Natural Selection

For my birthday Jane and I went to the art deco Midland Hotel in Morecambe. It’s a lovely venue and the rooms on the top floor have panoramic views of the Bay and balconies to drink them in from. We’ve been before for my birthday, we’ll probably go again. But when we rocked up on Sunday not for the first time it was wet and misty and you couldn’t see a thing.

This morning was a lot better. This picture of the Stone Jetty is taken from our room. It doesn’t look like it now but it was a railway terminus, where goods were loaded and unloaded onto and off boats moored alongside. In more recent times it has been recognised as a winter seawatching venue, the late John Bateman in particular counting grebes and seaduck on the tide.

Stone Jetty with God’s own country of Barrow-in-Furness in the background

We checked out and went for a walk along the Stone Jetty until the marvellously quirky Old Pier Bookshop was due to open. The sea was a bit choppy and I didn’t expect to see anything. I was therefore rather astonished that my first sweep in earnest produced the fins of three cetaceans heading out of the Bay.

I told Jane I had just seen three fins and they were close. Proof that they were indeed close was provided by Jane then excitedly picking them up with the naked eye. Rather improbably I began to think they might prove to be dolphins they were showing so well in not ideal conditions. But then I got on them again and confirmed they were really close Harbour Porpoises.

In one sense this was nothing special. I’ve seen porpoises many times over the years, and regularly from my home town of Blackpool. But this was a special sighting because it was so completely unexpected and they were stunningly close. Such moments of unforeseen true connection with nature close to home are usually more exciting than expected highlights on travels.

/Mother and calf porpoise from https://porpoise.org by Danielle Dion