Outer Hebrides

This blog is reporting from the Isle of Lewis! In our efforts to find out where these pesky UK Risso’s dolphins are hanging out, we are currently running projects (and so blogging) simultaneously on Lewis in the Western Isles of Scotland and Bardsey Island in North Wales...

It’s been a stormy field season with few opportunities to get out on the water. But when we have made it out in the boat, we have always been pleased with the variety of species that we’ve encountered in the Minch. And today was no exception!

The conditions were promising for a full day out and we were anxious to make the most of what currently seems like a rare opportunity! We’d seen Risso’s and common dolphins during our land-based surveys yesterday and the day before, and so we were doubly hopeful! Once out of the harbour, our survey began with the increasingly familiar groups of surface active porpoises racing and foraging in the mouth of Loch Erisort. Porpoises rock!

We ventured out into the north Minch, and into the long and lolloping swell - a remnant of the storms we’ve just experienced. It wasn’t long before we were joined by a pod of common dolphins. They always seem keen for a ride on the bow and in the wake, and this small family of six animals, including a mother and her calf, didn’t disappoint! Our only problem was photographing them as they were rushing through the waves so quickly!





They followed alongside us for quite a while, jumping and peering up at us (what are they thinking when they do that..?), before getting back to their usual business. We moved on and a basking grey seal looked up at us from his watery home (disapprovingly, I might add).



And as we travelled on, it wasn’t too much longer before we came across two more common dolphins – big animals this time (or at least big for common dolphins!). They checked us out briefly before disappearing into the deep swell.

Suddenly there was a lot of disturbance and young and older gannet activity as we passed Tiumpan Head. So we turned in to more coastal waters and into the entrance of Broad Bay, where the swell was much gentler. Before long we were part of a mammoth feeding frenzy – with puffing harbour porpoises all around, a small (3 metre) basking shark heading our way and diving gannets all feasting on a shimmering shoal of herring sprats! The herring were like raindrops on the surface of the water, all around us.



It was great to be a part of a feast that we have now seen several times in this part of Broad Bay whilst watching from our land-based observation site at Tiumpan Head! What a sight – which you can enjoy in the video – again, the wonky camera footage is due to the swell. I promise!

After collecting all the data we needed, we turned around. On our way home we collected one of our six acoustic devices (called a C-POD) - after a bit of a search! We can’t wait to download the data (ok, I’m a bit nervous…) to see whether we have lots of porpoise and dolphin recordings! No Risso’s but a great day out on the water..

We grabbed some mackerel (although it took a few dips of the fishing rod it has to be said!) and shared them with the last of the ‘bonxies’ or great skuas (it’s amazing to see them eat a fish of such a size!) - before they headed to Africa and we headed for home!!

The weather has allowed us out on the sea only briefly but there is plenty of wildlife around. These clips feature basking sharks, herring shoaling at the surface and harbour porpoises and gannets feeding on the herring.

Patience is proving to be our virtue out here on the Isle of Lewis. The old Scottish saying "if you don't like the weather, just wait 5 minutes" is proving to be very true and even looking ahead at the various forecasts doesn't really help as it's hardly ever what they say it's going to be, so we've got to be ready to go at a moments notice! And also be prepared to just sit and wait … for a weather window to appear! However … we can now report on 2 of the best days that we've had since coming to the "Rainbow Isle" - the almost constant mix of rain and sunshine delivers these colourful and magical sights on an almost daily basis.

Day 1; from our land-based watching site at Tiumpan Head.
Over a few hours we were treated to sightings of harbour porpoises foraging close to shore, a minke whale slicing through the calm waters, a basking shark "basking" in the sunshine and two Risso's dolphins patrolling the northern half of our survey area. Again, it was the dreaded midge that eventually drove us off the cliff. There's a very fine balance to be found when it comes to marine wildlife watching in these parts - when the wind is too strong the white-caps on the water prevent us seeing anything, and when the wind drops too much, the midges appear on mass and make a beeline for any exposed piece of skin!



Day 2; from the relative safety (from midges that is) of our research vessel.
We started early, shortly after sun-up, and were hoping for a long-awaited great day at sea! And we were not to be disappointed. A mere 15 minutes from harbour, and not even out the Loch, we came across more porpoises than you could shake a stick at! Everywhere you looked there were little black bodies surfacing - behind, in front, to the right, to the left - it was a virtual porpoise soup! Cutting the engine we sat and listened, and counted, and tried to photograph the normally shy and elusive little porpoises. In stark contrast to their "usual" behaviour, these little guys (and girls) were actively interested in us and made several close swim-by's (cetacean equivalent of a fly-by), surfacing sideways to eyeball us and then diving under the boat at the last minute, only to surface on the other side with their characteristic little "pfff's". One individual appeared to be particularly interested in us and spent most of his/her time just doing circuits around the boat; from a very distinctive scar behind its blow-hole we recognised it as the same individual that we'd seen on 3 previous occasions in the same general vicinity - seems like this is an important or at least favoured, habitat for this chap!





After determining that we had approximately 35 porpoises within 500m of the boat, we decided to move on towards the mouth of the loch, however we didn't get very far before we came across yet another group of porpoises, this time actively engaged in foraging and not the least bit interested in what we were up to. This pod of 15 animals, including a young calf or two, were likely chasing mackerel and indulging in some fishy treats. There was a lot of activity (and lots of white water in their wake), with some animals "racing" at the surface and coming completely out the water as they hunted down their breakfast. Another stark contrast to what the porpoises we'd encountered only 15 minutes earlier were up to!





Soon we were leaving the porpoises behind and heading out into the oily calm waters of the Minch. In parts, not even the slightest gust of wind was present with hardly a ripple in sight - not a day to have been on land - but certainly one to have been on the water! It wasn't long before the cry of "Risso's" went up and the excitement was palpable … this was the first time in our 4 weeks here that we'd come across Risso's when out on the boat! One animal became two, two soon became five and the challenge was on to get shots of all the various dorsal fins before we left them in peace. They headed south, we headed north! But not too far north as we soon spied a wall of rain slowly approaching over land from the north-west, threatening to call an early end to our watery adventure and to avoid finding ourselves in the middle of it, turned tail and headed south, in the direction of home!

And what did we find? More Risso's … this time approaching us from the south. Some of the animals were the same as the ones we'd seen earlier but some of them were "newbies" … including a mother, whom we quickly nicknamed "Stumpy" due to the distinct lack of a dorsal fin (she'd obviously previously suffered at the wrong end of a propellor) and her calf - whose dorsal fin was bigger than hers! The calf was very young, between 1 and 3 months old, which we were able to determine because of the presence of foetal folds - a result of the calf spending its months in the womb, curled up, nose to tail. These folds disappear at different rates in different species; bottlenose dolphins can keep them for 1+ year, while southern right whales lose them within 2 weeks.



One of the most exciting things to come of the day, and our encounter with the Risso's, was that we recognised a few individuals as animals we'd identified last year - showing beyond reasonable doubt that this is an area to which animals are returning year on year … therefore it's important to them, or at least favoured!



As the rain chased us home, to top off a magical day, we spotted a sunfish - the first in our 3 years of surveying the Minch! There is some evidence that these giant circular fish (with elongated fins) are becoming a more regular visitor to Scottish waters - a sign of warming seas?

We've managed to capture some of our marine friends on film this time. Here's a small taster of what we have been seeing:

A couple of harbour porpoises from a big pod of 12 foraging in Loch Erisort.
A basking shark feeding.
Bottlenose dolphins off Tiumpan Head.
Common dolphins from the research boat, outside Stornoway Harbour.
A mixed group of Risso’s and bottlenose dolphins off Tiumpan Head near Stornoway.

Written on behalf of Kila, WDCS Canine Research Assistant.

I heard the words "bird blog" being uttered by the humans and decided it was time to step in and take matters (blog matters that is) into my own paws. Those flying things are all very well, and it has to be said, quite attractive at times, but … i thought perhaps you'd rather hear from me (and my trusty assistant) and what we've been up to since our last post! (If the weather stays as rubbish as it has been, there will be plenty of time for those feathered critters to make an appearance!)

There was one condition to me being allowed to write the next blog, i have to mention the humans last expedition out on the water where they had a rather spectacular encounter with some 20+ harbour porpoises. Apparently they're usually very skittish and camera shy (unlike us!) and getting up close and personal with them is a rare event. So … humans went out on the boat, saw some porpoises, took some pictures, and were very happy! (That enough? Shall we move on? Oh ok … here's some photos for you!)

Anyway, back to the things that really matter to us canines!! Beaches - and the hunt for driftwood, although it has to be said that we've both become rather fond of seaweed of late, there is after all an abundance of it, as opposed to sticks, of which there are few



We've decided to rename this island the "Land of the disappearing beaches" … it's all rather confusing if truth be known. Let me explain - on one of our favourite beaches we're used to having a vast expanse of sand to play on and a very long run down to the water (which does somedays seem to get longer and longer?), then, all of a sudden, we turned up for our usual "walk" only to find the beach had gone! Completely! Not a bit of sand in sight!! As you can imagine we were quite perturbed. The humans tried to explain to us … apparently it's something to do with "Spring" tides, which confuses us even more because we were of the opinion that it was autumn?? But "Spring" tides are the opposite of "Neap" tides … although again i'm confused because i'm not entirely sure what turnips have to do with anything, and i've certainly not found any tatties (potatoes to the non-Scot!) on the beach … all of which reminds me, where's our Haggis?!?





We've been assured that things will get back to normal soon, and in the meantime we've been venturing further afield to visit some of the islands other beaches which don't appear to be affected quite as much!





On one such visit to a "new" beach we were in for a bit of a surprise (well the humans weren't because they'd already been pre-warned by their friend Martin who works for the RSPB but no-one told us)! Harvey and i have become quite the "sniffer-dog" team and have a good track record of finding unusual things on our expeditions (to date we've found a basking shark, Risso's dolphin, white-beaked dolphin, a huge jellyfish and lots of rubbish) but this one took the biscuit - although i do hope he gives it back, we like our biscuits! - and had some really sharp teeth (guess that's how he got the biscuit then?) so although it was sad to find out that he was dead … we possibly wouldn't have ever seen one of his kind alive!! He was … a blue shark! Quite a find i'm told, and rather unusual to have one washed ashore … poor thing. It does make me think twice about skipping into the water but i'm told that his kind don't usually venture into shallow waters so technically we should be safe! And anyway … one must accept that when one dips one's paw into the sea, one has entered an alien environment and is at the mercy of all the creatures that live there!!





The humans continue to hope for good "spotting" weather and today was looking promising so we headed off to the "Head" to see if there were any critters about. Unfortunately those "monster midges" were out in force and Harvey and i thought (and hoped) that our time there was to be short-lived … how wrong were we? A lone Risso's dolphin was spotted swimming back and forth, and every now and then throwing itself clear of the water (perhaps they have marine midgies that it was trying to escape?) and despite being bitten almost constantly (it's like having someone throw pins at you!) the humans decided that they (and us!) had to grin and bear it, at least until the pain became unbearable!!





Right, now my blog is written and i've updated you on the goings on out here on the Western Isles, i'm off to see if they fancy getting out and about for some more fresh air as you never know what our next walk will bring!!

Until the next time … woof!