I have been friends with Josh Pedley who works for SeaMor Dolphin Spotting Boat Trips of Newquay for some time and have nagged him to get his boss to run a 4 hour trip out of Newquay in search of cetaceans and seabirds. There are regular 1 or 1.5 hour trips for holidaymakers and you can get lucky but for a serious birder/togger these are not quite long enough.
Josh duly delivered and myself and Teresa thoroughly enjoyed our 4 hours.
We firstly headed east hugging the coastline to inspect the cliff based auk and gull breeding colonies before heading further out for a distance of about 7 miles.
A Minke Whale had been reported earlier in the day which we hoped we may have encountered but we had no such luck.
We did however in our third hour make contact with Bottlenose Dolphins when three came in very close to the boat with others further out which unfortunately declined to join us.
The further we went out the numbers of Manx Shearwaters increased and we must have seen over 1,000, this gave me a chance to get some 'bird in flight' shots and although always a little distant I managed some shots that I was quite happy with.
Both locals Janet Baxter and Lyndon Lomax who I have met previously were also on the trip and it was nice to catch up and chat, there were about 10 of us in total on the trip and for £45 each it was excellent value for money.
The 4 hours passed all too quickly and soon we were back in Newquay docking at the quayside.
A thoroughly enjoyable experience and one I would wish to repeat and highly recommend.
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