Outer Hebrides

And so our Outer Hebridean Adventure draws to its conclusion. We've been here for what feels like most of the summer, and seen a multitude of exciting things including those breaching basking sharks. After having seen that unfortunate dead one on the beach, i've been trying to get my head round how they manage to propel themselves clear out of the water .... I have trouble getting over the odd stile for goodness sake, then again that might be an age thing ... we wolves are known for our jumping ability after all! We've seen all sorts of other flippered and feathered creatures, big and small, black and white ... it's a busy little spot this corner of Scotland!

I know the humans will disagree but the best thing about these islands are the beaches, long uninterrupted expanses of white sand, tasty bits of seaweed scattered around the place, interesting little rock-pools to paddle in and apparently "hidden treasure" if Harvey is to be believed!! He's still digging! He has however proved to be a resourceful assistant, taking on the mantle of chief fly-catcher, and is coming along in leaps and bounds. A new adversary we've had to deal with over here is the infamous "Highland Midge"; a miniscule flying, biting insect (like mosquitos, its actually only the females who bite) who hangs out with several thousand of their friends in huge swarms, and at the first opportunity, descend on you to cause extreme irritation. Many prevention techniques exist including the locals favourite, 'just don't stand still'; not really a very practical option for our humans, so other measures were taken. Annoying they may be but the midge has ensured that the Highlands of Scotland remain a very special place. With human habitation kept to a minimum and only the hardy sticking it out, this little gem of a place quite possibly is the jewel in the crown of the British Isles! (Oh and some top tips for avoiding the midges? Wear light colours (I've got that box ticked!), and hang out with large women and tall men ... apparently they prefer them! But back to Harvey ... I heard somewhere recently (on the talking box i believe) that 'every home needs a Harvey' ... I have to agree, although i don't think the sheep would!









After my extended time on the 'Stickless Isles' i have decided to rename them ... they are now to be known as the 'Land of the Rainbows' ... the slight downside to these beautiful and amazing colourful creations in the sky is that it means you may get a wee bit wet but that's a small price to pay to see nature at its most glorious. Lewis has rainbows, and lots of them!!





And so the humans are off to tally up the number of finned creatures that they've come across, and undoubtedly spend hours poring over the thousands of photographs that they've taken ... us canines on the other hand are going to take some well deserved time off! But worry not ... it's only a short break, we'll be back at the beginning of October when the next adventure begins .... Gairloch 2010 Part 2!! I wonder which 'Navy' we'll encounter this time round?

Until then ....

Posted on behalf of Sarah Dolman

A storm is on its way across the Atlantic towards us. The wind is increasing and the sky is patchy and mostly grey again. But we’ve been out on the boat all the same - keen to make the most of our last opportunities, as we anticipate the bad weather ahead – this is our last week on Lewis for this year after all… !

Yesterday we encountered a pod of about 8 Risso’s dolphins shortly after leaving the harbour. We are coming to expect them as soon as we get out in the boat, which is never a good thing! First up, it was a mixed group of all ages, from youngsters to adults, that came our way. They were spread out and hugging the coastline, almost touching it in places, maybe following some tasty local octopus. We easily recognised a (presumed) female with a very scarred front edge to her dorsal fin.

We wiped our soggy hands and tried to capture dorsal fins without getting the photo-id camera wet – which is not easy at the best of times, but least of all when the view finder fogs up! But we did what we could.

After a short while, a new group we nicknamed the “4 amigo’s” appeared through the choppy grey waves. They were a tight group, surfacing and disappearing together. They came close to the boat, never mixing with the other group but we had all of them in our sights for a while.

After we had captured as many fin shots as we could, we were sodden, so turned around and headed for home. Cold and soggy yet thoroughly happy!

Today we were less lucky with Risso’s. Always the trouble when you come to expect something! We travelled through white caps and spray for about 3.5 hours before we were almost home and then encountered our first sightings in quick succession, of harbour porpoises! First a pair were porpoising clear out of the sea, and then a further individual was doing the same, despite it being a state 5!! Then, before we had time to blink, there was another fin on the horizon - oh no, two! Not a Risso’s but just as exciting – it was a basking shark..! We thought we had seen the last of them as our last shark sighting was more than two weeks ago, so this was a nice surprise. He was busy feeding in close to the rocky coastline, and came right underneath the boat, giving us a birds eye view of his big open plankton feeding mouth.



We turned the last rocky outcrop before our harbour came into view. We unloaded the kit from ‘RV Puffin’ and went for a wander along the beach to investigate a possible dead stranded animal that had been reported to Tim that morning. We came across a small (1.3m) unidentified odontocete. It was in such a state of decomposition that it was not possible for us to tell what species it was straight away. After some detective work, we determined that dorsal fin appeared to be too large for a porpoise and so the animal was presumably a very small dolphin – we summised that it was most likely to be either a Risso’s or common dolphin. We have gathered all the information that we could to forward on to the Scottish Agricultural College.

We may have one more weather window tomorrow (fingers crossed!), but we are already planning our return trip next year… watch this space!

P.S. We have learned that our stranded Risso’s had a ‘squat lobster’ in its stomach, rather than a langoustine, as we had assumed – we must have been thinking about our dinner!

It was sunny but too windy to watch yesterday so we took the dogs for a walk on one of the longest and most beautiful beaches on Lewis, at Traigh Mhor. Half way along the long stretch of white sand we suddenly became aware of a very sad situation. A couple we assumed were building a sand castle in the distance were actually attending to a young stranded dolphin.

It didn’t take us a second to realise that it was a young Risso’s dolphin - and that it was still alive. The couple had covered the dolphin in wet towels to keep it moist and to protect its sensitive skin from the bright sunlight and they were covering its body with sea water in an attempt to keep it cool. The dolphin was way up the sandy beach, close to the sand dunes and a long way from the receding low tide. It appears to have stranded at 7.30am on the high tide and it was now almost lunch time. It had therefore been out of the water for several hours.

Nicola stayed behind to help and comfort the dolphin whilst Simon and I headed back to the house to report the stranding and to gather some equipment that might come in handy for a rescue attempt. Shortly after we returned to the beach the vet arrived and determined that the best course of action was to euthanise the animal. We stood back and looked on with incredible sadness. Not only was this a young and seemingly healthy looking animal, this could have been one of the dolphins that we had been photographing from the boat in previous days.

In an effort to make some good of this terribly sad situation, a post mortem was undertaken today. Whilst we don’t know all of the test results straight away, Andrew Brownlow, a vet at the Scottish Agricultural College, came over from Inverness to conduct a thorough post-mortem and we now have the answers to some important questions about this animal.





This young Risso’s dolphin was a healthy juvenile male (2.76m) with a good blubber layer. He may have suffered some internal damage due to hours that he spent out of the water on the beach, but we will not know the answer to some questions about disease until more detailed histopathology has been undertaken on the samples that we collected.

As with all cetacean strandings, it was a very sad and unexpected event. But we hope to find some good in every situation and this is true of strandings also. We are lucky enough to have a great strandings network in the UK, with a dedicated team of vets and other professionals. Andrew caught an overnight ferry to get to Lewis in order to conduct the post-mortem whilst the carcass was still fresh. And as a result we have learnt something fascinating about the Risso’s dolphins off the north-east coast of Lewis. This young male had numerous squid beaks and stones in his stomach, and we also found an almost intact whole, fresh squid, as well as most of an intact langoustine, both of which were eaten in the last few hours before stranding. This demonstrates that this was a young animal that was well enough to feed only hours before it stranded and also that it was feeding here in Scottish waters. From the information we have gathered so far, it seems most likely that this stranding was brought about by a social situation. Perhaps a group of male Risso’s separated this juvenile dolphin from his mother and he became confused and ultimately stranded..?



And finally, the sad death of this young dolphin has strengthened our commitment to better understand the role of these amazing animals in Scottish waters and make sure that they receive the protection and respect that they deserve.

If you see a stranded animal in Scotland, please contact the following organisations who can help the animal and/or collect important information:

DEAD ANIMALS – 01463 243030 (Scottish Agricultural College)

ALIVE ANIMALS – 03000 999 999 (Scottish SPCA Animal Helpline)
01825 765 546 (British Divers Marine Life Rescue)

Posted on behalf of Kila, WDCS Canine Research Assistant

Dedicated followers of the Dog Blog, I humbly apologise for the extended length of time between my postings but the humans haven't let me get a word in edgewise due to the fact that there has been an absolute plethora of those finned things about - apparently that's much more noteworthy (or blogworthy) than my news! Harummph ..

So what's new with me and my assistant then? Well, we've been busy checking out more of the beaches here on Lewis, and some of them just seem to go on and on and on, with sand as far as the eye can see! It's been extraordinarily warm of late up here in the north and there's nothing better than a wee paddle in the turquoise waters to cool off after a hard day's work on the hill, although if we time it wrong and the tide is out, it can be quite a trek down to the waters edge. But there's nothing quite like the feeling of fine sand between your toes so it's always worth the effort. We have of course been responsible beach users and cleaning up any rubbish that we come across, but to be honest i've never seen such clean stretches of coastline so we don't tend to find too much to bring home. Harvey is quite taken with the beachcomber lifestyle, he appears to think that there is something hidden under the sand though as he is constantly digging holes, actually they're more like trenches than anything else. He's yet to find anything so perhaps he'll get bored of it soon. He did however find a jellyfish the other day and being his first one, wasn't entirely sure what to do with it ... after trying to play with it and then eat it he finally decided to leave it well alone, good call if you ask me, those things can sting!!

I also promised you in my last blog that i'd find out more about this "chess" thing (you'd be forgiven for forgetting, it has been a while after all!) that seems to preoccupy my humans at certain times ... apparently it's not an obsession with pieces of wood and is instead a game where you have to try and steal the other persons King. The humans tell me it's a "complex game of skill and strategy", well whatever it is it all sounds a bit boring to me, much more preferable to chew on the prawns instead, oh sorry, i mean pawns! Some of you fellow "chess-ites" may have heard of the Lewis Chessmen ... back in 1831 a chap found 82 chess pieces in Uig Bay (one of the biggest beaches i've seen in a while) whilst digging a sandbank - ah ha, lightbulb moment ... perhaps that's what Harvey is looking for? Possibly not as stupid as he looks after all! Thought to be made in Norway sometime around AD 1150 - 1200 the chess pieces consist of elaborately worked walrus ivory (their tusks) with a few of them probably carved out of whale's teeth - it was made in Norway after all! The pieces are currently held in the British Museum (with a few in Edinburgh at the National Museum of Scotland) and there continues to be some controversy surrounding the belief that they should be back in Lewis where they belong ... despite the fact that they were 'sold' to the respective museums in the first place!



The island is littered with evidence of man's presence from the Neolithic period onwards with the earliest evidence of human habitation being dated back to around 6,500 years ago ... !! We went to one of these 'sites' on yet another windy day (we have a few of them up here); the standing stones at Callanish are older than the ones down near my house at a place called Stonehenge and in my humble opinion they're better, as you can get up close and personal with these ones! Whilst i'm on the subject of stones, did you know that the rocks in the Outer Hebrides are some of the oldest rock in the world, known as Lewisian Gneiss, they were formed between 1,500 and 2,900 million years ago!!! I can't even imagine that far back ... so i won't bother but it does sound like a long time ago!!





I'm being told to wrap it up as we've got to get on the road! We're heading south to the real "Stickless Isles", otherwise known as the Uists (better make sure i've packed my ball!) for a wee bit of a change of scenery and to catch up with some shorewatching friends. We'll be back in a few days, likely with more stories to share!!! And worry not, i'll make sure it's not as long until i write again - I've been told i'll have a chance soon as apparently a "gale" is on it's way ... I don't think i know anyone called Gale but if it means i can write more i already like them!

This is my kind of field work. Ok, it’s not the tropical, glamorous type of research – shorts, t-shirts, iced water and sun cream, rather it’s as many thermal layers as you can squeeze into, hasty spoonfuls of porridge and always having your thermos, ginger nuts and wet weather gear handy.

But for three days on the trot now, on arrival at our land-based watching point as well as at the harbour from which we launch Tim’s boat, RV Puffin (excellent research vessel), the Risso’s have been out there in the big blue (or the big grey might be more accurate..) to greet us.

The scene was true gun powder grey yesterday when Tim pointed out a fin from the shore, as soon as we stepped out of the car at the harbour. We jumped into the boat. The morning started off well with wandering Risso’s dolphin mum and calf pairs spread out along the rocky lush coastline, just a few miles north of Stornoway.

Despite the dark choppy sea, the endless monotone grey clouds, general air of dampness and the distant watercolour mountain vista of the mainland on the horizon (none of which are conducive to photographing largely grey animals!), I was eager to improve my very amateur photography skills. Whilst the dolphins were in no hurry, their erratic surfacing patterns meant we remained on full alert, with our cameras firmly attached to an eye to enable swift action at first sight or sound of a dolphin breaking the waters surface. With aching arms, we photographed as many animals as we could. Once satisfied we'd photographed as many as we could, we moved on towards Tiumpan Head.

The Head came into view and several nosey fulmars circled RV Puffin to check us out. After much splashing on the horizon, and more deliberation about which species were leaping clear of the water, we had more than 50 common dolphins approach at high speed and began to play flamboyantly around the boat.

We spent some time enjoying their company as they bow-rode and leapt about us. When we tried to leave them, they followed with even more enthusiasm! Chuff, chuff, chuff as they came up next to us time and time again, too fast for us to capture them with the camera. They only got bored eventually when we switched off the engine and waited. Gradually, one by one, they mostly disappeared, until only a few individuals remained. They eyed us from under the water alongside the boat, porpoised around us and soon they too were gone. As quickly as they arrived.

The wind was starting to freshen. We headed back towards the harbour and encountered more Risso’s mothers with young of varying ages. They moved in a group, mostly together and surfacing at the same time. Much more amenable than the early animals!



Today we watched from the shore. From the moment we arrived and all day long we had a steady flow of one way Risso’s traffic past Tiumpan Head. Animals were dotted about from the coastline to the horizon as far as we could see. The Risso’s travelled leisurely past us and some juveniles occasionally slapped their head or tail on the waters surface. Mum and calf pairs stayed close together, and some came so close to our shoreline that we had to peer down to see them!