Cruise highlights May 23rd 2015

Here are some of the highlights of our 6-night cruise on May 23rd 2015.  With Guide Vivi Bolin on board, an impressive amount of wildlife was spotted and identified: golden and white tailed Eagles; bottlenose, common and Risso’s dolphins; porpoise, Pomerine skua, puffins, guillemots, razorbills and whimbrel amongst many other species

A great start to the cruise with five sightings of porpoise and two sightings of bottlenose dolphins on our way to Tobermory

A lovely walk onshore with Vivi on the Isle of Canna, finding out about the local wildlife and identifying a great Pomarine Skua

On the Sunday, on the way to Loch Bracadale on Skye there were sightings of two pods of common dolphins with at least 20 individuals bowriding our vessel, including 3 calves

A lovely anchorage at Scalpay on Harris with the most delicious dinner of mushrooms stuffed with chorizo & manchengo cheese; coq au vin and sticky toffee pudding

A shore walk with Vivi on the Shiants amongst seabirds galore – puffins, guillemots, razorbills and a whimbrel on the nest. Four white-tailed eagles were spotted

A shore walk on the beautiful Isle of Eriskay (South Uist) with Vivi returning to an amazing dinner of Steve’s handmade venison sausages with sweet potato and local cheese mash

East of South Uist a pod of 8 Risso’s Dolphins circled the boat, breaching out of the water. Vivi has submitted the pictures to HWDT for ID of individual dolphins (* see Vivi’s note below*)

A tantalizing glimpse of what we think was a Minke Whale, just east of Eriskay

West of the Isle of Coll, European Storm Petrel were seen

Two Golden Eagles were spotted at Glenmore on Loch Sunart, where guests also loved a visit to the wonderful Nadurra Visitor Centre and the new Ardnamurchan Distillery

On the last morning of the cruise, some porpoise bade us a final farewell as we passed the imposing silhouette of Duart Castle on our journey back to Oban

* “The Risso’s were at a good camera distance. Normally Risso’s don’t bother with boats, so we were lucky that they came close and even circled the boat once. One of them was a juvenile and it put on a great show by jumping out of the water. I’ve given the Risso’s dolphin pictures to HWDT and they share them with WDC and both organisations do photo-identification by looking at the scratches and nicks on the dorsal fins and comparing them to existing photographs. This is important for various things: documenting the movement of the animals, habitat use, population trends, group structure and group sizes. So even though it’s just a picture, it’s actually very important data for scientists! Especially when used together with the LOGGER data that I collect with the computer. Pretty cool stuff!” *Vivi Bolin.