A Big 3 Day!

Dolphins All Day!
Well if ever you needed a cure for the midweek blues, today was it! We saw all of our big three – otters, seals, and dolphins – on 3 out of 4 trips, and were blessed with dolphins for every trip too. Only the otters failed to appear at 12pm, but it was a cracking day out on the water for sightings despite the rough, windy weather! The day started off fine, with seals out on the mudflats and wind rustling up some minor waves. As we returned from the Meikle Mee buoy near the end of the trip, who should pop up but Kesslet and Charlie, spotted by a keen-eyed passenger who glimpsed their fins among the waves. They slowly but surely were heading inward, going at a fairly relaxed pace. We left them out there and managed to spot on otter (pictured above) making its way into a dummy passage just in above the low-tide surface. It poked its head up again at the passage’s exit, before bounding up onto the dry, bare rock and into a real entrance to the holt. Possibly one of our best otter sightings to date!

Sun, Sea, and Sealife!
The afternoon came on quick, and as the 12pm set out we were keen to see where Kesslet and Charlie ended up! With no sign of them in the river, we went to the Beauly Firth. They weren’t there either, nor were they further out past the bridge. Perplexed, we returned to the marina again to be delighted by a huge splash from Kesslet as she hunted just up by the South Kessock side of the river. We continued to watch for a while, and were even more amazed to see young Charlie breaching with a terrific salmon that was almost a metre long! It was so big, our guide had to do a double take at her pictures to ensure it wasn’t a porpoise! Charlie wandered off with his prize in his mouth to join his mum, who had sneaked further up into the river, and again, we left them to it. They stayed up there for the rest of the day, so we were lucky enough to see them at 2pm and 4pm too, with Charlie greeting the boat in his usual way, before having a porpoising match with Kesslet, the pair just skimming across the surface like stones behind us. We didn’t see them at the end of the 4pm, but with the high tide and the catches that were made, it’s quite safe to assume they were happy enough to go and relax elsewhere for the evening. I’d be tired too if I’d had a day like them!

Charlie and his catch just upriver of the marina