Christine's walking & birds blog

A day of summer at last - and so we went to sea! The ferry was a madhouse, with the decks remaining busy all the way across the Minch. The only sightings of interest going out were eleven Manx shearwaters flying together towards the bows - and a blow that Greger spotted and described as being tall and narrow (by the time I saw it, it was already disintegrating). Unfortunately we saw no other sign, so it was tantalising to think it could have been my first fin whale!

On the return journey, Greger was having a beer in the cafeteria when a whale was sighted. There was an immediate rush of people to the rails as the whale reappeared and splashed about in the water behind us. The consensus seemed to be that it was a fin whale. Meanwhile, I'd managed this shot as the animal dived.....

…..which seemed to me to show the dorsal fin of a humpback whale, while this I take to be the tail.

Something dark on the sea on the edge of a raft of auks appears to be a sooty shearwater.

Finally, yet another whale was seen distantly to the north; I managed only one image which could’ve been almost anything, but which I think might be, again, the tail of a humpback whale - or a rather odd pectoral fin. Dunno.

Also seen - a probable Arctic skua chasing kittiwakes, a couple of bonxies, several pods of common dolphins, and a handful of porpoises. As for the fin/humpback whale - was I perhaps seeing a different individual from everyone else, or have I got it wrong? I’ve researched online and found nothing to suggest the fin whale dives with quite such extreme arching of the back as the humpback, while the dorsal fin itself (as pictured) is surely more like the latter species than the former. I’d love to see a fin whale, and as far as I’m concerned I haven’t yet!   

// posted by Christine @ 10:38 AM