Sanderling, Pennington Flash

A cracking summer plumage sanderling was at the boat club this morning. This is about my fifth record of the species at the flash, but the first I have seen at the boat club and the first in autumn. Also this morning a redshank and about 102 lapwings at the boat club, with more flying around the spit, but these were too distant for me to count.

 

Great white egret, Pennington Flash

A great white egret was on the spit this morning and by this afternoon a little egret had taken its place. A common sandpiper was on the ruck shoreline. Yesterday there was a common tern, the first for a while, but in truth it's very small pickings at present. Hopefully things will buck up soon.

Incredible bluefin tuna, Peterburn

The last day of the holiday and there was nowhere else to be but back at Peterburn for the one final scan of the sea. It was good viewing conditions, quite calm but just breezy enough to keep the midges away, and although Skye and Harris were not as clear as they had been at the start of the holiday, I could still clearly make out their outlines.

To the north west through the binoculars I could see a lot of splashes and sure enough when I turned the scope onto them  I could see the acrobatic leaps of common dolphins. It was slightly odd though because there were a lot of splashes with no dolphins emerging, but they were over a mile away so I just assumed that it was dolphin activity and forgot about them and started to scan the rest of the sea through the scope, as always on the look out for large whales.

Almost immediately I saw a dolphin breaching at quite close range (1km?) and it was unmistakeably a Risso's dolphin, with a largely pale grey body, covered in scratches and no beak. One of the best views I've ever had of the species, because this is the first time I've seen the whole animal. Soon I saw that it was with at least another three animals, which included a calf, presumably the same one I saw with its mother yesterday. Brilliant, if I saw nothing else it would have been a good morning. 

I continued scanning. More splashes to the north west, but this time no obvious sign of dolphins. I continued scanning. Suddenly at much closer range I saw something that obviously wasn't a dolphin, the shape of the tail was completely wrong. I just managed to capture it as it disappeared back into the water. Straight away I suspected that it was a tuna because three had been reported from Tiumpan head the previous day, but I'd never seen one before so didn't know much about their behaviour or even their size. It was a breathtaking moment, one of the highlights of the holiday.

Death by midge at Peterburn

It was raining and misty first thing this morning so I didn't manage to get out very early. When I did eventually get to my vantage point at Peterburn at 9:45am there was no rain, no wind and the sea was like glass, perfect for whale and dolphin watching. Also perfect for midges which were out in their trillions. It was worth putting up with them though, in a couple of hours I managed to see 4 minke whales, 2 Risso's dolphins (a mother and calf), 40 common dolphins and 2 harbour porpoise. Also adult white-tailed eagle and 29 great northern divers. Not a bad return from a place that only yesterday I said was petering out.

Big Sands and petering out at Peterburn

This week we've been staying in a static caravan on a croft at Big Sands and today we left the car behind and walked it into Gairloch, a round walk of about 9 miles. Most of the best birding was within a mile or so of the caravan, with family parties of common terns, gulls and gannets all seen from or on the beach overlooking Caolas Beg, the sound between the mainland and Longa island. There were also a few sanderling, dunlin and ringed plover here.

Bonxies are always around Longa Island, I'm not certain if they breed here but it seems very likely.

White-tailed eagles seem to like the area around our caravan, three of the five sightings I've had so far have been from the front room of the caravan, and even on our walk today I could see an adult eagle flying directly over the van. 

At sunrise and sunset I resume my watch over the sea from Peterburn, but at the moment the whale watching part of the holiday seems to be petering out. Despite some of the best weather I've ever had in this part of Scotland, I've still managed to have two out my three booked whale watching trips cancelled due to alleged strong winds. If there are strong winds I've not noticed them, and the forecast for tomorrow is 5-9mph at the time that the cruise should be going, but I'm sure that Hebridean Whale Watching cruises will have more accurate information than me about the state of the Minch.

Peterburn, which just a few days ago was outstanding, now barely produces a single dolphin and I don't think that it's just me being unobservant. Whereas two days ago I could scan the sea with my binoculars and see several sea bird feeding frenzies, all good indicators that there were whales present, today I could only find one frenzy, and despite watching this for several minutes, nothing emerged.  I suspect that the food supply of the birds and cetaceans has moved out of this area for the time being. Hopefully they will return to give me one final hurrah before we leave.

Beinn Eighe

We chose the hottest day of he holiday to attempt the most difficult walk so far, the Beinn Eighe mountain trail in temperatures of 27'C. It was tough going but well worth it for the spectacular views. Of course the trail barely reaches the mountain itself, which is pictured above, in fact it's little more than a foothill but still very spectacular. Beinn Eighe towers above Loch Maree to a height of 1010m (3313ft), and was the first National Nature Reserve in the UK.

It's long been a favourite of mine since I first visited the area with my dad in 1979. Not that I've ever climbed the mountain itself, I've never gone further than the mountain trail.

Fin whale and breaching minke whales off Peterburn

A fantastic early morning whale watch from Peterburn which is about 5 miles south of Rubha Reida lighthouse and 4.5 miles north of our caravan. In a 90 minute watch I saw at least 8 minke whales including one animal which breached at least 3 times and was a great view through the telescope. Then I noticed the Hebridean Whale watching boat Orca 1 stopped and watching a couple of minkes. As I watched, a huge whale surfaced perhaps a mile beyond them, which looked to be twice the length of the boat which I think is around 10m. Clearly a fin whale just off size alone, it took my breath away when I first saw it. Also this morning, several pods of common dolphins and a few harbour porpoise.

Stac Pollaidh

In recent years I've spent a couple of weeks in the Ullapool area, but this year I decided to stay at Gairloch instead, just for a change. However, that's still only a two hour drive to Stac Pollaidh and since Elaine had never climbed it before we headed over that way today.

 

More minke whales

Not a lot to report today, we had a quiet day mainly spent around Inverewe gardens, but first thing I did spend an hour overlooking the Minch at Peterburn just north of Big Sands, and by locating feeding frenzies of birds managed to spot at least six minke whales.

Minke whale soup in the Minch

Another amazing trip with Steve Truluck at Hebridean Whales Cruises, we set sail from Gairloch and headed up to the summer Isles north of Ullapool. We saw an amazing 19 minke whales, around 30 common dolphins and about 10 harbour porpoise.

We saw this Minke whale lunge feeding. What looks like an orca fin at the back is actually the minke's tail. The animal is on it's side lunging towards it's prey.

When it emerged it produced this impressive blow which you could easily mistake for a larger species.  I'm told that blows like this from a minke are uncommon and usually only happen when the animal has been working hard, as in this case. 

Red Point

Loch Gairloch in August is great for seeing decent numbers of divers with most in summer plumage. Today I counted at least 18 black-throated divers and 10 red-throated, but I had to wait until we arrived at Red Point to see the first great northerns of the trip.

Red Point is about 10 miles south west of Gairloch and from the car park at the end of the road it's possible to take a round walk of about 5 miles which takes you down onto Red Point north beach, around the headland, across Red Point south beach and back through Red Point farm. It's a really beautiful and spectacular walk, with views across to Skye, Raasay, Applecross and Torridon. 

There were plenty of gannets about, as well as black guillemots and three species of diver, with twite and cuckoo on the farmland and a juvenile white wagtail.

Minke and probable fin whales at Rubha Reida lighthouse

Rubha Reida lighthouse sits in a spectacular location about 15 miles north west of Gairloch on the eastern side of the Minch in Wester Ross. Next stop west is Skye or Harris. It's a noted place for cetaceans and today was the first day of my now annual whale watching trip to the area, and this time Elaine came as well.

After a short walk of about three miles to take in some of the scenery, we returned to the car and I set up the telescope and started to scan the sea. By looking for feeding frenzies of gannets and shearwaters, I was able to pick out places where whales were likely to be, and in 30 minutes managed to have decent, though distant views of at least three minke whales including one animal which was lunge feeding, i.e. driving fish in front of it to the surface, then rapidly increasing speed and lunging at them so that it's head emerged from the water. It was a good enough view through the scope to enable me to see the whales baleen plates and white throat. A tremendous sight and a great start to the holiday. 

Most frustrating though was a distant blow from a large whale which I'm pretty confident was a fin whale, but I didn't get enough on it to be sure. 

Edit: later in the evening another observer at Kilt Rock on the Isle of Skye informed me that during the afternoon she had watched a large whale that was probably a fin whale just north of Longa. Longa is the island right opposite our caravan, and just a few miles south of Rubha Reida, so perhaps the same animal.

Edit: having seen the blow from a minke whale two days later, I'm now a little uncertain and this may have been nothing more than a feeding minke over exerting itself.

Minke whale.

 

Garganey at last

This morning a female or juvenile garganey was briefly in front of Horrock's hide before flying in the direction of Ramsdales. As far as I know this is the first garganey of the year at the flash and certainly the first I have seen. It's not often we get a blank spring, but we did this year. The above photo is from August 2015.

Also today, five common sandpipers at the boat club, two juvenile shelducks flew around the flash and then away west, still 11 common terns, a juvenile great black-backed gull, a tufted duck with three chicks in Pengy's and the female with the nasal saddle CH1 still.