Hello and welcome all to National Whale and Dolphin Watch Dairies 2021! Let’s take a look at the weekend highlights.
July 27th, 2021
There were 49 watches today; 16 in Scotland, 7 in Wales, 25 England, and 1 from Northern Ireland. We’ve had a great start to the watch with 96 sightings reported (and more are streaming in as we speak) of 7 different marine species. Check the map below to see some of the sightings which were verified by our Sightings Team:
- Bottlenose dolphin
- Grey seal
- Harbour porpoise
- Minke whale
- Risso’s dolphin
- Common dolphin
- White-beaked dolphin
We’ve had reports of three Risso’s dolphins travelling off Trinkie, Wick, Caithness from Colin Bird. Bottlenose dolphins were recorded by many observers on the day but Julia Leichnitz reported a large pod of 30 quite which included calves which were sighted feeding, leaping and tail-slapping (watch her video here below). The dolphins were recorded in Findochty, Moray. Common dolphins were recorded by the team of Marine Discovery Penzance off Penzance, Cornwall, feeding in association with gannets and harbour porpoises were captured in an amazing shot while leaping off the water off Amlwch, Anglesey by Anne and George Boyer.
To see the full list of all verified sightings recorded during National Whale and Dolphin Watch click here.
Video courtesy of Julia Leichnitz
Please remember to keep submitting your sightings online via our sightings form or using the Sea Watcher App before you submit your recording forms to nwdw2021@gmail.com. Remember that records of species absence are just as important! So please send in your recording forms even if you don’t see any cetaceans.
You have until midnight on the 15th of August to return your recording forms or let us know you submitted all your data via the App, for a chance to win prizes from our amazing sponsors! Go to our competition page to find our more.
Don’t forget to join our on-site and online events during the NWDW week! For more information check this page and if you have any questions, please feel free to contact the organizers at outreach@seawatchfoundation.org.uk.
I would love to hear from you about how you’re getting on with the National Whale and Dolphin Watch 2021. If you’d like to be featured in one of the diary entries, please get in touch at nwdw2021@gmail.com and tell us all about it! Please write “NWDW 2021 Diaries” in your email subject line.
Thank you to all our official partners who are greatly contributing to the success of this year’s National Whale and Dolphin Watch.
How you can support us:
- Make a donation
- Join our Membership Scheme
- Adopt a Dolphin
See you tomorrow for Day 5!
Chiara G SWF Sightings Officer NWDW Lead Organizer NWDW Feature Blogger
