From the Ullapool to Stornoway ferry

It's always worth the £22 to travel as a foot passenger on the Loch Seaforth, Ullapool to Stornoway ferry. The ferry leaves Ullapool at 10:30 and arrives back at 16:30 following a very brief stop at Stornoway when you literally have just enough time to leave the boat, get your return boarding pass and then reembark. However, this isn't about visiting the Isle of Lewis, it's about marine wildlife watching on the cheap in the Minch.

Of course the boat doesn't stop or turn back for a closer look at cetaceans or sea birds, it just keeps on going, straight ahead, in it's relentless fashion and if you missed something or didn't get a good enough view for an identification, then that's just too bad. Write it off.

Today we did ok, a minke whale surfaced in front of the vessel just once but good enough to confirm identification, whilst on the return journey we saw three distant blows that were almost certainly fin whale.

There were also a few common dolphins on both crossings.

The three blows that we saw today were tall and columnar, with virtually no spread near the top. We estimated that they were between 10 - 15km distant. 

With some experience and in good weather conditions such as we had today, whales can be identified by the shape and height of their blows. In the Minch by far the three commonest species are minke, humpback and fin whales, in that order. 

Much the commonest and smallest, minke can be written off as the species involved today, because it rarely blows and when it does it produces a bushy blow which is around 3m in height. 

A humpback blow can be tall and columnar, but is more usually bushy at the top, in otherwords it spreads out to produce a shape similar to how a child might draw a tree. So unlikely to be this species.

Fin whale fits perfectly, very tall, dense and columnar. All three blows were the same.

The image above is taken from "The Handbook of Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises" by Mark Carwardine, which by the way is an outstanding book and well worth purchasing.

Storm petrels are not very common but usually number at least double figure. They can be difficult to pick up especially from the ferry if the conditions are less than ideal.

Great skua.

Ullapool