Christine's walking & birds blog

Yesterday: A minke whale glimpsed among auks and gannets near the Coigach shoreline on our way back to Ullapool was the pick of the day's sightings from the ferry.

Today: I drove to Rhue and walked down to the lighthouse on the off-chance that the whale would be present again - and some significant splashes over near Achduart confirmed that it was. The whale then moved slowly across the bay, treating me and a few others present to a fine show of breaching. Over about thirty minutes I snapped the whale rising from the water twenty-four times, and there were a few breaches I didn't catch. The results are pretty awful - but then, it was quite a long way away!

It's difficult to judge distances at sea; all I can say for sure is that the skerry in this picture (Stac Mhic Aonghais) is about 14 km from Rhue. With the naked eye the whale was best located by the huge splashes as it fell back into the water.

Bird life on land was represented by a handful of rock pipits, calling sharply to each other as they foraged among the rocks.