1 JANUARY, 2015

3 adult Grey Seal close to Pepper Hole, near Stepper Point on W side of Camel Estuary

31 DECEMBER, 2014

Grey Seal, minimum estimate 11 individuals including 2 pups.
Seen from cliff path whist walking from Eastern part of Harlyn Bay, past Trevone & on to Treguder seastack.
Reported by Jonathan Biddle

26 MAY, 2014

Berry Head
800+ Common Dolphin The pod was spread over a wide area of some 5 miles, 1 mile south of Berry Head, Brixham and up as far north as the ore Stone nr Hope’s Nose Torquay - in several large – medium and smaller groups they gradually moved south. Conditions were still – mirror calm sea with a flat grey sky so perfect viewing conditions. A video of one of the medium/ large groups here: https://www.devonbirds.org/news/bird_news/devon_bird_sightings?blogEntry=5709 
3 Harbour Porpoise
Reported by Mike Langham

26 DECEMBER, 2013

Harbour Porpoise stranded at Cooden Beach, East Sussex
Reported by Rick Swain

White-beaked Dolphin in Lyme Bay shown on The One Show, details on the latest newsletter

http://us3.campaign-archive1.com/?u=a7914b2034f00765cc66c59db&id=e81b4174d6&e=fa57b8a6ae

13 AUGUST, 2013

Juvenile Striped Dolphin, stranded and later died at St Ouens Bay near El Tico and Le Braye slipway.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-23680527

8th August 2013

Up to 20nm off South Devon

Again out on a fishing boat off South Devon. Absolute highlight was a Minke Whale 16nm ESE of Start Pt, although initially close, only surfaced in sight once more and not when camera was at hand! Also two Ocean Sunfish seen.

While fishing seabirds were again relatively poor for the time of year! 3 juv Yellow-legged Gulls, 20+ Common Terns, 2 Bonxies, just one European Storm-petrel, though numerous Fulmars and commoner gulls. Of note were 3 Shags crossing the channel (not usually this far out) and one Redshank heard (high up). Manx Shearwaters were thinly distributed to 30nm out (though 50+ in the Minke area), but the main concentration was about 1.5nm off Dartmouth, which included several Balearic Shearwaters (boat was going too fast to count) when heading home.

A few  of pics of the Bonxies, one a worn adult in heavy moult the other a fresher looking bird probably a second-calendar year (some slight moult).

5th August 2013

Start Point

Seawatch 06:30-14:00. Start could not compete with Berry Head today, perhaps due to being stuck out in the sunshine, with the main weather front more east, inland and higher in Lyme Bay - producing the reduced vis for the large shears!

All SW: Cory's Shearwater @09:05, 3 Sooty Shearwaters (only one correlating with BH birds), 80 Balearic Shearwaters, 1142 Manx Shearwaters, Pomarine Skua, 7 Arctic Skuas, 22 Whimbrel (20&2), 2 Common Terns, 4 Sandwich Terns, 7 Common Scoter, 8 Puffins, 2 Guillemots and a Razorbill.

Late post for 2nd August

16:00-18:00: 100+ Balearic Shearwaters (65 passing and 35+ feeding with Manx on skerries bank), 800+ Manx (680 passing and 120+ feeding over skerries), 4 Puffin, 20 'commic' Terms feeding over skerries bank.

Since 29/7/2013 Start Pt has seen c580 Balearic Shearwaters! I'm not sure how many are on a feeding loop in outer Lyme Bay (i.e the same birds going round in a circle), or new birds crossing the channel, feeding and moving on - perhaps a bit of both! Which would explain lower numbers at Prawle on 04/08/13. This influx is earlier than normal, as I have never had a 100+ counts in July, or early August. Looking at other websites the birds are now well distributed around the UK and Ireland!