:-) Goooooood Morning 2015 :-) Please put the kettle on . Have a nice cup of tea as you sit down to read this .. As its going to be quite a long one :-) Most importantly its ..... To all of YOU , our fabulous followers, wonderful friends, brilliant colleagues, generous volunteers and our truly wonderful crew :-) Wherever you all are around the WORLD ... ..... May I extend to YOU ALL ..... ........ My Warmest, Heart Felt ....... ✨ HAPPY NEW YEAR ✨ .... .. To each and every single one of you .. Together,, YOU, have all made this, A very, very special one .. Thank you, for all your incredible support, hard work and for helping to spread the WORD, about all we offer and all we do, throughout the whole twelve months of the year And what a year it has turned out to be . Such a beautiful Spring, long sunny Summer which carried on right through until late October . Fabulous .. Delightfully and with our immense gratitude and appreciation :-) You all , kept us lovely and busy heading out on Free Spirit, far and wide . From those dramatic and stunningly beautiful, huge headlands of the Dodman Point up to the East and all then all way down to the most Southerly point . Our glorious Lizard Point .. Helping me and our fabulous crew and team. To search, record, photograph and document, all the amazing, truly rich and diverse wildlife . We are so priveleged to have living and passing through, our rich and sheltered waters. Of this beautiful large and stunning, Falmouth Bay, Cornwall . All the data we collectively gather and document, is then freely passed on, to all the various Conservation Groups and Wildlife Trusts, we work closely with and love to support . This is such vital and very important information, as it all goes to help implement, marine conservation policy and allows US the collective WE, you me and the above organisations to lobby government . For more, much needed ... Marine Conservation Zones MCZ , No Take Zones , Protected Areas and a carefully structured, Marine Management Policy . To protect and conserve, this our precious and fascinating resource. The wonderful Marine Environment :-) To date and for your interest :-) ....... We recorded and documented ....... The first and now last Rhizostoma or Barrel Jellyfish here in Cornish waters 2014 ..More about this to follow. Some Nineteen Basking Sharks. The most recorded in one area this year, on the South Coast of Cornwall. From huge females at Twenty Five feet in length to one little baby Basking Shark, at a tiny Five and a half feet .. Some Three Thousand Two Hundred and Fifteen Cetacean Species. Which was made up with some . Thirty Eight Minke Whales. Of which, we had Nine up !! All together feeding, in one hour and a half period . Quite incredible . From this phenominal Minke Whale year. We are in the process of producing a photographic Fin ID catalogue .. Of these delightful and inquisitive little Whales. We believe possibly, there has never been so many Minke Whales recorded in one area, here in Cornwall .. With each one having a very unique Dorsal Fin .. It will give us some wonderful data, to pass over to the various Conservation groups we work closely with. Four different species of Dolphin. Rissos Dolphin. Common Dolphin. Bottlenose Dolphin. Both the Inshore and Offshore pods . Both pods quite different with the Offshore pod consisting of some Fifty + or - individuals and much bigger animal too. White Beaked Beaked . All four species of Dolphins were recorded, with new born babies , calves and juveniles, in their social pods and family groups . A Super Pod of Common Dolphins in late October . Numbering hundreds, if not a thousand animals .So difficult to count precisely :-) So its always + or - . Along with several other, very large aggrigations of Common Dolphins . Including one phenominal aggrigation. Where a large pod of Common Dolphins had tracked down and herded together . A huge shoal of frenzied Mackerel. Into a tight spinning ball, pushing them right up to the surface . All in crystal clear waters and flat calm seas . Allowing us to document, film and record this incredible and remarkable spectacle. The final Cetacean species recorded this year . Were our tiny little Harbour Porpoise . Which gave us the highest count of cetaceans and individuals recorded. Lots of Mother Calf groups and the most animals we recorded in a single trip being some Fourty Five individuals. Biggest feeding aggrigation, being Twenty Five of these tiny little, shy and endearing animals in one area. Seals have been steady and consistent . However, numbers are definitely down locally, from when I operated here previously. Sadly we didnt recorded a seal pup in this area in 2014 . Which is a concern, as we normally do have one born locally and the most I have recorded is four. There is still a possibility that there may well have been a pup born, deep inside one of the many sea caves we have along our beautiful coastline .. So over the next couple of months . We might observe and record a pup, that is now weened and has joined up with its fellow Seals along the Coast . As they gather now in the New Year to moult . Fingers and toes crossed. I will kept you all posted. To our absolute delight and joy. We still have a little Common or Harbour Seal in residence in our area. These are not a Seal we would normally associated with the far South West and Cornwall. Being normally associated with the East Coast, the Wash, Norfolk and Suffolk. This delightful little Seal, can quite litterally pop up anywhere on our trips. From way up inside our stunning rich, diverse and huge Fal Estuary, to then anywhere along the coast. Joyful and certainly keeps us on our toes . Making positive IDs of the Seals in this area. Bird life as always, has been exquisite, varied and very exciting . From Red Kites coming in off the sea, multiple Ospreys passage migrating through. A gorgeous Short Eared Owl hunting along the shoreline . A first for me in Cornwall. Fabulous Peregrine Falcons . Brilliant Chough interactions . Thousands of Manx Shearwaters passing through and feeding, along with good numbers of Sooty and Balearic Shrarwaters too. Two species of Skua, Great and Arctic. Not to mention the tiny birds like Storm Petrels, Grey Phalaropes and Purple Sandpipers. Good numbers of Puffins throughout the Spring. However, sadly along at the Auk Colony .Guillemots and Razorbills numbers are right down . We do a detailed count every year and its saddening to see the decline in numbers . You all might well recall the P. I. B Oils, Palm Oil purposely discharged into the English Channel in the Winter of 2012/13 which had a horrendous impact on all the Auks and the many other seabird species that inhabit and feed in this area. Then sadly to add to this impact the following Winter 2013/14 . Saw us all being hammered down here in the South West, with continual deep low pressure systems and hurricane force winds . Which again caused a huge impact . As a lot of Auks and other seabirds, found it near on impossible to feed and consequently, , sadly starved to death .. We will be doing a count this Spring and see how numbers are responding .. Phenominal numbers of Great Northern, Black Throated and Red Throated Divers were recorded along with Black Necked, Red Necked and Slavonian Grebes . To name but a few.. Coming back to the beginning and those huge Rhizostoma or Barrel Jellyfish. Amazing and quite beautiful animals in their own right . To my absolute surprise and intrigue .. On Monday the 29th of December 2014. Whilst we were out on a truly spectacular 4hr wildlife cruise .. We not only located and observed a Barrel Jellyfish but ended up recording SEVEN of these massive animal. Climate change is having an effect on all of us. The weather and sea temperatures certainly getting warmer. Extremes from one year to the next . New weather related records being recorded and broken around the globe, as well as here in the UK. These Jellyfish feed on Zooplankton, which we would normal associate with the Spring months in our latitudes. To add to the intrique. There was a Basking Shark, another plankton feeder !! Recorded in Mounts Bay, on the 12 of December !!! So it just goes to prove and as our saying goes. :-) If its out there , we will find it for you .. AND .. Expect the unexpected :-) .. We ended up 2014 on a massive and truly wonderful high .. Getting two 4hr wildlife cruises out, on the 28th and 29th of December. With my good friend and colleague Ross Wheeler, acting as crew. Ross is a fully trained up MMO ( Marine Mammel Observer ) and marine surveyor. Recently just returned back ashore, after spending a long period out in the North, North Sea. Where he was working as an MMO. On one of the many seismic oil research vessel, still active in the North Sea. So it was not only fabulous to catch up with him and hear all his stories but incredibly kind of him to give us his time . Heading back out to sea with me .. Thanks Ross :-) you are a STAR .. It was as always! Im delighted to say .. A lot of fun too :-) As we were able to locate and record, lots of very special and unique wildlife over the two days . Record those huge Barrel Jellyfish, a first at this time of year !! And importantly, record a new cetacean species for 2014. The beautiful and very rare, White Beaked Dolphins .. We were also priveleged to record and interact with a large, maternal pod of Common Dolphins with their calves and juveniles and had Harbour Porpoise on both days too, along with this diverse list of wildlife we recorded below .. White Beaked Dolphins 7 and a calf. Common Dolphins 40 + or - with calves and juveniles . Harbour Porpoise 2, including a logging animal . 18 Atlantic Grey Seals. Great Northern Divers 14. Slavonian Grebes 4 Peregrine Falcons 4 Buzzards 4 Kestrels 2 Guillemots 300 + or - . Some at the nest site. !!! Razorbills 8 Kittiwakes 60 + or - Egrets Herons Oystercatchers Rock Pipits Curlew Whimbrel Purple Sandpipers Mediterranean Gulls and again to our absolute amazement . ... Nesting Shags !!! and Shags seen coming in with nesting material!!! in their beaks. Very early indeed.. !!! So its a bye, bye 2014 and hello to 2015. We have lots of exciting things planned and we are going to ask you all, to consider supporting us on a very exciting project which I am currently working on . Which will, if you would like to become involved. Involve you with more hands on data gathering, when you are out with us and asking for your support and generosity. Behind the scenes. There is nothing I love more . Than to support other that are less fortunate than ourselves. Be it physically, mentally or financially .. I love to help others and give a little bit back if I can and show my support. Wildlife is such a good medium and healer. Dolphins as we know, so uplifting and the whole marine environment so rewarding .. Sadly their are also lots of children suffering with cancer, returning forces personnel and their families and children like wise suffering, with the stresses of conflict. So Im hoping with your support together we can do more . As soon as I have completed and compiled the project I will happily publish it out to you all. I would like this project to be far reaching and long lived . To allow as many people and yourselves the very best possible opportunity to enjoy and experience all of the above and our truly special and fabulous Marine enviroment. I would also like to support the Conservation Groups and our local University and its wonderful students so much more .. So there are lots of exciting things coming up in 2015 which I hope you might like to become involved with and in the long term .. Have a lot of fun in the process and help so many more people by what we can offer. Thank you, ALL , each and every one of you for helping to make it such a fun filled and very special 2014.. Below is a series of fabulous photographs captured by Ross and myself with long lens and GoPro camera on a pole, for you all to share and enjoy .. ✨ Happy New Year ✨ My thoughts, prayers and immense gratitude goes out to You All.. .... Smiles and happiness always .... Thank you for all your very special messages and the very touching comments you so kindly send . I love to receive them and Im very appreciative of them all .. Looking forward to sharing lots more magnificent and exciting wildlife with you and sharing lots of Seatime with you all . ..... :-) CK :-) .....
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 13:58:36 +0000
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