drenched on the way home with not even a cetacean sighting to cheer them up! They did however do something to cheer me up, which was to find the C-POD in Port St Mary. By the time they went out the tide had dropped enough for the buoy to re-appear and our brilliant skipper 'Duke' attached another float to it to hopefully prevent it from happening again.
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| Lone bottlenose dolphin |
On Tuesday, as the weather was not good enough for surveying, I took a quick look at the C-POD data from the Calf and found LOTS of porpoise clicks, and even some dolphins in there too, so it will be exciting to delve into this more deeply. In the evening, Alex and I headed down to Peel Castle, one of the Isle of Man's many
dark sky sites to check out the stars and see if we could get any good photographs. It was a little chilly sitting down there by the water, but very beautiful.
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| Peel Castle |
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| Stars over the castle |
Wednesday morning I went to the
Manx Radio studio in Douglas for my interview then headed back for some more office work. Jen and I took Alex out to see a few laps of the
Manx Grand Prix on Friday for her last day on the island, and we watched from a great site where the riders whizzed by very close to our perch on a wall.
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| MGP rider |
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| Capturing the action |
After taking Alex to the airport on Saturday morning, I was dropped off in Port Erin so I could walk some of the
coastal path. The day started off very nicely, then as I gained some altitude I walked in to a big cloud and lost visibility. But it was still very pleasant walking amongst all the heather and gorse. I foraged a few blackberries along the way, and enjoyed the walk despite my trusty 12 year old walking boots finally breaking on me.
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| Starting from Port Erin |
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| The goal - looking north towards Peel |
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| Dry stone wall |
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| Lots of heather and gorse |
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| Field grasshopper |
On Sunday the weather allowed for a one hour watch at Port St Mary, but no sign of any cetaceans, so I returned home to make a cake for Jen's birthday! Monday I again managed one hour at Port St Mary, but again with no cetaceans, so I took the time to make sure things are sorted to head out on the boat tomorrow to check the C-POD we didn't get to last time.
Tom and I set out from Peel about 9am, and took the longer route around the back of the Calf, rather than through the Sound to get to Port St Mary. It was good that we did, as we spotted a mother and juvenile Risso's dolphin along the way. We took a few photographs of them before continuing to the C-POD, which we successfully located and hauled, changing the batteries and card. Everything looks in good working order again, and hopefully there will be good detections. We continued the day with a survey, though conditions weren't as good as we would have hoped offshore, we did encounter a group of Risso's around where we had seen the previous two. There appeared to be around 6, including the mother and juvenile, though they were spread over quite an area and appeared to be feeding. We also spotted a few porpoises, and a skua, which we don't see too many of around here. Jen did some surveying at the Calf in the afternoon and saw what appeared to be the same group of Risso's, so they seemed to be in the area for some time, perhaps even close enough to be detected on my C-POD.
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| Mother and juvenile Risso's dolphin |
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| Leaping Risso's |
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| Not brilliant picture of a skua |
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| Mother and juvenile harbour porpoise |
The following day was much better weather wise and I surveyed for an hour at Port St Mary, and three hours at the Calf, but unfortunately with no sign of any cetaceans. In the evening I had the strange experience of
listening to myself on the radio, being broadcast on the
Shiaght Laa show at about 6.20pm.
Thursday I surveyed two hours at Calf West with no luck. Friday I headed out in the morning but the visibility was far too poor so I returned home to try again in the afternoon when I did an hour survey at Port St Mary, with no cetacean company. Throughout the beginning of September there have been numerous reports of minke whales sighted from the north east of the island so on Saturday we headed up to Laxey and Maghould head to see if we could spot any. It seems we just missed them at Maghould, as by the time we returned home there was a report waiting for us of two seen shortly before we were there.
During a one hour survey at Port St Mary on Monday, I finally caught sight of a cetacean, spotting one porpoise. However, the best day was certainly Tuesday. Conditions were pretty good, and I enjoyed a very brief sighting of two Risso's dolphins at Port St Mary, before heading to survey at Calf West. I spent two and a half hours watching a calm sea in the lovely evening light. I caught sight of three Risso's dolphins and watched them for a while before they moved out of sight to the North. But it seems they only went off to get some friends, as about 20 minutes later a group of six, including a mother and juvenile pair, came back in to view. Though still quite a distance from where I was sitting, I even managed to take a few pictures, and enjoyed views of them leaping before disappearing in to the sunset. Evenings like that make hours of surveying without sightings worth it.
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| Two Risso's dolphins |
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| Risso's leaping in the evening light |
