Not a Good Day For Fish!
A Feast to Be Had!
It was a glorious day to be out on the Moray Firth today… for the most part! As our 4 pm passengers found out, the sunshine and calm waters wouldn’t last all day, but we had a barrel of laughs riding the waves in the later part of the afternoon regardless, and our passengers took it all in their stride! But when the sun was out, however, a fair number of animals came out to enjoy it, including a few oddities! We came across seals throughout the day, and Charlie and Kesslet made a rather stellar appearance at 12pm, where we got to see them over the course of about 30 minutes in total! We first caught up with them just outside the river, with Charlie the first to poke his mustachioed beak out of the water. He swam some circles as we approached, with mum Kesslet appearing alongside him also. She was busy handling the lovely big salmon she had caught just before we encountered them, and took it with her as she and Charlie made waves out past the Kessock Bridge. We caught up with the pair after doing our tour of the Beauly Firth, just outside of the ICT Stadium. They came very close, passing under the bow from right to left, letting everyone get a great look at them. Also a great look at Kesslet’s unfortunate salmon, who by now was nothing but a bundle of pink goo with a tail… gross! We lost them again near Meikle Mee, where the pair had disappeared in the direction of Kilmuir. It wasn’t until we came back around to Alturlie Point that the call of “dolphins!” went up again, and we caught our last glimpse as they once again vanished into the depths of the firth. That would be the last we would see of them today, but not the last wildlife to give us a surprise!
Fish Supper, No Chips
The dolphins weren’t the only fishermen out on the firth, as we also came across a cheeky Cormorant with a weird and wonderful little eel-like fish in its beak on the 2pm sailing, and lots of other gulls and other birds spent the best part of the calm weather fishing near the surface. Terns, gulls, and even a passing Skua were all caught today at some point with a fishy feast in their beaks! The Arctic Skua, spotted at 4pm, wasn’t the only feathered surprise either, as we also saw 4 more gannets on that trip too! The gannets will be breeding around here again, and it won’t be long until we see the skies full of brown fledglings, following their pale parents! Autumn must be drawing near once more; oh how time flies! We also had plenty of jellyfish sightings again this morning in the lovely emerald waters of the Inverness Firth; specks of red and blue lit up the depths, undulating on their way. You can see a great shot of one of the huge Lion’s Mane jellyfish from today over on our Facebook page! With the neap tides, sightings have been very unpredictable, but the anticipation on every sailing is palpable and very exciting; who knows what we’ll see for the rest of the week with this tide!