Natural Selection

Over the years I’ve tried to participate in Sea Watch Foundation’s annual National Whale & Dolphin Watch as often as possible. Some years this has involved attending the ones arranged by Dave McGrath, some years I’ve arranged my own or done something impromptu.

One of the issues with the dates being set in advance is that the weather may be unsuitable for cetacean spotting. If it’s windy picking out fins can be tricky if not impossible. Another issues is that whales are almost unheard of off Blackpool, and dolphins aren’t all that regular. Putting porpoises to one side (a bit arbitrary I accept) I had never seen a whale or dolphin on a Whale and Dolphin Watch.

I hadn’t arranged a watch this year but decided last night to take part as there was a helpful high tide time this morning and very little wind forecast. A new Sea Watcher app allows you to input sightings in real time so I installed it.

I arrived on the Prom at Gynn at half five in the morning. And then I saw nothing for two hours. Well that’s not the whole story. A distant but still supremely impressive flotilla of around 10000 Common Scoter were offshore. Closer in Sandwich Terns and a handful of lemon headed Gannets were passing. But I closed the watch at half seven on the app with no sightings.

I was about to get up and go to work early when on one last scan I picked up a large fin in the water. Things escalated quickly, there were dolphins in two different places and the furthest ones were throwing themselves into the air. However often you see this behaviour it’s always an exhilarating watch. I started a new watch on the app, the show lasted half an hour.

When the group gathered together there were clearly seven or eight Bottlenose Dolphins. It was a delight to pick out a calf among the group, which also suggests it’s the same pod that were seen at Starr Gate several times a few weeks back.

An image of one of the dolphins today. Whale And Dolphin Watch runs until Sunday, details at http://seawatchfoundation.org.uk