The End…
Seasonal Sayonara…
Well, this is it the folks; the final update blog for the season. With a week left until the doors close (and our big round-up of the season’s hightlights), it’s time to report what’s been going on in the Moray Firth one last time. Sadly, there hasn’t really been too much to report! After the excitement of the minke whale last week, our past few days have been somewhat lacking in cetaceans; but what it’s missing in fins it has made up for in spellbinding weather and brilliant sightings of some of our other, generally shier wildlife. Charlie and Kesslet have made their appearance felt only once in the last week, checking the boat out as she headed under the bridge into the Inverness Firth. The pair followed to Meikle Mee, before splitting off for a bit of a rest as the boat carried on. Since then, they’ve left the Beauly Firth somewhat vacant. That being said, when the cats are away, the mice shall play for sure, as we’ve had a great time meeting some of the other critters in the area for a bit more than usual.
An Otter One
With the good tides, we’ve caught up with the cheekiest of the Moray Firth lot a good deal recently; earlier in the week, the tide’s rise coincided quite nicely with the very start of our day and the rising of the sun. These conditions made it ripe otter-spotting time, and we were not disappointed. Whether in curiousity or in playfulness, the otters have been caught a good few times sneaking a peek as we come by. The two youngsters have been frolicking around North Kessock recently a fair bit too, and coming into the water together to hunt. The big male of the two was clocked with a lovely eel of some sort in his paws on Monday morning, chewing away as we passed him by. The smaller female was also seen near the harbour wall, coming up behind the boat as she turned out of the marina. The otters haven’t been alone in taking advantage of the quiet, as we’ve had seals by the dozen across most trips the past week; some very close, some acting like dolphins! It was around this time last year when we noticed the same phenomenon occurring; young harbour seals making large breaches around the Beauly Firth. Upon delving into this behaviour a bit, this seemed to be a kind of mate-impressing behaviour, where the seals showed off their skills and physiques to potential females, normally after a fight with another male. While we’ve only seen this behaviour with seals on their own, it could be that some of the younger males are practicing for when their time comes. We’ve also had some of the more mature males wave flippers and spy-hop at one another when they encounter each other further out at this time of year, so the seals sometimes are more entertaining than the dolphins can be!
Well, that’s the end of the report for this season; join us for a bit of light Hallowe’en reading (between children coming to your door!) when we release our seasonal round up of all the best sightings and moments of the 2017 season. Thank you all for reading our reports, we hope you’ve enjoyed reading them as much as we’ve enjoyed writing them for you!