Spooks and Scoop(y)s!

It’s Been a While!
For the first time in a while, last week saw us getting a visit from not just two, but three, dolphins! While Kesslet and Charlie were present most days (and sometimes for the whole day too), they had a random visit from Scoopy on Thursday, who returned to this part of the Inner Firth for a brief while. As usual though, he had a little muck around with Charlie before setting his sights on Kesslet again. Poor Charlie was left to fend for himself (a repeat of this summer’s shenanigans), but in the time he spent alone he seemed to have a whale (or should that be dolphin?) of a time; he caught himself some lunch, and he came to play with us. After guiding the boat into the marina and saying his goodbyes, Charlie met up with his mum again and the pair disappeared for a while not too much later after Scoopy himself had vacated the area. Scoopy was actually spotted by a group of passengers later on that afternoon at Chanonry Point with Zephyr and son Zuzu, before those passengers came down to see us in Inverness, so he certainly got around a bit that day. On Thursday, Charlie and Kesslet actually spent the whole day nosing around the Beauly Firth; hunting actively in the morning, playing about in the early afternoon, then returning to snooze at the Kessock Bridge for the later stages of the day. We think they are targeting return salmon, as Kesslet’s mum Kess used to do at this time of year. Kesslet’s been catching a few hearty sea trout to keep her strength up too, so they’ve certainly been keeping a varied diet.

Seals to See
It’s been a good time for the seals without too much dolphin activity for them to compete with. The seals have hardly ever been on the mudflats when they’ve been present just outside the marina, and we’ve been seeing them in decent sized groups clustering around the Inverness Firth recently. The harbour seals spent today hunting very well, so much so they were being harassed constantly by gulls overhead. We were keeping our fingers crossed for hunting dolphins all the while, but they didn’t turn up until this evening it seems (though Charlie made a sudden and brief appearance this afternoon at 2pm out near Meikle Mee). We’ve been catching up with both seals and dolphins further afield with the Mischief too; though the weather has been keeping us in the marina more often than we would like. It’s not looking very good for the rest of the week either, considering the wind is meant to pick up into Thursday, but Spirit should be steady enough to go out on at least most sailings. It’s recommended you call ahead this week and just keep an eye on the weather when booking your trip! It’s gonna be fun regardless, and you just never know what we might see out there!