Tuesday, August 24, 2021
Greger had suggested another "pelagic" on the ferry - and we couldn't have had a more beautiful day for it. The calm sea gave lots of sightings of dolphins, to the delight of many on the very busy decks. At first, birds (apart from shags, gannets, and Bonxies) were harder to come by - and then, somewhere out on the Minch, we began to see rafts of auks - mostly guillemots, with just the odd razorbill. A tiny bird darting about just above the surface of the water was the first of several petrels - but we could never see them well enough to say which! Two distant dark spots on the water looked good for skuas, and having drastically cropped my highly optimistic photos I'll put them down as probable Arctic skuas.
Again, it was an extremely quick turnaround - in fact when we reboarded, we found that another couple had simply stayed put. We bagged some seats and I ate my sandwiches; and when they announced the cafe was open, Greger went down to have some lunch. I've started to take sandwiches as I'm unwilling to miss even a minute up on deck, while Greger sees lunch on the boat as part of the day out - he reads the paper and even has a rare beer (he probably also needs a respite from my frantic and obsessive birding). Before he came back up, I spotted some divers; I think this is a juvenile black-throated.
But it was Greger who, a bit later, alerted me and the couple-who-stayed-on-board to a Minke whale.
I was hoping for another sighting of a sooty shearwater - in fact, we saw four. We had them in view for only a short time as they were always ahead of us, and in order to get the pictures I had to stand at the top of the steps and lean out under the lifeboat.
A skua rose from the water and I hurriedly snapped off a few pictures as it flew away from the ferry. Some things (bulky appearance, broad-based wings, white panel on upper-wing) suggest Pomarine, others (mostly head size) suggest Arctic. Dunno. More research needed.
As with our last trip, I spotted just one tern; looking across the boat, I'd noticed something white on one of the orange buoys - but buoy and bird were fast receding! I can't be sure, but I think it was probably a common tern; a faint white line might be the long tail streamers of an Arctic or just a streak on the water; but the legs seem a mite long for Arctic.
Other notes: two grey herons were flying in usual stately manner westwards in the middle of the Minch; there were loads of gannets and shags but I saw only one fulmar and one kittiwake. After a great day, we lazily ate fish-and-chips outside at the Seaforth, and back home we watched The Bourne Identity for the millionth time and then an episode of Tenko. I only ever saw the last series of Tenko, all those years ago, and have been searching in vain for the rest of it ever since. When Greger clicked on Britbox a week or so ago to look for something else, I was amazed to see that the BBC was proudly announcing a repeat of all three series. About time, too! I know it's a bit clunky but I love Tenko - and I've already caught up with the first two series and can now enjoy the third one again. Yippee!
