The Whale Watch Explorer on the 3rd of September was my first one since July 15th not to see a Minke Whale (that was 15 in a row for me!) However it was more than made up for with the appearance of 6 Risso's Dolphin, the first of the season!
Included in the 6 was this adult and calf!
As well as the adult/calf pair the group included this much older indiviudal, you can tell its older from the amount of white scarring on its body. The whole front half of this animals body looks almost pure white!
The big story in the world of cetaceans on Mull was the appearance of two Northern Bottlenose Whales in Loch Scridain. First reported to Sea Life Surveys on Tuesday the 9th we headed down in the evening for a look and were very lucky to see the two animals close to shore for over an hour! (Having been back twice to look for them since and not seen them despite reports of them being there coming in I know just how lucky we were!)
The photos are not great due to the low light levels and the smallish lense I have but you can clearly see the rounded head here.
A really unusal sighting in a sea loch as these are an offshore, deep water species, made famous when one swam up the Thames. We hope these two are both ok and that they'll make their way out to deeper waters soon!
Well the nice weather was bound not to last and the last few whale watches have experience pretty windy conditions, and despite this proving too much to find whales in we did find our smallest and most regulary seen cetacean the Harbour Porpoise!
Always a joy!
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