Anyone who has ever met me knows that I am generally an enthusiastic person and I get very passionate about things. Sometimes these passions are short-lived – let’s never again mention my, thankfully brief, interlude as a teenage plane-spotter – and some sustain over the longer term. I’ve been mad keen on nature my whole life and this is where most of my passions are rooted.
Like most naturalists, my initial introduction to nature was through birds and butterflies, and my fascination with birds has never wavered over five decades. I am not immune to the desire to see new species, but some of my most desired seemed unobtainable, mainly because my financial resources are not bottomless.
Albatrosses had always captured my imagination a...
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In my previous blog I discussed my fascination with albatrosses, but alongside that I also have a deep affinity for cetaceans, and I’ve spent the best part of the past two decades in pursuit of encounters with these aquatic mammals.
As someone with a tendency to gravitate toward rocky headlands on the extremities of this sceptred isle I have enjoyed numerous encounters, albeit mostly distant, with many a cetacean over the years. Despite my best efforts my species list remained remarkably small, just three species, consisting of Harbour Porpoise, Common Bottlenose Dolphin and Short-beaked Common Dolphin. Whales eluded me completely.
Short-beaked common dolphin off Cornwall © Jeff Clar...
