Wednesday, 9 August 2023

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.


This is NOT my photograph, it's taken from Whales Online © GREMM. I've included it just to illustrate a minke whale breach.


Fin whale.


Almost as soon as I'd setup and started watching this magnificent adult white-tailed eagle flew past, a much better view than my poor photos show. Meanwhile 4 great northern divers were on the water below me.


What a bill! A stunning bird.






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