Cetaceans - Aberdeen and beyond (1 Viewer)

[pandachris]

Weather, enthusiasm, traffic and so on permitting, I'm reckoning on being in the area sometime mid-afternoon on Wednesday 24th, Ian. Any recommendations for places to start?

Also, is there anywhere with shelter from where the sea can be watched? I reckon 5 days of perfect weather is a bit much to expect on current showing? I don't mind a bit of a drive if there's a chance of reasonable comfort at the end.

Apart from sleep, food and drink I have no commitments until 19:30-ish on Friday evening when I need to be at Dyce for the Birmingham flight. I'm quite keen on spending a lot of time attached to a telescope.

 

[Jhanlon]

Weather, enthusiasm, traffic and so on permitting, I'm reckoning on being in the area sometime mid-afternoon on Wednesday 24th, Ian. Any recommendations for places to start?

Also, is there anywhere with shelter from where the sea can be watched? I reckon 5 days of perfect weather is a bit much to expect on current showing? I don't mind a bit of a drive if there's a chance of reasonable comfort at the end.

Apart from sleep, food and drink I have no commitments until 19:30-ish on Friday evening when I need to be at Dyce for the Birmingham flight. I'm quite keen on spending a lot of time attached to a telescope.

I'm thinking of doing a similar trip for white-sided dolphin (in the distant future maybe next yr, they form a gaping hole in my UK mammal list!). They seem to be much scarcer than WBD but there are a number of recent sightings from the Thurso Bay area. Is this an annual occurence and the best spot to look? Could a few days watching up there at this time of yr be productive?

 

[pandachris]

Hi

Looking good for my trip up on Wednesday. I'd be interested to hear about any recent sightings.

Cheers

Chris

 

[pandachris]

Aberdeen 24/08

So far I've managed about 8 hours+ of sea-watching in a variety of locations with mixed results.

24th August - left Shrewsbury at 05:10, found the Torry Battery at about 12:50

About 10 dolphins were very active around the harbour/river mouth. I watched them on and off until 15:00, by which time they'd drifted of north but could still be seen leaping and splashing.

I took about 150 photos. Eight of them are awful. The rest we won't talk about. Here are a few anyway, heavily cropped.

 

[pandachris]

A few more

pics. Number 4 on the first set might be of interest as it seems to show at least one very small calf. Not sure what's going on to the left (observer's) of the adult? Another youngster, maybe?

 

[pandachris]

25th August - Torry Battery at about 8 a.m. 8-10 Bottle-nosed Dolphins in several small groups. More 'relaxed' than yesterday's but occassionally leaping or breaching, then another 5 or 6 came in fast from the north and the ones already there became more excited.

About 9 a.m. - relocated to The Coo. One Harbour Porpoise.

Back near The Battery I spoke to a student who was recording dolphin numbers who was surprised by my 'about 15' as she had not recrded more than 10 in the course of her research.

Lunchtime - a short session at Collieston resulted in one unidentified dolphin and three to four Harbour Porpoises before the rain came in sharp and cold.

Later at Forvie NNR I was able to identify one Ian Hay (actually he confessed to being same - very nice to meet you, Ian) and we had a long chat whilst the weather improved and Ospreys distracted us from time to time.

Stops at Tod Head (gorgeous), Dunottar Castle and Stonehaven produced no further cetaceans but my last session, from the window of my room in The Royal with a pint of Strongbow from the bar was what seawatching is all about

 

[Ian Hay]

Great to meet you yesterday, hope you do well today as your girlfreind seams to be bringing some very bad weather with her. call if you need any more info.

Ian

 

[TWM]

At least one Porpoise at Rattray yesterday morning.

 

[pandachris]

Nice to meet you, too Ian. We had a pretty good time all in all, but of course it just gave us a taste for more. We moved on to Inverness on Sunday and saw a few dolphins at Chanonry Point and at Kessock, where we hung around until after 14:00 which saw us rather late back to Shrewsbury

I'll do a digest of the whole trip in a few days time. nothing dramatic I'm afraid. No WBDs and only one possible Minke Whale but I reckon we'll be back.

Great to meet you yesterday, hope you do well today as your girlfreind seams to be bringing some very bad weather with her. call if you need any more info.

Ian

 

[pandachris]

Thanks also for your suggestion of Stonehaven. The Royal was a pretty good base and we saw both cetaceans and skuas from the bedroom window - particularly useful for me because Julie is not as enthusiastic as me about early starts.

 

[Ian Hay]

Glad you enjoyed your trip, sorry no WBD but the offer of the Shetland survey weekends is still there for next year.

All the best

Ian

 

[pandachris]

I'll drop you a line soon, Ian. Been busier than expected since I got back.

 

[pandachris]

Cetacean sightings, 24th -29th August

Here is my full sightings list for my 'mini-break'. Timings are generally accurate and IDs should be, too. Where I've recorded the same species at the same site over a peiod of time it is because the animals were in view for much of the time. I've included the details for 29th in case anyone else is planning something similar, though not really relevant to this thread ...


24/08/11 12:55 Torry Battery - 9 Bottle-nosed Dolphins - very active
13:20 Torry Battery - 7 Bottle-nosed Dolphins
14:20 Torry Battery - 7 Bottle-nosed Dolphins - drifting off north
15:00 Torry Battery - 3+ Bottle-nosed Dolphins - further north

25/08/11 08:00 Torry Battery - 7-8 Bottle-nosed Dolphins
08:25 Torry Battery - 3+ Bottle-nosed Dolphins arrived from north
08:50 Torry Battery - 6 Bottle-nosed Dolphinsleaped simultaneuosly as the Sjokur left the harbour
09:35 The Coo - 2 probable Harbour Porpoises
11:35 Cransdale Watch Point, Collieston - 1 dolphin sp
11:40 Cransdale Watch Point, Collieston - 3 or 4 Harbour Porpoises
12:10 - dramatic worsening of conditions - gave up
13:45 - met Ian Hay at the Waulkmill Hide, Forvie NNR - weather improving
16:20 Tod Head - excellent viewing conditions but no cetaceans seen

26/08/11 07:55 Torry Battery - Torry Battery - 1 Bottle-nosed dolphin (poss unhealthy - drooping fin and lump behind dorsal fin)
08:25 Torry Battery - same dolphin present
08:50 Torry Battery - same dolphin present, then disappeared
11:35 Cransdale Watch Point, Collieston - small cetacean
11:40 Cransdale Watch Point, Collieston - presumably same animal moving quickly north
11:50 Cransdale Watch Point, Collieston - possible dolphin sp
11:55 Cransdale Watch Point, Collieston - same cetacean further out, with large flock of birds
12:30 Cransdale Watch Point, Collieston - repeated 3 Harbour Porpoise sightings for 25 minutes
13:05 Cransdale Watch Point, Collieston - presumed same 3 Harbour Porpoises relocated
13:05 Cransdale Watch Point, Collieston - larger cetacean (Minke Whale?) seen further out briefly
15:00 Torry Battery - no dolphins
15:25 Torry Battery - 1 Harbour Porpoise well outside the breakwater
15:55 Torry Battery - one distant dolphin

27/08/11 09:30 Torry Battery - one Bottle-nosed Dolphin
09:50 Torry Battery - 4 or 5 Bottle-nosed Dolphins outside breakwaters
16:30 Torry Battery - 5 or 6 Bottle-nosed Dolphins
18:10 Torry Battery - 7 Bottle-nosed Dolphins in two groups
19:00 Royal Hotel, Stonehaven - Dolphin sp - one
19:20 Royal Hotel, Stonehaven - cetacean sp - one

28/08/11 10:20 Torry Battery - 5 Bottle-nosed Dolphins - strong winds and heavy rain
10:45 Torry Battery - 1 Bottle-nosed Dolphin bow-wave riding of the Grampian Hunter

29/08/11 10:00 South Kessock (Inverness) - 1 Bottle-Nosed Dolphin
10:15 North Kessock watchpoint - 3 Bottle-nosed Dolphins
11:20 Fort George from Chanonry Point - 1 distant dolphin

 

[Ian Hay]

Glad you had a good trip Pandachris

Did a dolphin watch on saturday as part of Techfest(a science festival) with around 12 dolphins putting on a great display.

Ian

 

[pandachris]

Great stuff Ian. Did you get my pm?

 

[Ian Hay]

If anyone is interested Northlink are doing a cruise down to Catterline on Saturday in aid of RNLI. £25 including tea and lunch. I will be giving a commentary of wildlife from the bridge

Contact Northlink for tickets

Ian

 

[Ian Hay]

Bottlenose dolphins are in the harbour most days with some reports of possible Sperm Whale sightings locally.

Ian

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

Bottlenose dolphins are in the harbour most days with some reports of possible Sperm Whale sightings locally.

Ian

Harbour Porpoises have also been quite regularly lately, with at least four off of Girdle Ness.

 

[Ian Hay]

Thanks andew.

Suggest you keep an eye out for something much bigger as a supected Humpback was seen Forvie on sunday.

Ian

 

[TWM]

Two or three Humpbacks seen from Collieston yesterday lunchtime.