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May 2009
May wildlife sightings from Nick Davies and other news from Hebridean Whale Cruises.
Bottlenose on the march
15 May 2009
The Bottlenose Dolphins have been teasing us by making sporadic attacks into Loch Gairloch over the past few days.
There are about twelve of them with two tiny calves and they have been actively feeding – perhaps on a run of inshore herring or maybe spawning mackerel.
They first arrived on Sunday afternoon and since then have been seen off Melvaig on three separate occasions and also in Loch Ewe. Last night we had a report of them from Squirrel over in Portree; if it is the same pod they are certainly on the march.
On Monday we had a fantastic interaction with a juvenile Minke Whale which was certainly watching us as much as we were watching it. It circled Orca 1 for about 20 minutes, spyhopping almost every time it came up to breathe!
Military manoeuvres started again on Monday afternoon and will continue for another week which, as you well know, doesn't do the local cetaceans any favours.
On the bright side the weather forecast for the week is good and the Common Terns are back! Will they attempt to nest in Gairloch this year? I'll keep you posted.
Whales and wild seas
6 May 2009
Lots of reports of Minkes around but we are not getting out there! The weather has been atrocious with wind and rain for the bank holiday period and is not going to get any better until the weekend!
On one of the few cruises that we managed to get out, on Monday, we saw the first White-billed Diver of the season on the south side of Loch Gairloch.
