Thursday, October 23, 2025
There was thick ice on my car's windscreen this morning as we set out to walk down to the ferry terminal. As promised by the forecast, the sun was shining from a blue sky - but also forecast were very light winds, whereas now an irritating cold breeze had sprung up, while the surface of the sea was distinctly ruffled. Oh well, you can't have everything - and spirits were high as we set sail on the Isle of Lewis, despite no great expectations as to what we might see. The top deck gives airy views with fewer obstructions than you get on the Loch Seaforth - including this one, looking forward(ish) to the Minch beyond the Summer Isles.
Then Greger spotted something leaping from the water as we approached Stornoway. He said it was pale, so it could have been a Risso's dolphin. Unfortunately I missed it and could only grab a shot of the splash!
Something bobbing on the waves obstinately kept its back towards us - but I'm pretty sure it was a male long-tailed duck.
On the return journey we scanned the area of the splash madly, but could see nothing. A very strong wind was now blowing; this was fun as the ship both rolled and pitched a little, but the movements, combined with the wind and the vibrations of the engines, made looking through bins difficult, never mind trying to use the camera!
There was suddenly quite a lot of bird activity, and I snapped off useless shots of c40 sooty shearwaters. About ten minutes later I spotted a pale-form skua and started to click off shots. This is the first one I took, uncropped to give an idea of distance.
After a while I thought I could detect something I hadn't seen before on a skua - a broad tail with a thickened end - and said with some excitement "I think it's a pomarine!" Greger, intently following the bird through his bins, confirmed that it had a substantial tail.
For the next five minutes we were accompanied by the skua powering along over the waves more or less parallel with the ferry; I kept saying "It's a pom! I'm sure it's a pom!" while clicking off shot after shaky shot. The skua gradually converged with the ferry, then drew ahead - and we lost it. No doubt it crossed our bows, and if it had occurred to me, I could have gone through the door behind me, across the ship, and out the other side - for a last glimpse! But I was too stunned to think straight.
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This was my first definite pomarine skua, watched over a thrilling five minutes that I'm glad Greger was on hand to share - he'd been about to go down for a coffee! It's also the sixth "first-for-the-ferry" I've had this year, along with Risso's dolphin, basking shark, Brent goose, house sparrow, and the long-tailed duck of today. Goodness knows how much I've spent on pelagics to Stornoway, particularly since Covid - but I'm not exaggerating when I say that the pomarine alone was worth all of it.
// posted by Christine @ 1:01 PM 
