Thursday 9 April 2009

Not quite Orca Watcher!

The wind has died down and the safari was able to escape the clutches of the desk for a few short minutes this lunch time. So a quick trip to the sea wall was called for. And what a trip it was! Within a few minutes scanning the gloomy sea we saw the unmistakable breach of a Harbour Porpoise not too far offshore. Nowhere near as spectacular and dramatic as Monika's pictures of Orcas and the poor Porpoise; but a cetacean never-the-less - certainly not photographable - How did Monika get those shots; fantastic, unbelievable, down-right brilliant. (There had been two a little to the south of us couple of days ago - my 'thesis' is coming along nicely just a few more years of data to collect and there might be something worth writing about. (On another note if anyone knows any publishers that publish children's wildlife fact based stories let me know because my - although I say it myself - masterpiece, 'What A Monster Week', was rejected by another sh!*&!*&?ty publisher yesterday...drat)). But I digress. We watched the Porpoise come up to the surface for a few minutes and then in their usual fashion it just disappeared. Nothing much else to report, a couple a Sand Martins flew south along the sea wall and in the distance some small flocks of Common Scoters made their way northwards. Other than that very little else.
I promised you Newts and Newts you shall have - - later today in the next thrilling instalment of the Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris.
Where to next? Hmmm - holiday weekend could be an adventure coming soon - but got a hole in the back garden to fill with concrete first.....doh.
In the meantime let us know what spectacular stuff have you found in your wild outback.

2 comments:

Monika said...

Hey Dave,

Thanks for the link and all the nice compliments! As for how I got the shots it has a little to do with knowing whale behavior and predicting where they might come up next and A LOT to do with luck. I didn't even know what was happening when I clicked to take those pictures! I wonder what the other harbor porpoises we saw in the area were thinking as all this was happening to one of their mates! I bet your harbor porpoises were breaching for something other than trying to save their lives....

As for the children's book - how cool! I think wildlife stories for kids are super important. Keep persevering!

I look forward to the newts....
Monika

Lancashire and Lakeland Outback Adventure Wildlife Safaris said...

Hi Monika, hope you enjoy the newts. The great Crested are fairly rare and protected throughout their range across Europe, hence the need for a licence to disturb/handle them the Smooths are extremely common, a small pond can hold hundreds.
Our Porpoises were probably looking for flatties or starfish no orcas round here fortunately for them, get blasted by Bottle- nosed Dolphins in south Wales and NE Scotland though and there are mammal eating Orcas in the far north of Scotland for them to be wary of.