Evening boat trip in search of wildlife

We have been members of our local wildlife Trust for many years and they arranged an evening boat trip on 8th June, to look at the wildlife of the seas and celebrate " World Oceans Day."  We thought this sounded fun and booked the trip. The trip was cancelled at the last minute due to rain (not surprising!) and winds of over 50 mph. The rearranged trip took place on Friday evening.

I am pleased to say the weather was much better and before boarding the boat we managed to enjoy a take away of fish and chips and a spot of people watching by Poole quay.

 Image taken from  the BBC

Once on the boat we saw common and sandwich terns in the lagoon at Brownsea Island. Then we passed over the seagrass beds where there is the largest population of sea horses in the British Isles.  A no anchor protection zone has recently been lifted from Studland Bay. However the Wildlife Trust feel that more research needs to take place as the habitiat has been damaged . (I had to borrow a picture from Emma Rance, as I  obviously couldn't take a photo!)

Then something happened to make the evening unforgettable, a pod of 10 dolphins appeared. They swam under and around the boat for about 5- 10 minutes. They were amazing and a memory I shall cherish for a long time to come. The captain told us that that afternoon he had seen them for the first time since the Spring. How lucky we were! They moved so fast and it was such a spectatular sight that it was almost impossible to capture in a photo !

This link will give a feel of what we experienced.  I wished we had taken a video of it, but we were just so memorised by enjoying the moment! Sorry my photo is not the best, you can just see the outline of the dolphin if you look carefully!

If we had visited in June the cliffs would have been full of breeding birds, unfortunately they had all had their chicks and already departed,, but we did see some puffins in the water, in the distance.

Finally, as the sun was going down, we noticed to two ears sticking up at the top of a cliff. They belonged to a deer.

As we headed back into Poole harbour , the neighbouring town of Bournemouth had their weekly summer firework festival taking place. So we moored out at sea to enjoy the spectacle. It was a nice end to a wonderful trip, but for me nothing could come close to beating that view on those magnificent dolphins in their natural habitat.

The wildlife Trusts are campaigning to create 127 Marine conservation zones around the coast of the UK there are more details here if you are interested.

 Welcome to my new followers to Susan (I can't find a link for you- if you have one please let me know), Kathrin and Suzanne thank you for your lovely comments and for joining me!

Sarah x