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.
We're staying in a static caravan on a croft about one mile north of Sands.
The views over the loch between Gairloch and here are breathtaking, and the
loch holds decent numbers of both black and red-throated divers, many in
summer plumage, and gannets are constantly flying around.
This evening we watched a pod of bottlenose dolphins from the caravan.
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