Outer Hebrides

It’s been a challenging few weeks as we have been subjected to gale force wind ... wind ... and even more wind. But it’s when times are the toughest that the gems sparkle the brightest and we have had some real corkers in the small weather windows available to us!

In an earlier blog we introduced you to a pod of bottlenose dolphins that we had encountered on several of our surveys last month. It would appear that the pod have been hanging about and foraging close to the coast. Apparently surprisingly for some, bottlenose dolphins are not considered common in these parts, however we have encountered them two out of the three years that we have spent surveying here. When we came across them most recently off Tiumpan Head this week, they were in the mood to spend some time with us. Any doldrums that had been brought on by weeks of high winds were quickly forgotten. There were three youngsters in the pod and Nicola immediately recognised one of the distinctive females (with quite a large mark at the base of her dorsal fin) and her young calf as we had seen them a month ago on one of our earlier boat surveys. The young calf appears to be doing incredibly well! The foetal folds were still visible on the sides of its body as it leapt clear of the water beside us with the sun shining behind it, but they were much reduced and it was almost twice the size as when we last saw it! Life must be good off the east coast of Lewis

Pretty quickly we realised that mixed in amongst the group was a startlingly white adult Risso’s dolphin! This individual, with a much bigger dorsal fin and different surfacing behaviour, was mixing with the bottlenoses like a trusted old friend and was behaving just like a bottlenose, even riding on the wake of the survey boat briefly. We watched it travel alongside the boat, beneath the water (and surfacing much less regularly than the bottlenose dolphins), but its startling white colour gave its presence away below the surface.




We got photographs of their dorsal fins and recorded the times that they were close to our acoustic equipment, hoping that we will be able to hear and differentiate between them and then we left and let them be.

As if that encounter wasn’t heart pounding enough, we soon came across a wibbly-wobbly finned sunfish in the shallows off Bayble, in the heart of our survey area!




We took advantage of a reducing sea towards the end of the day to retrieve the first of our four acoustic devices that we deployed in June. They sit quietly in the water and wait for a porpoise or a dolphin to pass and then they spring into life and record any dolphin chit chat. Not only did we find a couple of spider crabs and a squat lobster on our ropes but we got 100 days of lovely dolphin and porpoise chatter!!



And as if all that excitement wasn’t enough, we were on our way back to the harbour (dodging the rainy squalls) when the glint of a true slimy sea monster - an 8 metre basking shark [yes, EIGHT METRES long!] - was spotted by our eagle-eyed skipper. This gentle giant was busily feeding in the rushing tide, in front of a beautiful fat and colourful rainbow that settled on the surface of The Minch. He was much bigger than our survey boat!



Although autumn feels like it has arrived here and the auks and skuas are much fewer in number, gannets still dive around us on the water and The Minch is clearly still full of life. We arrived back on dry land with big smiles on our faces and our spirits restored – and ready for the next watery adventure!

Yahoo … I'm back, both here on Lewis and here on the blog! Go on admit it … you've missed me haven't you?!

Our humans have had some great land based sightings since we've arrived, a lot of which have been really close to the coast and therefore we've had lots of fun running over the heather and jumping bogs to get as close to the critters as possible. Some times they've been only metres away from us … ! Personally, i think that the dolphins heard that we were back and came to say thanks for our efforts on the Dolphin-Dog Walk … on which note it's still not too late to donate to our worthy cause - and if you do that'll likely mean more treats for us, although to be honest it's not that we do too badly as it is … but who doesn't like an extra chew every now and then?

It's been great returning to our old stomping grounds, otherwise known as some of the most beautiful beaches i've ever had the pleasure to walk on. I have to say, what i find quite bizarre is when the wind is blowing so hard that it almost knocks you over, you'd expect massive rollers crashing onto the shore but no … sometimes there's hardly a wave … apparently it has something to do with the wind blowing so hard in the opposite direction that the waves have no momentum whatsoever!! Weird eh? But better for us canines who are a wee bit shy of big white foam!

The highlight so far for my trusty assistant (Harvey - remember him?) and I, has been our "new" walk.



It's only taken our humans 3 years but they've finally stumbled upon … wait for it … drum roll please … a WOOD! I know … i didn't believe it either and thought i was dreaming but yes, here on what i historically referred to as the "Stickless Isles", there is in fact a secret haven (or should that be heaven?) with a plethora of toys for us canine carbon munchers!! Very exciting indeed … and as far as we're concerned, possibly the best find our humans have had since they found the local butchers!!

Even Harvey, who's not known for his fondness of sticks, has been getting in on the act, although i think i may have to reprimand him somewhat as despite there being an abundance of sticks, for some reason he always wants mine!





Due to the bad weather (well only "bad" if you're wanting to look for dolphins and other marine things) we've managed to persuade our humans to let us visit the "wood" a good few times and we've not yet been on the same path, this must be some size of wood!! (Note from human = the "wood" is otherwise known as Lews Castle Grounds and is 600 acres of mature woodland that has been here for centuries!). Harvey and i think they must be feeling a wee bit guilty about never having brought us here before and making us make do with driftwood and seaweed … although to be honest seaweed is pretty yummy!

Other exciting things to happen on the island since we've arrived include the stranding of a minke whale up on the north coast of the island. We were keen to go and check it out but the humans wouldn't let us as it had been dead a while and they thought it best we stayed away! … But CSI Lewis (Canine Strandings Investigations) have not been idle and only yesterday, on our local beach, we sniffed out a poor dolphin who'd obviously been dead for a wee while. Possibly a bit far gone to determine what species it is/was but hey, that's not our job … we leave that to the humans, we just find them!





Sadly (for the humans that is) the weather is due to continue to be pretty atrocious for the coming few days … yeah, more walks, ahem .. i mean, aw shame!! So you may be hearing from me again before too long … in the meantime i'm off to see if we can use our puppy dog eyes (being 77 - or 11 in human years - Harvey and I have had a wee while to practice this look!) to return once more to the wood-pile!!

Until the next time … woof!