Gairloch 2009

For the first 2 and a bit days that we were here we could have been forgiven for thinking that someone had shifted all the islands that were normally part of our vista. Our visibility out into the Minch only extended to a few hundred metres … with everything beyond that shrouded in a constant blanket of rain cloud, it was like looking out at unchanging grey brick wall … and we hadn’t even laid eyes on any of the lighthouses that previously had been a source of intermittent illumination of an evening! All of that however was to change as we awoke at dawn to a very welcome sight – no rain and relatively light winds!! Skye was laid out in all her glory in front of us, the towering peak of An Cliseam on North Harris was once again on the horizon and the Shiants felt once more as if they were in touching distance, reassuring us that they hadn’t actually upped and moved off elsewhere!

The waters of the northern Minch gave the “appearance” of a relatively tranquil place (belying what was really going on underneath the surface), no white horses, no swell and with some intermittent cloud cover, all in all pretty ideal conditions for us to get watching! And the wildlife wasn’t to disappoint. Before breakfast we’d already encountered an otter on a mission, (carrying his/her own breakfast home) and a white-tailed sea-eagle on the prowl for an appetising snack. The sheer size of these birds make it difficult to mistake them for anything else, except another type of eagle, and the lack of a “white-tail” until they are about 5 years old can lead to some folk believing there to be Golden Eagles in these parts. There are thought to be approximately 12 sea-eagles in the vicinity, including a breeding pair and their two chicks who’ve set up home just behind the house.



As you’d expect, the other birdlife around and about is substantially different than what we were documenting back in May. There is a distinct lack of “little brown birds” (ornithologist I am not, remember!) in the garden, although some of the hardier ones are still here and one rather noisy addition are the flocks of geese (and the odd flock of swans) that keep appearing in the north heading south down through the Minch to their wintering grounds – if anyone was in doubt that the seasons had changed….listen to the Geese! They’re too far off for a positive identification however through a process of elimination we believe the swans to be of the whooper variety and the geese, Canadian. There also seems to be far fewer gannets around, although those that are here (which include a lot of youngsters) are delighting us with their constant dive-bombing – I don’t believe you could ever get bored of watching these spectacular birds! The most abundant bird by far is the shag, in fact it’s shags galore out there, everywhere you look there’s one, two or five of them flying by, there are “bottoms up” (thus shag engaged in a wee bit of diving behaviour) all over the place and there are black specks bobbing about all over the surface – great to see but slightly distracting when your trying to find fins, fins and more fins!





And fins we finally got – what is it about patience being a virtue! Just as the light was beginning to fade and our thoughts were turning to dinner a lone dolphin was spotted in the distance, close to Skye and heading south with a bit of a purpose. Then we were treated to a sighting of two minke whales much closer to shore. Both of them appeared to be focused on feeding (it was approaching dinner time after all) and as the evening light glistened off their backs when they sliced through the surface, we decided to call it a day!



Was that a most perfect end to a perfect day? We certainly thought so until we were treated to another amazing sunset (one of the perks of this part of the world) as the sky became a veritable palette of colours. As darkness fell we reacquainted ourselves with the lighthouses in the vicinity and kept our fingers crossed for a repeat of today’s weather tomorrow!

Contrary to popular belief, as marine conservationists we spend most of our lives not looking for dolphins, but sitting behind our computer screens. So when an opportunity arises to get out into the field, we grasp it!

We did this with gusto in our few days in the Outer Hebrides. Our first objective was to try to observe the small population of 15 bottlenose dolphins that reside in the Sound of Barra from land. Unlike the Moray Firth dolphins, this population lives on one of the remotest stretches of coastline in Scottish waters. Scientists have been studying this population from boats for 15 years and have discovered that their range is very limited - this is a very small but currently stable group of animals. Unfortunately for us, the gale force winds that we experienced on the ferry from Oban out to Barra continued, and meant that we were unable to watch for the dolphins at all. And time was against us, we had to plod on.

Next we had hoped to find a dead stranded beaked whale in the island of Benbecula that had been reported to us by Monty Halls. We had planned to take some measurements of its size and to identify it. There are a few species of beaked whales that strand each year in Scotland – mainly northern bottlenose whales, Cuvier’s and Sowerby’s beaked whales. Whilst we suspected from photos that this animal was a young Sowerby’s, unfortunately it was washed away before we could get to the site. Luckily for us, our next job was to ‘pop in’ on Monty Halls and Ruben just up the road on North Uist. Monty had kindly collected blubber and tissue samples of the whale that we can now provide to the Scottish Strandings Co-ordinator, Bob Reid, who will hopefully be able to provide some more information about the unfortunate whale and add this valuable information to the scottish strandings database to enable us to better understand about the species in our waters and the threats that they face.

We spent a productive morning talking with Monty about our new WDCS & SNH Shorewatch project and filming (despite the never-ending wind) with Monty and his crew – and his two adorable pigs, streaky and smokey!!! Let’s hope we (or at least Kila) make the cut to his new series of ‘Great Escape’...





We continued our journey up through the Outer Hebrides, distributing WDCS west coast field guides as we went (many thanks to Project Aware). Look out for them if you visit the islands!



We finally ended up at the furthest most northerly part of Lewis (confusingly called the Butt of Lewis). It is from Lewis that the cherry-on-the-icing of our trip was anticipated. Back in the late 1990’s, WDCS funded a Risso’s dolphin project on the island and we were interested to find out if the dolphins were still around…. Apparently they are, although despite trying we were unable to find them (that’ll be the wind again, maybe we should take up researching wind surfing rather than dolphins?!). However there is still clearly a group of Risso’s dolphins that come to spend the summer and autumn months (at least) off Lewis, and we hope to return in future – in better weather conditions. Data on Risso’s dolphins from around Scotland and the UK are really valuable because these deep water offshore species come into the waters around coastal islands to calve and raise their young. This makes sites such as Lewis, Bardsey Island in North Wales and the Isle of Man very important for the protection of these little known but rare and beautiful dolphins.





We weren’t fortunate enough to see any dolphins from the islands but we did have lovely encounters with jumping common dolphins and cart wheeling harbour porpoises on the ferry to Ullapool. We feel very positive about the value of the Outer Hebrides for cetaceans - not from our own encounters but by the wonderful stories and the passion of the people that we met on our travels.

Huge thanks to everyone we encountered along the way, who provided us with valuable information and shared their dolphin stories.

(On behalf of Kila, WDCS Canine Research Assistant)

It’s that time of year again and the various naval contingencies of NATO countries are due to be gathering in the waters off the north west coast of Scotland for their second round of “war games” this year … and we’re going to be watching! Our journey to get here however is worth a blog of its own and I’ve been given the honour of penning it!

Taking a slight diversion on the road north, we set sail from Oban headed for the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides. Due to some adverse weather conditions it took slightly longer (an hour longer … in pretty tempestuous seas) than the five hours it was meant to but thanks to the lovely people of Caledonian McBrayne ferries, I was able to pass the time in the company of my humans in the more relaxed environment of the “lounge” as opposed to being confined to the car in the bowels of the ship! (Can someone please ask those channel ferry operators to adopt the same policy as they won’t let me leave the car on those journeys … and they charge me (actually they charge my human) for the pleasure!)

Barra produced a first for me, a walk on an airport runway … although to me it looked more like a beach but what do I know? And one of the reasons for coming here? A small population of bottlenose dolphins is known to reside in the Sound of Barra and the idea had been to try and find them, unfortunately though the weather wasn’t playing ball (or stick!) and they weren’t to be seen. So it was onto another ferry, (across the Sound of Barra but still no dolphins) and over to Eriskay for us! Eriskay is a small island connected to the island of South Uist by a causeway and best known for being the site where the “AM Politician” ran aground in 1941 with a cargo of 22,000 cases of whisky, quite a godsend for the local community and made infamous in Compton Mackenzie’s famous novel “Whisky Galore”.

By the time we got to South Uist I was beginning to get a bit concerned as there was a distinct lack of trees (and thus sticks!) … not something I was too happy about! Another causeway took us over to Benbecula, where there were still no trees but there were lots of wader birds (they don’t need trees after all) including a spectacular number of lapwings. The next causeway took us over to North Uist where the fun was really to begin when we went “visiting”.



Monty Halls is a good friend of WDCS – such a good friend that he ran the London marathon in aid of WDCS dressed as a dolphin!! – and as he’s over here filming the sequel to his television series “Great Escape”, we wanted to pop in and say hello and have a chat about the whales and dolphins (and porpoises) that he could expect to see from his island beach retreat. Monty is kept company by his own canine friend who goes by the name of Reuben and while the humans talked shop, we had a brilliant time making friends … !!





Canine entertainment over for the day, it was back on a ferry for us, this time over to Harris and Lewis. And what a spectacular place Harris turned out to be … beaches as far as the eye can see, and even the odd stick! Lewis was nice too although there seemed to be a lot of interest from my humans in a bunch of odd looking standing stones … not too sure what the significance was but it involved a lot of walking to get there so I wasn’t going to complain.






A few beaches later we were back on yet another ferry (although I’ve been promised that this was the last one) and heading back to the mainland, final destination Gairloch. We had been hoping to spot some Risso’s dolphins from the ferry as we left Stornoway behind as there are a semi-resident population of them living in this part of the world but it wasn’t to be! We were however accompanied, and entertained for a short while by some of their cousins, otherwise known as common dolphins and harbour porpoises … very nice indeed!





And now? We’ve arrived in Gairloch and are ready to greet the warships - we’ve already spotted our first submarine (Norwegian in origin) alongside Stornoway harbour!! (And after my lunch of Sunday roast at the pub I’m more than ready … although I may have a wee nap first, just to recharge my batteries!)

After a miserable week (weather wise of course!), we awoke to one of the most glorious days we’ve had yet! The sun was splitting the sky, not a cloud in sight and even the wind had abated slightly! Here was me thinking we’d have a lovely day of stick tossing and bog wallowing (found what I think is a great way to cool down at the bottom of the garden however I am assured by my humans that it’s not exactly clean – who cares, it cools me down!) and instead I was thrown into the back of the moving box and off we went to a fisheries conference which, surprise surprise, was all about fisheries……except for some lady who spoke about birds, a rather amusing gentleman called Duck who talked about sheep, I mean seals, and of course my human Sarah who talked about all the whales, dolphins and porpoises that they’ve been so fascinated with over the past month. I think I must state here that I am no longer under any illusion that us canines are their priority – very sad ?

(Human comment – “Not true!!”)

It wouldn’t have been too bad a day had someone not spent the session before lunch talking about Nephrops (otherwise known as Langoustine, Dublin Bay prawns, scampi – so many names…..but it all tastes the same!!). What a cruel thing to do…. especially as we didn’t even get to taste them….not sure I want to go to another one of these things! I spent the rest of the time dreaming of being on the beach and luckily my humans picked up on this and we soon went for a frisbee throwing session and a swim at the beach (and a quick stop at my new favourite shop – the butchers) before coming home to apparently go back “on-effort” – read as stick throwing and bog-wallowing for me and spotting for them! My humans have asked to interject at this point with some updates of their own so I’ll let them waffle on and be back to finish off the blog in a moment!

Thank-you Kila…..

As this field season comes to an end we have some news we want to share with you. We’ve successfully managed to retrieve the T-Pod (so a big thank-you goes out to Ewen for preparing the weight for us – it worked and we didn’t lose it!! – and to Ian for helping to both deploy and retrieve it).



We’ve since found out that although from our experience here we’d believe that cuckoos are plentiful, they are in fact becoming worryingly rare. We’ve already noted our sightings on the Springwatch website (www.bbc.co.uk/springwatch) and if you happen to hear or see any then please do the same.

We’ve also been keeping a special watch for the return of the Arctic Skua as we’ve been told they arrive with the terns, which we’ve been seeing for the past week or so but it wasn’t until today, our last day, that we witnessed this avian treat.



On our return from the fisheries workshop this afternoon, we were delighted to come across a pod of at least 12 common dolphins in Loch Gairloch. We thought we’d ended our month of surveys with a splash! But no, on starting a 6pm watch from our observation point, we were treated to a barrage of sightings – 3 basking seals, 2 pairs of porpoises, some possible dolphins (we lost them in the glare) and 3 minke whales. So we actually ended the survey with a blow!

Nicola is off to the Moray Firth for more field work in a week or so, so keep your eye on the field blog as hopefully we’ll have a lot more to tell you from the (north) eastern side of Scotland… and we’ll see you back in Gairloch in September…!



And now back to Kila……

It appears to be all over up in this neck of the woods and we’re packing up and getting ready to go…..! It’s been a tiring few weeks for me but full of fun and I’m looking forward to coming back already!! Perhaps next time I’ll finally get a hold of one of those dastardly sheep, the lambs that I met when we arrived last month are looking more edible by the day.

Oh…and apparently there’s a chance I’ll be in the Moray Firth too so perhaps I’ll speak to you from there!! Although that trip involves boats and I’ve not really got my sea-legs yet…..gulp!!

Bottlenose dolphins are the only species of whale or dolphin to have a protected area in the whole of Scotland. This area is in the Moray Firth and is in place to protect the 130 dolphins that make up the population that lives off the northeast coast of Scotland but have been known to roam down as far as Newcastle.

On the west coast however bottlenose dolphins are far fewer in number. A small group of around 40 live around the Island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides and another group of 15 or so animals moves around the Hebrides, favouring the waters off Mull, Kintyre, Skye – and, from time to time, Gairloch! Others make up offshore populations, although due to their penchant for deeper waters, very little is known about them.

We were privileged indeed to see this pod of dolphins (on three different occasions in as many days) a couple of weeks ago. The pod contained two young calves, still with their foetal folds, so relatively new members of this family group, what a joy! As we told you in a previous blog, we sent our photos to Barbara at Aberdeen University’s Lighthouse Field Station in Cromarty for her to compare our dorsal fin photographs with those in the Scottish bottlenose dolphin catalogue – and a huge thanks goes out to her for being so quick to get back to us and for finding our matches within the group of animals known to move around the islands!

Barbara has identified up to 8 recognisable animals from our pod of 12 – 15 dolphins. And remember – all of our photographs were taken from the shore. Ok, Nicola has a camera with a Very Long Lens!! But we’re really pleased that we managed to get some photo-id’s from land. We even photographed some animals from both sides, as they traveled south and later returned to the north!

In one really special finding – we photographed a dolphin with one of the young calves – and Barbara has said that it may be her first, as she hasn’t been seen with a calf before. How lovely!

Despite there being so few bottlenose dolphins off the west coast, they currently have no formal protection. We want this to change. In fact, it’s because there are so few dolphins that they really need protecting! The bottlenose dolphins on this coast are entitled to the same protection that those in the Moray Firth already enjoy and we’re calling on the UK and Scottish governments to provide this protection.