Our Favourite Kayaker on BBC2’s Winterwatch

Rupert Kirkwood (aka The Lone Kayaker is becoming quite the star!

Rupert Kirkwood is known as The Lone Kayaker because he spends as much time as possible paddling his kayak around the coast of Cornwall and Devon watching the amazing wildlife.

Rupert worked as a farm Veterinary Surgeon in Holsworthy, West Devon, for 33 years. It’s the only job he’s ever had because he loved every minute of the work and has always been captivated by the beautiful green Devonshire countryside and its wildlife.

Rupert was a very keen kayak surfer for twenty years but switched to coastal kayaking when the surf beaches became too crowded. Unfortunately, he had to take early retirement from veterinary work due to a succession of injuries, but this allowed him to combine his lifelong passion for natural history with his love of kayaking and the sea…clouds do have silver linings!

Over the last twenty years Rupert has clocked up over 33,000 miles in my kayak. That’s the same as nearly one and-a-half times around the planet, right here in Devon and Cornwall. During these trips he has encountered a host of extraordinary marine creatures that he dreamed seeing since he was at primary school – otters, seals, sharks, porpoise, dolphins, whales, to name just a few.

Rupert says, “Observing them from a kayak is very challenging but extremely rewarding. The kayak is totally silent and unobtrusive, so the animals are not frightened and behave completely naturally. In fact, many come over to have a closer look. This includes seals, dolphins, the occasional whale and even…worryingly…the enormous basking sharks which are about twice as long as my kayak!

Perhaps the best part of the experience of watching from a kayak is that you are looking into the eye of these amazing creatures at the same level…sometimes you are even looking UP at them. Also, you can fully appreciate the noises they make…I never thought I would be so close to a whale in Devon that I could listen to it quietly breathing IN after hearing the great blast of it breathing out.”

Filmaker son Henry said, “I’m very excited to announce that a sequence that I have been working on for the last couple of weeks is going to be aired on the opening episode of Winterwatch 2025! I’m not going to give too much away, but as you can guess from the photo it involves Dad (The Lone Kayaker) and some rather large fish…”

LONE KAYAKER STATS FOR 2024

It’s been a thrilling year for getting up close and personal with the best of the west’s aquatic creatures, as viewed from the unobtrusiveness of my well-scuffed and grubby kayak.

2358 miles paddled on 230 days from 26 different locations in Cornwall and Devon from Combe Martin in the north to Teignmouth in the east. 1540 cetaceans total:

1284 Common Dolphins (best year ever)

25 Bottlenose Dolphins

1 Risso’s Dolphin

4 Minke Whales

221 Harbour Porpoise

500+ Atlantic Bluefin Tuna on 8 days

1 Sunfish

150 Big Shearwaters (best year ever by far)

110 Cory’s

33 Great

7 Sooty

688 Balearic Shearwaters (best year ever)

10 Storm Petrels

22 Skuas (best year ever)

5 Pomarine

1 Great

16 Arctic

6 Ospreys

47 Otters

33 Beavers (best year ever)