I led two YCN pelagics off Staithes in two days, 25-26 August. Great views of Minke Whales on both trips, plus Sooty and Manx Shearwaters, Arctic and Great Skuas. Highlights were a bow-riding quartet of Short-beaked Common Dolphins at the end of the first day, and then an Atlantic Flying Fish on the second. Both species should not really be in the North Sea and could be a result of the warm plume of Atlantic water that has spread right across the Atlantic this summer. Common Dolphins are rare off Yorkshire, but there was a record of a mother and calf off Bempton earlier in the summer, but I can't find any records of Atlantic Flying Fish, so that is really interesting.
Atlantic Flying Fish. Photo by Karoly Kantas
In Runswick Bay, I was surprised to see about 80 Common Terns sitting on the sea. I have seen this behaviour in Arctic Terns before on migration but not Common Terns. There was one juvenile Arctic among them. Good to see numbers of juvenile Commons, suggesting some colonies have escaped bird flu.
Minke Whales:
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