Tails from a bait ball

A bait ball in the ocean is the name given to a tight, spherical group of small fish or other small creatures that swim together for protection when threatened by predators. It's a bit like starlings swirling around when they come into roost. By packing close together into a ball, thousands of animals act as one large shape to confuse attackers and protect individuals on the inside. 

Hundreds of guillemots and razorbills dive deep into the water creating bait balls and driving them to the surface. Eventually the fish have nowhere to go and will leap clear of the water to avoid their pursuers. This attracts other birds which either can't dive or can't go as deep as the auks such as gannets, kittiwakes, shearwaters and petrels. These in turn attract other predators such as skuas. There can be hundreds or even thousands of birds feeding in the vicinity of a bait ball and these are known as feeding frenzies which can been seen from quite a distance.

Unsurprisingly, cetaceans are also attracted to bait balls, so if we see a feeding frenzy it's always worth watching for a while because whales often surface in the middle of them. A couple of years ago I watched in awe as humpback whales drove North Atlantic Krill to the surface (opens in a new window) and created a massive orange pink bait ball which eventually also attempted to leap clear of the water.  

This afternoon I was out again on the Minch with Steve Truluck and Hebridean Whale Cruises. We headed from Gairloch towards Kilt Rock on Skye and there were feeding frenzies everywhere.

The sea looks like it's bubbling as all the fish come to the surface. The auks form rings around them but the kittwakes just crash in and grab what they can!

Stinky minkes in the Minch

Have you ever smelled a whales breathe? No? Then you've never lived. Minke whales are often given the nickname stinky minke because if you're down wind of them when they blow they..... well you get the idea. 

It was the first of my scheduled whale watching trips from Gairloch this morning, with Hebridean Whale Cruises, on board the Humber rib "Orca 1". As usual it was the most wonderful of experiences, loads of whales and dolphins, even more seabirds, stunning scenery and an exhilarating, high speed 100km (60 mile) ride as well. What's not to love? A bargain at £110. 

Today we travelled to the north tip of Trotternish on Skye, past the Quirang, Kilt Rock and the Old Man of Storr, then through the Gap of Rona and past Raasay before heading back to Gairloch. We saw about seven minke whales, plus lots of common dolphins and a few harbour porpoise. 

Juvenile long-tailed skua chasing a kittiwake.
Photo © Karen Munro

Birds were really good, best being a juvenile long-tailed skua which went over our boat twice and then chased a kittiwake. Other birds included a couple of sooty shearwaters and a few storm petrels, all quite close to the boat. The weather has been ok generally but the wind forecast over the next few days is hit and miss so fingers crossed that I can get out again on Wednesday!

Minke whale.

Common dolphins.

Sea of the Hebrides

At least 40 common dolphins from the Barra - Oban ferry this morning with at least one calf seen. Around 20 were at the entrance to the Sound of Mull out from Tobermory, 10 were out from Castlebay on Barra and the rest somewhere in between.

Bottlenose dolphins in the Sound of Fuideigh, Barra

One of at least four bottlenose dolphins in the Sound of Fuideigh, Barra this afternoon. The photo is a frame from a video taken on my phone and through my telescope. There was a lot of seabird activity in the Sound so presumably there was a shoal of fish, and the dolphins showed well with lots of leaps and tail slapping.

Harbour Porpoise from the Armdhor to Eriskay ferry

Three harbour porpoise, common dolphin and three species of diver including 40+ black throated were the highlight of a ferry journey to Eriskay this morning. Over many years of watching cetaceans, harbour porpoise is the one which I have struggled with most when it comes to getting a photo, so I was very pleased to get these today.

Best of all it appears that there was a calf with the harbour porpoise. These were photographed close to Ardmhor on Barra.

Epic humpback encounters off the Summer Isles

I seem to be running out of superlatives when describing whale watching trips out into the Minch with Hebridean Whale Cruises (opens in a new window), but once again I can only describe todays experience as epic. 

So far this year most of the large whale action has been just west of the Summer Isles at the mouth of Loch Broom, with several humpback whales and at least one fin whale present. These animals can be seen from the ferry and probably also land, but a dedicated whale watching trip is by far the best way to get a good look at them. Today we saw three different humpbacks, two of which were completely new individuals that had not been recorded by anybody previously.

One of the great things about the whales being in this area is that they are often seen with the magnificent backdrop of the mountains of Inverpolly. This is an area which I know well and in the photo above you can see Stac Pollaidh just left of centre.  This is is a hill that I have climbed many times over the past 40 years, including last year with Elaine, and I've photographed from all angles but I never thought that I would get a photo of it like this with a humpback whale diving in front of it!

The first humpback that we saw today was actively feeding on northern krill. What an incredible experience to witness this at close range! The winds were light and the sea was as flat as it's ever likely to get here. Suddenly an area of the sea would turn orange, perhaps no more than 50m in front of us. At first it was hard to know what was happening but it soon became apparent. 

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.

Common Dolphins, Summer Isles

Some more excellent cetacean watching today with Seascape Expeditions at Ullapool. We came across a pod of about 10-15 common dolphins which included some tiny calves, probably just a day or two old. Wonderful to see, one of them was so small that at first I thought that it was a fish jumping 😆. I've never seen such tiny calves. Also some tail slapping today.

Other highlights included harbour porpoise and great views of an adult white-tailed eagle, common seals and grey seals.

I posted these photos on the Facebook group Hebrides and NW Scotland cetacean sightings (opens in a new window) and a couple of far more experienced observers than I commented that the youngster looks neonatal because the dorsal fin has not fully stiffened and also that the fetal folds are still visible in the above photo. So the general consensus is that this is a new born baby just a day or two old.

Common dolphins can be anything between 1.7m - 2.5m long. Looking at the above two photo, surely the calf is less than half the size of the adult, making it somewhere between 0.65m - 1m long. From what I saw when it first jumped out on it's own, when I thought that it was a fish, I would guess that it's at the shorter end of the scale.

Cetacean watching in comfort

Our accommodation is at Aultgrishan just north of Gairloch on the road to Rua Reidh lighthouse. We chose this place because of it's excellent location for cetacean watching and we weren't disappointed. Obviously from here we're not going to see whales and dolphins close up, but today we managed to see common dolphins, harbour porpoise and a single minke whale whilst sat in the garden with a cup of tea and a biscuit! Only problem is, it's difficult to switch off when you're in a location like this!

 

Humpback 'Davies' off the Summer Isles

Another breathtaking trip with Hebridean Whale Cruises, Gairloch this evening, we encountered a humpback whale, two minke whales, a few common dolphins and a harbour porpoise. The humpback performed absolutely brilliantly.

I was scanning the sea looking for cetaceans, when I noticed the mountain Suilven in the distance, part shrouded in mist yet still clearly distinguishable. This is one of my favourite mountains right in the heart of InverpolIy,  and I thought to myself, I'd love to see a humpback jump in front of that. Then suddenly one did! Right out of the water before crashing back in again with a huge splash! We watched it jumping for several minutes and then it began feeding.

Suilven.

Dolphin watching from the Hotel Seagull, Fort Kochi, India

India is renowned as a great place for all kinds of wildlife and there are plenty of tours and trips available to give you the opportunity of seeing it for yourself. However if there is one area which I think is poorly provided for, it's pelagic trips. 

It's true that I've only been to Goa and Kerela, so perhaps the situation is better elsewhere, but I've found it very difficult to find anything that remotely resembles a dolphin or whale watching trip, let alone a pelagic birding trip and it's exceedingly difficult to even find out much information about which species are out there. 

I mean this is the Arabian Sea, the north western part of the Indian Ocean, so surely there must be something good out there? I'm sure that there is, but it's like getting blood out of a stone to find out anything about it, and trying to get to the edge of the continental shelf here seems to be as unlikely as getting into space.

However, from a previous visit last year, I do know that there are Indian Ocean humpbacked dolphins in the Fort Kochi area, and today we enjoyed watching them with a couple of pints at the Hotel Seagull, right on the waterfront.

In my previous post about these animals I discussed the uncertainty surrounding the range of the different species of humpbacked dolphins in the Indian Ocean, but these are most likely Indian Ocean rather than Indo-Pacific humpbacked dolphins, based on range and colour. Nice to see from the hotel bar!

Barolo shearwater and some dolphin photos, Madeira

My only new species of bird from this holiday turned up towards the end of what had so far proven to be a slightly disappointing whale watching trip out of Calheta. To be fair, we had started off with fabulous views of a pod of about 30 bottlenose dolphins, probably showing better than I'd ever experienced previously with the species, but we had seen none of the hoped for whales. 

We had reached the furthest point from land, about 4 miles out from Jardim do Mar and stopped the boat for a final look at a more distant pod of dolphins when I noticed a shearwater on the opposite side of the boat, unfortunately about to fly into the glaring sunlight. This was exciting because by mid December virtually all seabirds have left this area and I didn't expect to see anything avian at sea. However, there was perhaps one possibility....

The bird had an odd fluttering flight low over the water, followed by more typical shearwater glides, but then it was frustratingly lost in the glare. Fortunately a few moments later it flew back out of the sunlight briefly and allowed me a better look. It was clearly a small bird of the Manx shearwater variety, and not one of the larger shearwaters such as Cory's which also breed around these islands. 

My excitement levels went up a notch, because before we travelled to Madeira, I'd done quite a bit of research into which species of seabird, if any, I had a chance of seeing in December. There was really only one, Barolo shearwater, and if I was lucky enough to see one, I didn't want to tick it based on just an assumption, I wanted to know exactly why it was a Barolo. So for weeks I'd studied the finer details of identifying this particular species because it was the only lifer I was likely to get on the holiday and if I did see one, I wanted to be able to eliminate the doubt of an extremely out of season Manxie.

Barolo shearwater © madeirabirds.com.
Click here to open their website in a new window.

Short-finned pilot whales, Madeira

Today I took a whale watching trip out of Canical in the east of Madeira, run by Sea Emotions.  Really enjoyable, they found us around 15 each of short-finned pilot whale and bottlenose dolphin. The pilot whales came very close to the boat and had at least a couple of calves with them.

This was my first encounter with this species. I have seen long-finned pilot whales previously off southern Australia, and I have to take the word of todays guides and the Australian guides that they are the species they claim, because separating them is virtually impossible in the field. However, on range short-finned are by far the most likely off Madeira and long-finned most likely off southern Australia. These pilot whales are resident around Madeira and have been well studied.

Another journey across the Sea of the Hebrides

I love a good ferry journey across the Minch or in today's case the Sea of the Hebrides. Today we saw about 30 common dolphins in three groups and I also had brief views of a couple of minke whales. It was very quiet for birds, but I did manage two species of skua, great and a distant pale phase bird that was almost certainly pomarine. Other than that it was mainly just gannets and a few kittiwakes, plus a handful of fulmars and auks.

Crossing the Sea of the Hebrides

A five hour crossing of the Sea of the Hebrides today, from Oban to Barra, produced low numbers of cetaceans, with harbour porpoise and around eight common dolphins the sum total. All good value for money, but I was hoping for a minke or two. Perhaps on the return leg?

Incredible bluefin tuna at 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, 5 miles south of Rubha Reidh lighthouse, 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.

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.

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.

One of the minke produced this impressive blow which I'm told usually only happens when the animal has been working hard. Further down this post you'll see the same whale lunge feeding.

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.

Minke whale.