The season has been good so far for all the seabirds with some great surprises. A Blue Fulmar passed Staple Island, the arrival of the Bridled Tern was and still is amazing, and just when we thought it could not be beat, I received a text from a friend to say that he had just seen a Fea’s Petrel at Beadnell Point and then 5 mins later one of the Rangers saw it fly past Staple Island.
The most incredible part about it was that this was in thick fog and Gary even managed to get a picture. Now this is a mega mega bird so my hat has to go of to Gary for seeing it, never mind getting a picture of this wonderful bird.

Well done Gary.
www.beadnell-birder.blogspot.co.uk

July has just been stunning with flat calm seas, clear skies and very warm, but it’s been the amount of sightings of Mini Whales that has amazed me. They have been spotted on a daily bases by myself, fisherman and other people, which is great news. The mackerel has been plentiful during July also, so this is another good reason for the Minki’s being around, as it’s their favourate food. 

We decided to trip a Whale trip but the first one was a bit of a flop as we did not see any, but I was not going to give up yet and the next day I came out of the harbour and I spotted one only 200 yards from the harbour entrance.

I quickly stopped the boat and it came right along side of the boat before going under it. I clicked away taking as many pictures as I could.

The underwater visibility is great at the moment as it’s about 10 meters so I could see the white on it flipper, so I just kept on clicking away. Again it went around the boat as if it was checking me out.

They are just beautiful mammals and a delight to have around our waters, so I decided to try another trip to see if we could hit the jackpot.

Things were not looking to good as the fog had dropped in and after 2.5 hours of searching we did not see a thing. We were just about to give up hope when a Minki broke the surface. We watched the Minki for about 15 minutes before we lost it in the fog.

The guests were so pleased and so was I.

Never mind, here are some pictures of the Minki Whale on both occasions.

During the Fog. (Below)