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Sightings

To give you an idea of what you might see on your trip, we list all the animals we see every day we run trips rather than just a selection of our 'best' sightings. It would take too long to individually list the species of seabirds we see each day so unless there are exceptional numbers of a species or an unusual sighting, we list them as 'seabirds'. A sightings archive for 2007 is linked at the bottom of the page.

December 2008
7th December
 
Just seabirds today in cold and choppy conditions. Thanks to the people who came out and got very wet, but were still cheerful and friendly!
6th December
 
Grey seals both in the water and on the rocks -image, image, image,image- and seabirds
November 2008
1st November
 
Inquisitive grey seals both in the water and on the rocks -image, image, image- and seabirds.
October 2008
31st October
 
Bottlenose dolphins (pod of about 10) image, image, image-, a harbour porpoise (only a glimpse in the choppy conditions), grey seals -image- and seabirds
29th October
 
Seals (incuding a fairly new pup) both in the water and on the rocks (have put a few pictures up as they were being very funny!)-image, image, image, image, image, image- and seabirds.
28th October
 
Harbour porpoise (a couple of glimpses in the choppy conditions) and seabirds including lots of diving gannets.
26th October
 
Bottlenose dolphins,image, image, image, image, image-, porpoises and seabirds including lots of gannets. Lots of swell and poor light today made photos difficult.
18th October
 
Bottlenose dolphins, pod of 13 again we saw them a few times throughout today -image, image, image, image, image-, grey seals -image, image- and seabirds -image-
17th October
 
Harbour porpoise - image, image- grey seals both in the water and hauled out -image, image- and seabirds. Another lovely sunny day . Is this the summer we never had?
12th October
 
Bottlenose dolphins, 13 in total we think (the large pod along with Cookie and Sleekie)-image, image, image, image, image- and seabirds.
11th October
 
Grey seal -image- and seabirds. It was very quiet out there today but fun conditions on a warm sunny day.
9th October
 
Very small juvenile grey seal (was possibly one of this year's early pups) -image- and seabirds
September 2008
29th September
  
2 basking sharks -image- and seabirds -image-
28th September
  
Large adult minke whale -image, image, image, image- lots of harbour porpoises -image-, basking sharks -image- grey seals -image- and seabirds
27th September
  
Harbour porpoises feeding at the surface -image-, still lots of basking sharks around! One with a growth on its nose -image, image, image- grey seals -image- seabirds and a peregrine falcon -image-
24th September
  
Had a lovely trip in the sunshine seeing grey seals -image- and lots of seabirds. Afterwards we went out on a blast on our own and found 30+ common dolphins -image- it's always nice to see dolphins on my birthday!
23rd September
  
Basking sharks 3 in total -image- grey seals -image, image- and seabirds including a pomarine skua
22nd September
  
Harbour porpoises in two different locations (only glimpses in the choppy conditions), basking sharks 25 in total -image, image, image- an ocean sunfish, grey seals and seabirds
21st September
  
Basking sharks 10 in total -image, image, image- a glimpse of a harbour porpoise, an ocean sunfish and seabirds
20th September
  
Bottlenose dolphins -image, image, image- basking sharks 12 in total -image, image, image- grey seals -image- and seabirds -gannets-
19th September
  
Harbour porpoises -image, image, image- basking sharks 29 in total -image, image, image- a skipping ocean sunfish, grey seals -image- compass jellyfish -image- and seabirds
17th September
 
Bottlenose dolphins -image, image, image- harbour porpoises -image, image, image, image- basking sharks 6 in total -image, image- grey seals -image- and seabirds
16th September
 
A minke whale -image (not today's whale but one from last year - they're tricky to photograph!)- three groups of harbour porpoises -image, image, image, image- basking sharks 15 in total -image, image- grey seals -image- and seabirds including a great skua.
15th September
 
Basking sharks 2 in total -image, image, image- grey seals and seabirds including sooty shearwaters, a pomarine skua and an arctic skua -guillemot, gannets-. Also lots of common terns and curlews.
13th September
 
A minke whale, a pod of feeding common dolphins -image, image- a pod of bottlenose dolphins -image, image, image, image, image- two groups of harbour porpoises -image, image- basking sharks 9 in total -image, image, image- ocean sunfish (one basking and one skipping), grey seals and seabirds. News update soon as there's too much to fit here.
12th September
 
Harbour porpoises first a lone porpoise feeding and later a group of seven feeding -image, image- grey seals and seabirds including -image- a juvenile razorbill.
8th September
 
Harbour porpoises first a group of 4 feeding and later 2 lone adults, a total of 29 basking sharks -image, image, image-feeding, grey seals and seabirds -gannets (feeding frenzy) - including a pomarine skua
7th September
 
4 bottlenose dolphins it looks like Cookie and Sleekie have some new companions! -image, image (looks like Cookie), image- Harbour porpoises a group two different times both times they were attracting clouds of gannets, 5 basking sharks -image, image,- grey seals -image- and seabirds including grey phalaropes -image- great skuas and a pomarine skua - image-
6th September
 
2 basking sharks -image, image, image-feeding seabirds including storm petrels in large swell.
4th September
 
We had some great views of 6 harbour porpoises feeding (a mixture of adults and calves), 6 basking sharks feeding, grey seals and seabirds including a great skua and storm petrels. No pictures today because the camera batteries were flat!
August 2008
30th August
  
A pod of 5 harbour porpoises feeding (a mixture of adults and calves), 6 basking sharks -image- grey seals -image- and seabirds.
29th August
  
A pod of 9 harbour porpoises feeding (a mixture of adults and calves - possibly the same group as yesterday), and then later a lone adult feeding -image - a total of 5 basking sharks -image, image- grey seals -image- and seabirds.
28th August
  
A pod of 9 harbour porpoises feeding a mixture of adults and calves -image (spot the tip of the calf's fin), image (a bit blurry this one)-, a total of 11 basking sharks -image, image- grey seals and seabirds including a great skua.
27th August
  
Harbour porpoises (7 in total) the first gave us just a glimpse, but later in the day we saw a group feeding and then later another feeding group, 3 basking sharks -image- an ocean sunfish -image- grey seals and seabirds -image- including a pair of great skuas, sooty shearwaters scores of storm petrels.
26th August
  
Basking shark -image, image- grey seals -image- and seabirds -image- including storm petrels.
25th August
  
Harbour porpoises, grey seals and seabirds including sooty shearwaters and storm petrels. No pictures today as I forgot to charge the camera batteries!
24th August
  
The large swell made photography very difficult today; however we still saw two groups of feeding harbour porpoises (at least 4 in total), a basking shark, grey seals -image- and seabirds -image- including 3 sooty shearwaters and storm petrels.
23rd August
  
Basking sharks (x5)-image, image, image- a pod of 4 harbour porpoises -image, image- grey seals -image, image- and seabirds including sooty shearwaters.
22nd August
  
Bottlenose dolphins (x2)-image, image, image- grey seals -image, image,image- and seabirds
21st August
  
Minke whale -image (not today's whale but one taken last year), 2 bottlenose dolphins (the images are from two separate encounters) -image, image, image, image- harbour porpoises on two separate occasions: first a group of 3 and then a group of 2-image, image- grey seals -image (spot the seal at the Wolf Rock!)- Portugeuse man-o-war (x2) -image- and seabirds including storm petrels - gannet, kittiwake fledgeling-.
20th August
  
Grey seals -image,image- and seabirds (we were only able to do one hour trips today in choppy conditions).
19th August
  
After more rough weather we managed to head out at the end of today and were once again rewarded, this time by a pod of 15 common dolphins -image, image, image, image-. We also saw grey seals and seabirds including lots of diving gannets and storm petrels around the common dolphins.
17th August
  
After losing yesterday to the weather we managed to sneak a very early trip in before the wind came up and we were well rewarded. We saw a group of 4 Risso's dolphins -image, image, image, image- grey seals in the water and lolling fatly on the rocks -image, image, image- and seabirds including a lot of gannets.
15th August
  
Choppy conditions again! Grey seals in the water and hauled out on the rocks -image, image, image (check out his gnashers!) - and seabirds
14th August
  
First day out after a spell of bad weather and we saw a Minke Whale image (not today's whale but one our friend Marijke snapped), 6 harbour porpoises, grey seals in the water and on the rocks, the biggest compass jelly fish I 've ever seen and seabirds including storm petrels.
11th August
  
ROUGH WEATHER ! It's got to be good for something so Duncan went for a surf at Sennen, during which he saw one of our pods of bottlenose dolphins.
10th August
  
Rough weather!
9th August
  
Rough weather
8th August
  
Lots of grey seals in the water and hauled out on the rocks -image, image, image- and seabirds including several storm petrels and recently fledged juvenile kittiwakes. Still a lot of choppy swell out there today.
7th August
  
Grey seals, seabirds and several curlews in b-i-i-i-g swell (hence no pictures - too difficult to hold camera straight). We haven't been out for the last few days because of foul weather, but at least the sun shone today.
4th August
  
Ocean sunfish (x3) -image- grey seals in the water and on the rocks-image- and seabirds including storm petrels
3rd August
  
Grey seals and seabirds including storm petrels, a Cory's shearwater and sooty shearwaters
2nd August
  
Ocean sunfish (x2), grey seals and seabirds. (No pictures today as I forgot to charge the camera battery)
July 2008
28th July
  
Ocean sunfish (x6) -image, image, image-grey seals and seabirds including a sooty shearwater
27th July
  
Harbour Porpoises (x8)-image, image, image- ocean sunfish (x7) -image, image, image- grey seals -image- and seabirds
26th July
  
Harbour Porpoises (x3)-image, image, image- ocean sunfish (x6) -image- grey seals -image, image- and seabirds including lots of storm petrels.
25th July
  
Ocean sunfish (x4) -image- grey seals and seabirds
23rd July
  
Ocean sunfish, grey seals - image, image - and seabirds image (kittiwake colony)
22nd July
  
Bottlenose dolphins - image, image - harbour porpoise, ocean sunfish (x2) - image - grey seals - image - compass jellyfish - image - and seabirds. Click here for more information about the dolphins
21st July
  
Bottlenose dolphins - image, image - grey seals - image - compass jellyfish and seabirds
20th July
  
Bottlenose dolphins - image - ocean sunfish - image - grey seals - image - compass jellyfish - image - and seabirds
19th July
  
Bottlenose dolphins - image 1, image 2, image 3, image 4 - grey seals, seabirds and a peregrine falcons
18th July
  
No trips today because of bad weather but while over in St. Ives we watched a pod of bottlenose dolphins feeding just offshore
17th July
  
Bottlenose dolphins - image 1, image 2 - , a basking shark, grey seals- image 1 - seabirds including a sooty shearwater and peregrine falcons - image
16th July
  
Bottlenose dolphins - image 1, image 2, image 3 - , grey seals- image 1, image 2 - and seabirds - image
15th July
  
Bottlenose dolphins - image 1, image 2 - , grey seals, seabirds and a peregrine falcon
14th July
  
Bottlenose dolphins - image 1, image 2 - a glimpse of some harbour porpoises,an ocean sunfish, grey seals, seabirds including puffins and a peregrine falcon - image
13th July
  
Bottlenose dolphins - image 1, image 2, image 3 - ocean sunfish, Portuguese man-o-war(!!) - image - grey seals, and seabirds including mediterranean gulls
12th July
  
Bottlenose dolphins - image 1, image 2 - a harbour porpoise, an ocean sunfish - image - seals and seabirds including lots of gannets and a storm petrel.
11th July
  
Risso's dolphins - image 1, bottlenose dolphins - image 2, image 3, image 4, image 5, a basking shark, seals - image 6 and seabirds - image 7. Altogether a pretty good day!
8th July
  
Seals in the water and hauled out and seabirds including lots of manx shearwaters and storm petrels - image 1, image 2, image 3
3rd July
  
Seals and seabirds including lots of diving gannets. We also saw a peregrine falcon - image 1, image 2, image 3, image 4 (fulmar)
June 2008
30th June
 
Another choppy day, and we saw a basking shark, the peregrine falcon again (in the same place), lots of gannets and a seal bobbing around in the surf at Porthcurno - image 1, image 2, image 3, image 4
29th June
 
Seals and seabirds in very choppy conditions
28th June
 
A group of 4 harbour porpoises feeding, an ocean sunfish, grey seals dozing on the rocks and seabirds including a sooty shearwater and storm petrels - image 1, image 2, image 3, image 4, image 5
26th June
 
With the fresh wind and choppy conditions we could only run an hour trip today. However we still had some great sightings of 3 ocean sunfish, a couple of seals and a variety of seabirds - image 1, image 2, image 3
24th June
 
Over 30 grey seals in two locations, seabirds and fabulous views of a peregrine falcon causing panic at one of the fulmar colonies - image 1, image 2, image 3
23rd June
 
Harbour porpoise, ocean sunfish, lots of grey seals and seabirds including lots of manx shearwaters and a storm petrel - image 1, image 2, image 3
20th June
 
Bottlenose dolphins - Cookie and Sleekie again, a basking shark, an ocean sunfish, lots of grey seals and seabirds includiong large numbers of Manx Shearwaters - image 1, image 2
19th June
  
After a stormy couple of days the swell was still rolling in so we couldn't go far. All the seals we usually see in the bay area had been washed out of their customary places leaving us just seabirds, curlews and two shelducks to look at today on a one hour trip.
16th June
 
Grey seals and seabirds - image
15th June
 
Bottlenose dolphins - Cookie and Sleekie again (we will be checking todays shots to see if they shed any light on the Sleekie issue), ocean sunfish, grey seals and seabirds image 1, image 2, image 3, image 4, image 5, image 6
14th June
 
Some very cute young seals and seabirds - image
13th June
 
Basking shark, ocean sunfish skipping across the surface, lots of grey seals in five different places and seabirds including a puffin and a balearic shearwater - image 1, image 2, image 3
12th June
 
Basking shark (feeding low), grey seals and seabirds - image
11th June
 
Bottlenose dolphins - Cookie and Sleekie (we are studying our shots of Sleekie closely as we are not sure it is Sleekie), grey seals and seabirds including puffins and storm petrels - image 1, image 2, image 3, image 4, image 5, image 6
10th June
 
Harbour porpoise, grey seals and seabirds including lots of gannets
9th June
 
Lots of very inquisitive grey seals and seabirds.
8th June
 
Basking sharks one of which was enormous - over 9 metres - image. Two of them were close to us, but there were many more down towards the Brison's rocks. We also saw an ocean sunfish, grey seals in three different places and seabirds including pomarine skuas.
7th June
 
Basking shark, grey seals and seabirds - image
5th June
 
Pod of common dolphins, a few snoozing grey seals and seabirds in very exciting conditions with a big ground swell and brisk north westerly winds - image 1, image 2, image 3, image 4
3rd June
 
Harbour porpoise, grey seals and seabirds
2nd June
 
7+ basking sharks, grey seals and seabirds - image 1, image 2
1st June
 
Lots of grey seals and seabirds - image
May 2008
31st May
 
A total of 15 basking sharks grey seals and seabirds. We also recieved a report of a minke whale and dolphins in the area earlier - image 1 , image 2 , image 3 , image 4
30th May
 
Basking shark, harbour porpoise, ocean sunfish, grey seals and seabirds - basking shark image, seal image, gannet image
29th May
 
Grey seals and seabirds including two puffins.
28th May
 
A harbour porpoise grey seals (one of them popped up next to us in the harbour as we were about to set off) and seabirds including a puffin.
27th May
 
Lots of grey seals in various places and seabirds image
25th May
 
A group of 6 harbour porpoise, then later another group of 3 harbour porpoises. Lots of very entertaining grey seals and great seabird sightings includung thousands of manx shearwaters. Here are some photos of today's wildlife: image 1, image 2, image 3, image 4, image 5, image 6.
24th May
 
Some very curious grey seals and seabirds
23rd May
 
Lots of grey seals and seabirds. We also saw another ocean sunfish.
22nd May
 
A harbour porpoise image and our first ocean sunfish image of the year as well as grey seals in three different places and lots of seabirds including many diving gannets.
19th May
 
A number of grey seals in three different locations and various seabirds. It was very choppy today so we could only run 1 hour trips.
18th May
 
We saw the bottlenose pod with 9 members today. The smallest calf has grown since we saw them. Here are some pictures image 1 image 2 image 3. We also saw a grey seal and a variety of seabirds.
17th May
 
Two groups of harbour porpoises today the first was a group of 4 (2 adults, a juvenile and a very small calf)) and the second was a mother and calf - the calf was pale grey in colour, much lighter than normal. Lots of grey seals were around and a variety of seabirds including large numbers of gannets. Also glimpsed an unidentified species of shark (we just saw the tip of a dorsal fin), most probably a basking shark - the first one this year!
15th May
 
A good variety of seabirds including sooty shearwaters.
12th May
 
4 harbour porpoises (click here for a picture), lots of grey seals (picture here) in various locations and seabirds (picture here)
11th May
 
Grey seals and seabirds.
10th May
 
6 harbour porpoises, grey seals and a good variety of seabirds. The fog made things difficult today but we managed to find the harbour porpoises in one of their favourite haunts. Click here to see a picture of one of the harbour porpoises from today.
9th May
 
4 harbour porpoises and lots of grey seals and seabirds. Still a good variety of seabirds around. The plankton is building so we are expecting our first basking sharks any day now.
7th May
 
Harbour porpoise and lots of Grey seals and seabirds. Large rolling westerly swell today making for a fun ride.
4th May
 
Lots of grey seals and seabirds. Still large numbers of numbers of Manx shearwaters, guillemots and razorbills

April 2008
27th April
  
2 Bottlenose dolphins, a harbour porpoise, lots of grey seals and seabirds including spectacular numbers of Manx shearwaters, common terns, guillemots and razorbills. Picutres of the bottlenose dolphins can be found on the news page here.
26th April
 
Grey seals including three who look as though they were born towards the end of February and seabirds. Incredible numbers of Manx shearwaters, guillemots and razorbills.
20th April
 
Grey seals and seabirds including lots of Manx shearwaters, common terns, guillemots and razorbills.
15th April
 
A large number of grey seals including 3 juvenilles and seabirds. Manx shearwaters, guillemots and razorbills starting to build up in large numbers.
13th April
Grey seals and seabirds including lots of Manx shearwaters, common terns, guillemots and razorbills.
10th April
Grey seals including a very small juvenille and seabirds.
9th April
Lots of grey seals and seabirds including Manx shearwaters, sandwich terns, common terns ,guillemots and razorbills.
8th April
Lots of grey seals and seabirds including Manx shearwaters, sandwich terns, common terns ,guillemots and razorbills..
5th April
 
Grey seals and seabirds.
3rd April
 
Grey seals and seabirds including Puffins. Most the trip was in a thick fog bank so we couldn't explore to far in search of cetaceans.
March 2008
27th March
  
Grey seals and seabirds
25th March
  
Harbour Porpoises (mother and calf), grey seals and seabirds
24th March
  
Harbour Porpoise, grey seals and seabirds
19th March
 
Bottlenose Dolphins 6 adults, 2 juvenilles and a new born calf (great to see) just outside the harbour
2nd March
 
Grey seals and a variety of seabirds
February 2008
24th February Harbour porpoises feeding and travelling, lots of grey seals and spectacular numbers of seabirds
21st February Lots of grey seals (a mixture of adults and juveniles) hauled out and in the water and a variety of seabirds.
Sightings archive 2007
  Click here to see our sightings page for 2007
  Click here to see a map of our cetacean (whales, dolphins and porpoises) sightings for 2007