Moray Firth latest

June - and summer is here at long last. The first two weeks have been amazing, especially for north-east Scotland. It has been positively tropical here with long, hot, sunny days.

Sightings have been amazing - the Moray Firth has been alive with huge shoals of sprats and herring and of course these all attract the cetaceans. Large groups of bottlenose dolphins have been sighted from the Inner Firth at Fort George right along as far as Fraserburgh, and of course we are still having sightings recorded at Aberdeen and to the south near Fife. Harbour Porpoise numbers were less than in May, but with all the dolphin activity I can't say I blame them for keeping a low profile - but that said, small groups of porpoise were recorded at Macduff and Lossiemouth.

A large group of common dolphins (80+) came into the firth and were encountered during a survey 5 miles north-east of Fraserburgh. During the same survey, near Wick, we also encountered risso's dolphins - this species have also been seen lately off Fraserburgh and Peterhead. White-beaked dolphins were seen off Troupe Head and Peterhead however, despite the good weather conditions only a few basking sharks have been seen in the Firth, with 15+ seen last year in June we had hoped to see more, but the top sighting of the month must be the number of minke whales in the Moray Firth, with the best areas appearing to be the Inner Moray firth from Burghead to Cromarty and Macduff to Fraserburgh. On some watches 5+ whales have been seen, with even one sighting of 12 minkes at Cromarty and at the same time 3 were at Pennan Bay.

Land-based watching has been fantastic with Burghead being outstanding with great views! One evening we had 3 species (bottlenose, harbour porpoise and minke whale) and at one point thought we may even have encountered a fin or sei whale, but it was difficult to identify and could easily have been simply a large minke whale - but what a fantastic survey we had - 3 species all in the space of one night!

In the third week of June it turned a wee bit cold and unsettled, which meant that surveys and watches were down but sightings still came in - mostly bottlenose dolphins and minke whales but we did have a sighting of 2 fin whales whilst our on the survey boat, out by the Southern Trench heading north. The last week saw the weather returning to normal for this time of year, so now we know we are in the peak watching time with mackerel and sprat in large numbers and rafts of birds feeding on them. When you carry out land based watches, these birds are a good clue to the presence of cetaceans. If you see them take off suddenly a porpoise or whale may be there feeding - so that is a good tip if you ever find yourself walking along the shoreline where cetaceans are known to be present!

The longest day (Summer Solstice) has come and gone for this year. Sadly the sea was too rough to go out, but I did take the opportunity of the good weather on land to sleep on the beach at the Bow Fiddle Rock and woke up in time to see an amazing sunrise! Schools out for summer break now, but I am always busy with various talks and events. I had a great time at a three day event in Macduff during the Banff to Stravanger boat race (most of the boats carry our leaflets and sightings forms). The workshop at Nairn was a great success with dolphins being seen at Whiteness - which is incidentally the proposed site for the new marina. The enquiry has been put back until September, so I will keep you all up to date on that as things develop.

During the third week I went to the Shetlands on a survey. The sea was calm on both runs which was good and our day on the island was perfect as we had the opportunity to see the crew of the Spring Watch TV programme working at Sumburgh Head - the puffins were amazing and I couldn't let pass the opportunity to have a swim at St Ninans' Isle - fantastic.

The hostel is as ever busy - a few adopters came up this month looking for Swannie and were delighted to see dolphins from the back door of the house! I did want to say hello to the Clan from Tilbury - how are the bagpipes ?

So another great month has passed - despite a "blip" in the weather July is looking good so hope to see some of you during the summer months.

Until then, all things good.

Peter Macdonald