Day 1&2

Day 1: The first day began with us conducting our sightings from the bridge, weather conditions were not ideal  with sea state 6 for the day making it hard to observe cetaceans. However with assistance from the crew we did manage to see 3 common dolphins in the afternoon. Things on the bird front were better with 8 different species through the day Fulmars, Gannets, Kittiwakes, Great Skuas, Great Black Backed Gull, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Guillemots and a couple of Manx Shearwaters. We have moved off the continental shelf edge and are currently in waters that are three to four kilometres deep.  The bacon and cabbage dinner more than made up for a quiet day on the sightings front.  

Day 2: Unfortunately the sea state didn’t improve over night but we were treated to nice blue skies for the day and were able to conduct our sightings from the crow’s nest. Again we only saw only one cetacean species today, a group of 10 pilot whales that we encountered shortly after lunch. We managed to take some pictures including a few fin shots that may be used for photo-id. The birds managed to keep us busy again but were noticeably fewer in number than yesterday we had 6 species Fulmars, Gannets, Kittiwakes, Great Skuas, Lesser Black Backed Gull and Manx Shearwaters. We have our fingers crossed that the sea state will improve over the few days and give us better opportunities for spotting cetaceans. Failing that I’m sure the birds will still keep us entertained. The internet is pretty hit and miss at the moment but we’ll try and keep you up to date when we can. 

Lesser Black Backed Gull (Paddy O'Dwyer)

 Pilot Whale (Paddy O'Dwyer)