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 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 - including one you don't really get on the Loch Seaforth - looking forward(ish) to the Minch beyond the Summer Isles.
.....and then a sighting by Greger of 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!
On the return journey we scanned this area madly but could see nothing. A very strong wind was now blowing; this was quite exciting as the ship both rolled and pitched a little, but the movements combined with 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, alerted Greger, and started to photograph it. After a while I thought I could detect something I hadn't seen before on a skua - a long, thickish tail - and said with some excitement "I think it's a pomarine!" Greger, intently following the bird through his bins, agreed about the tail.
For the next five minutes we were accompanied by the skua powering along over the waves parallel with the ferry, until it finally drew ahead and we lost it. This bird deserved better shots, but I think I at least managed to record several features that confirm ID.
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This wasn't just my first definite pomarine skua, it was also a thrilling five minutes that I'm glad Greger was on hand to share - he'd been about to go down for a coffee just before I spotted it! It's also the fourth "first-for-the-ferry" I've had this year, along with Risso's dolphins, basking shark, and Brent geese - well, fifth if you count the house sparrow that landed on the ferry on my last outing. Not that I keep a list, but I feel that such sightings justify the amount of money I've spent on pelagics to Stornoway over the past few years - and I'm not exaggerating when I say that the "pom" alone was worth all of it.
// posted by Christine @ 1:01 PM 
