Moray Firth Report

As they say in this neck of the woods - "the nights are fairly drawing in now" as it's dark here at around 7.30pm, curtains are drawn and it is a perfect time to sit by the fire and reflect on the last month.

September was a fine month for sightings - there were only seven days out of the entire month which were without recordings of sightings of cetaceans along the Moray Firth. Bottlenose dolphins were seen from the Inner Moray Firth all the way east to Fraserburgh - the Findochty area was good as ever, with a group of 25+ animals recorded travelling along each day. The great news about this also is that included in this group were four new calves, which is fantastic news for the future of the species in the Firth. I managed to get out on the boat a good few times to observe them and take details for our records, but not to close as to disturb them.

It is vital that you act with extreme care when you are in the vicinity of these young dolphins, like all wild animals the adults really protect their young but at times they do allow them to come closer to the boat, but it is always on their terms and at their choice. It is always fascinating to watch groups such as these - you can see which animals are travelling together, sharing the duties of protecting and caring for the calf while its mother goes off feeding, and now as the calves are getting bigger, it is a joy to watch them play and breach with their new-found friends!

It was encouraging that harbour porpoise were seen in good numbers off Fort George, at times groups or pods of 10+ have been seen, which means that feeding must be good up in the Firth at the moment as we have also seen and received reports of porpoise further east and in Cullen bay. One report was of a harbour porpoise being attacked by five bottlenose dolphins. A friend of mine in Cromarty saw a group of four porpoises and reported that quite suddenly the waters appeared to come "alive" with fast moving dolphins. The porpoise was suddenly thrown into the air, pursued by a bottlenose dolphin -sadly the porpoise was killed. Why dolphins do this is still a mystery - it was an awful thing to witness but we have to remember that these are wild animals, and they live by the laws of the wild which we cannot begin to understand - and mankind are not without blame when it comes to inflicting suffering upon our own species, so I guess we shouldn't judge the dolphins too harshly.

A few adopters visited us this month and ventured out on the water, some were fortunate to see dolphins. The Fosberry family (Sue, Mike & young Jack - pictured left) from Uxbridge, had a great time, staying at the hostel for two days. They managed to see dolphins (maybe Black and Decker) five times, and while out on the boat sat alongside a basking shark, which was about 10ft in length, for over 20 minutes. The water was so clear that you could see the whole shark as it swam under the boat, as it approached its nose was high out the water and its mouth wide open. We also had some amazing encounters with Puffins - they were quietly bobbing about on the surface of the water and also taking time to feed - maybe they were thinking "is it time to go west yet?"

This proved perfect timing for Liz Sandeman and Margaux Dodds to arrive from the Marine Connection head office in London. Even before they had a chance to unpack we were out on the boat down to Bow Fiddle rock in the hope that the shark was still in the area. But we need not have worried - there it was still swimming around, feeding with its' mouth wide open - it was a great opportunity for Liz as this was her first sighting of a basking shark - the perfect end to a day of travelling - coming from the rush of London town in the morning to sitting in the research boat, bobbing along by the rocks watching a basking shark feed.

Even although our daylight hours are dwindling now there is still a lot to see. Geese are now back in their thousands, plus Long-tailed ducks and Scoutters are seen off the coast. So even as the weather becomes less predictable which means less opportunity to get out on the water we can still watch from the cliffs. One thing is for sure, here in the Firth there is always something to see so far as wildlife is concerned.

Until next month, stay warm & dry.

Peter Macdonald