Friday, August 01, 2025
The ferry from Ullapool this morning was very full, but it was still possible to nip from side to side of the main seating deck in search of goodies - you just had to be careful not to trip over any dogs! Sightings included a probable Arctic tern, a handful of common dolphins, a distant whale, and a single sooty shearwater.
Just before one o'clock, as we approached Stornoway, 100+ Manx shearwaters were among auks and gannets to the south of the ferry's route.
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The ferry was passing through a patch of fishermen's marker buoys at the time (was it just a dolphin near a black buoy?); but, comparing my picture with photos on the internet, and given the fact that the species is often recorded in the area, we think this could well have been our first basking shark!
Later: I thought that it might be a smallish basking shark, but of course it wasn't necessarily truly side-on when I took the photo; and this one, taken just a few seconds later, shows more space between the dorsal fin and the caudal fin.
// posted by Christine @ 3:01 PM 
