Spectacular sights from our year of staycations
Wildlife charity reveals finest snaps of...
THE pandemic has ruined many carefully planned foreign trips this year.
But having more families remaining in the UK for their holidays has produced an unexpected benefit.
The rise in ‘staycations’ led to a series of rare sightings in our seas, according to researchers.
Playful bottlenose dolphins in the North Sea and a ‘spellbinding display’ of bluefin tuna in the Channel are just some of the many highlights recorded by the Wildlife Trusts this year.
In its annual review, the charity said volunteers and conservationists spotted minke whales and a rare sea slug. They also discovered a new seagrass bed as well as recording breeding successes for grey seals, guillemots and terns.
Among the other spectacular sightings of 2020 was rare evidence of a Risso’s dolphin calf captured on camera by a wildlife enthusiast off the coast of Anglesey in Wales.
The calf clearly shows folds in its skin indicating it had just been born. Two orcas were seen in Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland for the first time since 1962 in May. They are part of the UK’s only resident population of the marine mammals, who rarely come close to the coast, according to Ulster Wildlife. Grey seal numbers rose in parts of the UK, while more guillemots – known collectively as a bazaar – were seen than at any time since 2004 on Handa island in north-west Scotland.
Bottlenose dolphins were also spotted flipping and splashing around off the coast of Redcar in
North Yorkshire. The boom in UK holidays has come at a price, however, said The Wildlife Trusts – with reports of face masks littering the water and beaches.
The Daily Mail’s Turn the Tide on Plastic campaign has warned of the danger to wildlife of plastic pollution for more than a decade, and has supported clean- ups including the Great British Spring Clean and Great British September Clean.
Ruth Williams, from Cornwall Wildlife Trust, said: ‘Disposable PPE gloves and face masks were everywhere this summer and our beach cleans find it every time.’