Living Seas volunteer Andy usually spends his time conducting Dolphin Watch surveys for Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre however, due to COVID-19 all our research work from CBMWC has been put on hold. He is lucky enough to live in a flat overlooking New Quay Bay and has spent lockdown wildlife watching from his home.So, what a week of wildlife fun it’s been…enough to keep me wildlife watching for hours.

Andy Dolphin Watching (Nov 2019)

Interesting week folks…one of some wildlife identity crisis issues in fact for some of our creatures! What do I mean by that I hear you say? Well, in amongst the regular sightings (of which more in a mo), there have been some real anomalies… a moth that thinks its a butterfly, a seabird that thinks its a land-bird, a night-hunter that likes to be out mid-afternoon and a fish that thinks its a bird! Read on and discover.

So, Monday brought tons of dolphins (almost literally, three were the biggest I’ve ever seen) all around the bay but mostly in the usual spots…near the Cardinal buoy, end of the harbour wall etc. Lots of leaping and, on the calmer days, quite a bit of chilling at the surface.

The bay is now permanently full of guillemots and razorbills doing their aukey stuff, big numbers seemingly this year. And the first of my 4 ‘weirdo’s’ mentioned above, leaping fish! I’ve seen so many mackerel airborne this week it’s incredible…fully out of the water. I always check for dolphins when I see this happen but so far none, perhaps its patrolling bass that cause this or the fish really do think they’re birds.

Bottlenose Dolphins © Dr Sarah Perry

Secondly, on the oddness scale, fulmars over my front lawn during a midweek storm, oddly, with offshore winds. First time I’ve seen that…fulmars often seek inland cliffs to breed but seeing them right outside the flat’s a first for me. The same storm also brought the manx shearwaters in very close…so close they were being obscured by the trees when viewed from the flat.

After the storm, a kestrel has been patrolling this part of the shore..red kites and buzzards are frequent here (great news as they were so rare until quite recently) but kestrel are unusual. More unusual for me, the third anomaly species, a stunning black, red and white ‘butterfly’ mid-afternoon on Friday turned out to be a garden tiger moth…day flying and brightly coloured it really was a gaudy treat to enjoy.

The final ‘who am I, what am I doing here’ species … a pair (or was it parent/young ?)of tawny owl, several times, mid-afternoon during the week. The female or young ‘eee-wick’ being answered by the ‘too-whoo’ of the male.
You’ve just got to love wildlife’s utter randomness, haven’t you?

Tawny Owl by Mike Bright

Living Seas volunteer Andy usually spends his time conducting Dolphin Watch surveys for Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre however, due to COVID-19 all our research work from CBMWC has been put on hold. He is lucky enough to live in a flat overlooking New Quay Bay and has spent lockdown wildlife watching from his home.So, what a week of wildlife fun it’s been…enough to keep me wildlife watching for hours.

Andy Dolphin Watch (Nov 2019)

Greetings o viewers of the bay! Perhaps a little quieter this week in New Quay with some sporadic excitement patched in around a bit of a change in weather….hot and sunny early in the week but changing to quite stormy stuff with north westerlies mid-week creating some spectacular seawatching, more of which in a moment.

First off, a Heron fly-past on Monday brought the usual air attacks from the local crows and gulls…not quite sure why birds ‘mob’ herons but they always do. We don’t get many Herons here so its big, lumbering passage through was quite surprising.

Grey Heron at Cei Bach Beach ©Rosie Hemsley

Less surprising for June, bottlenose dolphin activity was great on Tuesday, several parties in the bay with several animals in each including juveniles and even one I could ID, Snowcap (actually, the only one I can ID!).

Ding ding, all change on Wednesday with a pretty hefty storm meaning yours truly was outside under an umbrella doing a seawatch…worth the wetting too with huge manx shearwater numbers close-in giving great displays of masterful flight plus lots of fulmars and auks. Interestingly I also saw dolphins, really lucky in big seas.

Manx Shearwater © Jay Burk

A bit quieter on Thursday but Friday came roaring back with a brilliant peregrine past my window…most years they breed on the cliffs near the lookout so this one may have been from there. Friday’s highlight though was dolphin-flavoured…several just below my flat in the bay surfing in the waves! They were so close-in I could only just see them over the trees and I had excellent views. I’ve seen several cetacean species surfing over the years but not bottlenose before, a great way to end the week.

Take care, see you next week.

Living Seas volunteer Andy usually spends his time conducting Dolphin Watch surveys for Cardigan Bay Marine Wildlife Centre however, due to COVID-19 all our research work from CBMWC has been put on hold. He is lucky enough to live in a flat overlooking New Quay Bay and has spent lockdown wildlife watching from his home.

Andy in action! (Taken Nov 2019)

Hello folks, hope this finds everyone well and in good spirits despite current circumstances. It occurred to me that some people might be getting withdrawal symptoms from the lack of dolphin activity you can view in your back garden and that, along with an obvious desire to get back into the pub, a bit of an update entitled, ‘a View of the Bay’ might slake the marine wildlife thirst, if nothing else.

Luckily, as I relax on my stool at the bar in my living room, I have a great view of New Quay bay so can I give you an update of what’s been ‘occurrin’ since the lockdown began.

Not surprisingly, bottlenose dolphin activity has accelerated since late March/early April. At about that time, just before the lockdown, I saw my last harbour porpoise, interestingly, at the same time there was a dolphin in the bay. Since then, dolphin numbers have increased…as has the frequency of sightings. I’m being contacted by several other local folks and know that the epicentre of activity is the Cardinal Buoy and reef, whereas the evening hang-out seems to be near the fish factory. On one day last week there were about 30 dolphins in the bay…a friend took a photo (whilst on their daily walk) and past ShoreFin volunteer, Gemma identified regular visitor Jacky. This just goes to show that once a Shorefin volunteer, always a Shorefin volunteer!

Cardigan Bay’s Bottlenose Dolphins

In birdy news….as the only vehicles I see in the village are the bin lorry and Postman Pat on his round (apparently, he’s struggling to get Jess’s fave cat food) the place is incredibly quiet and this has made birding a lot easier. Early April brought the first chiffchaff call, then blackcap to be followed a week or so later by willow warbler, swallow and house martin.

Gannet activity has sky-rocketed this week from only a few birds in early April to literally hundreds in the bay, great for me to watch but pretty tough on the fish. There were several days with good numbers of sandwich terns but they’ve now continued north to breed. I can’t get round to Bird Rock of course but it’s clear the auks are back with loads in the bay now. So far none of the Skomer manxies have wandered past but I expect that’s next.

Northern Gannet

As I have been sitting outside the flat gazing wistfully at my kayak, rapidly gaining cobwebs, I’ve also seen some pretty uncommon birds….a honey buzzard last week and a grasshopper warbler the week before. I say spotted but grasshopper warblers are the shyest of birds but give themselves away by their reeling, rising and falling call. Lovely.

For butterfly and moth fans the past month has been excellent. My first butterfly at the start of April was the small tortoiseshell followed closely by speckled wood. Since then, the pace has quickened with holly blue, lots of whites, orange-tip and peacock. ‘Lockdown learning’ has been required for me to ID the moths that appear in my hallway attracted by the overnight light. The amazingly named brindled beauty has been here lots of mornings, you should look it up to see why brown may not be a boring colour after all!

Peacock Butterfly

And lastly, land mammal news! I’m used to lots of rabbits outside the flat on our lawn but it’s been so quiet they’ve bred like, well, rabbits and there’s more than usual. So imagine how surprised, and delighted, I was last week when across the lawn trotted a sprightly fox! Perfect views 20m from my front window as it hunted and chased several frightened bunnies, once again, tough on them but made my day.

I wanted to end with this – there’s a spot where I sit outside my flat to wildlife spot and during lockdown I’ve followed the progress of a tree as it’s emerged from its winter, leafless form into full bloom. I know it may not sound like riveting spectator viewing but the chance to observe the opening of the leaves (and the community of birds and animals living on it) has been truly fascinating. I’ve found out as well that it’s a sessile oak and a friend tell me that ‘sessile’ means ‘fixed in one place, immobile’ so presumably it’s called that to distinguish it from all the other oaks that are constantly running about!

We look forward to more wildlife updates from Andy next week. 

Sessile Oak