Porpoises on the North Wales coast!!!!!

On the first day we wanted to have a look around the Great orme and as usual we scanned the sea looking for anything breaking the waters surface and today we were lucky enough to spot a Porpoise breaking the surface and over the past few years I have seen them before but not as close. Not only was there an adult porpoise a small calf swam along side the adult probably its mother and every so often another would come in and then disappear probably the male which later that week they were revealed to be a resident family of porpoises and the fact they are breeding here shows the how healthy the area is. We spotted them over the week between the main pier at Llandudno to half way around the Great Orme. 
After abit of research I found out that Porpoises feed on sand eels which are in healthy numbers as Sandwich terns feed on them on Llandudno bay so I am guessing thats there main food source and if they stay in healthy numbers I am sure that they and other marine life will thrive.

 Young Calf coming close to the shoreline

 Adult female feeding in the shallows

 Diving together

 The calf comes close below the cliff where I watched from

 After some boats entered the area they both quickly swam away from the Great ormes waters to find safety in the deeper waters of the Irish sea.

 A great sighting and I had to climb down a very steep grass cliff with my kit bag and as I am afraid of heights I was a little nevous to say the least. But I had to get this close as the light was awful I got a few shots but mostly I watched as I wanted to absorb everything from the sound of there blowholes pushing out water into the air and there observe there beauty and speed as they cut through the calm 

and clear waters of the Irish sea.

I am thinking that Bottlenose Dolphins could possibly become residents of the bay sometime in the next ten years if the area remains at the quality it is now. One reason I believe this because of the amount of food available especially in the summer months due to the amount of fish that the Dolphins feed on are in large numbers due to the of beach fishing in the area, so fingers crossed that this will happen and other species will follow from Basking sharks to Minke Whales which have been sighted in the summer months that probably come from waters around the Isle of man.

In my next blog I will be posting about our encounter when we went kayaking with Grey and Common Seals and it was one of the best experiences of my life.

I still have footage to edit of them swimming close to shore and hopefully the calf swimming just below the seas surface at a fast pace.

Thanks for reading

Mike