Friday, April 21, 2023
I knew it was a bit early for a pelagic, but the weather was so beautiful I couldn't resist it. My first gannets, fulmars, and puffins (two pairs) of the year were seen, and a porpoise fin was glimpsed quite close to the ferry. Out on the Minch (photo taken at 11.55 am) I noticed a substantial amount of splashing near a distant fishing boat, and snapped away without much hope of getting anything while wondering vaguely if it could be a whale. The only useful image was this uncropped picture, taken at full zoom.
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At Stornoway, a pair of red-throated divers in the harbour provided a first for my pelagic trips; and on the return journey, near the Summer Isles, the Coastguard helicopter thrilled everyone with a training exercise that gave us all ringside seats. But for me, the most memorable image of the day came as we left Stornoway, when I gazed across the sparkling sea at a group of islands I'll probably never visit.
