Tags
The King Alfred Inn at Burrowbridge may possibly ring bells as the ‘community HQ’ during the Somerset Levels flooding a couple of years ago. I was there recently having lunch with the Somerton U3A geology group. As we were having a drink beforehand on the upper deck of the pub, I spotted a fin in the River Parrett alongside, and I knew it had to be either a cetacean (= whale family) or a small member of the shark family. It couldn’t be the latter, from its style of swimming, and almost involuntarily I cried out “I’ve just seen a dolphin”, feeling rather foolish as I did so. Fortunately others saw it as it rose to the surface again after a few seconds. The barmaid 
on duty had never seen the like in 20 years. It swam up and down the river for perhaps 300 metres – it was high tide – a few times, but was not there an hour later. I now know, from Somerset Wildlife Trust contacts, that there have been as many as five Harbour porpoises – for such they are – seen in this river recently. It is thought they are coming up this far – some 15 miles from the mouth of the river – after the increasing numbers of sea bass now available. It was a wonderful sighting, and I managed to get a photo on my phone. Wish I’d had my zoomy camera with me.
Musiewild's blog 
