The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly. Pt.1

Those of you with longer memories [or the tendency to look through blog archives] will recall I am of the habit of spending the odd summer day sat on my behind on Prawle Point, listening to the cricket*, and watching whatever chooses to fly or swim [or indeed sail] past.

Such a day was Sunday.

I spent 8 hours up there, only stopping due to impending bad light [yes, that's a cricket joke] after stumps. The weather was a lot less showery than forecast, but far less sunny than it could have been, and I saw faaar more than I expected.


Star Event at 1705, when, after having a quick look at a distant yacht ['Good Time'], I was scanning slowly back east and my jaw hit the floor as a huge black mass came out of the water at 45° and backflopped down, great white flippers at its sides...  HUGE splash.

HUMPBACK WHALE!!!!!!!!!

 :O  Easily 2km out, probably more, but that didn't stop me trying the camera.

Thar she blows!!
[Sort of]

Pure flukey chance I caught a bit of splash, right at the edge of a shot. [I couldn't see anything through the viewfinder, so just aimed at the right area and hoped...]

'Good Time', uncropped at full zoom
[that's a rain line behind it, btw]

The title starts to make sense; The Good being what I saw, the Bad being my awful attempts at photos.. The Ugly... Well, earlier in the day;

Wonderfully eco-friendly.
Part of a 25-strong horde

Typical jetscum**

I think they need a new name, too. Jetski implies the 80's style scooter-sized things. These are effectively ride-on powerboats; car-sized engines....


The Humpback wasn't the only cetacean out there. Twice I had groups appear and be scared off by them, and as the first were frickin' Pilot Whales [at least 3, heading W, and close in for them!] I was.. Rather ticked off, shall we say?

I may have vocally regretted the paucity of great big White Sharks when you want them.. Or convenient WWII mines [maybe not, shockwaves and all]. Certainly imho there oughtta be a law against 'em. They waste carbon, are a danger to other water users - especially anything or one swimming - and pretty much spoil the enjoyment of anyone that isn't them.

Ahem.


Back to the Good;

Second group was a good-sized pod of Common Dolphins [at least 7], seen coming in from SSW, but which sharply turned away [I saw them turn!] when again the sound of engines announced incoming...


Much later, 5+ Harbour Porpoises were hunting fish off the Point at about 1km distance, working slowly W, with 20-35 attendent Gannets.  Wonderful sight, with synchronised attacks above and below, just like on tv!  :)
Quite a lot of fish off the Point all day, with Manxies often pausing to feed; stalling beautifully*** before making shallow dives! :D


More will come in part 2, including proper passage numbers [yes, I saw birds, too!] and a few better photos. Also equally bad ones, possibly worse.
::Shrugs:: Whaddya gonna do?




Be Seeing You...



[[* Fortunately, Prawle's famous EM blackspot doesn't extend to LW; Test Match Special is a Wonder of the Modern World. ]]
[[** In service of fairness, there are at least 5% of riders who aren't older, less physically active, caucasian males. {Ie. The sort of MLC who in previous decades would buy a Harley and become an organ donor...} I cannot speculate on the proportion of second home owners among them, due to Science.   Ahem. ]]
[[*** They rear their head right back - this shifts centre of gravity as well as air flow very quickly {both important in stall mechanics} - to turn flight suddenly into dive without losing too much speed to get any depth. Very neat. ]]