Untitled Document

Scotland

Whales and dolphins that are so far away – Moray Firth and Mull
July 2009
The purpose of my trip to Scotland is to visit my adopted dolphin, Mischief. Yet, when I asked our guide about Mischief, he told me that Mischief does not occur in the area we went dolphin watching! Other Scottish dolphins and whales also liked to play hide and seek with me. This is the most disappointing trip I ever had.
On the first day at sea, we only had a very brief encounter with a Minke Whale and yet, they did not let me have the chance to take pictures.  The next morning, we saw a small group of Bottlenose Dolphins making splashes when we were at the Spey Bay Wildlife Centre.  Yet, they were too far away from us and it was simply impossible to take good pictures.  The photo below features two of my friends in the tour.  The little dark spot to the head of the lady in pink is the dorsal fin.  Yet, we didn’t see any dolphin or whale in the afternoon boat trip.
bottlenose1 bottlenose2
We set off to Mull, an island on the western side of Scotland, hoping to see more whales or dolphins.  We went on board the next day in the morning and afternoon but just managed to have a couple of brief encounters with the Harbour Porpoises.  We did see seals, white tailed sea eagle and some other animals though, but we were very disappointed.  We went on board again for a 6 hours’ trip the day after, yet there was not a single sign of whale or dolphin.  When we were back in town, a friend in the tour told me that there were records of humpback whale, minke whale and dolphin sightings on the notice board of Wildlife Trust within those few days.  Yet, we didn’t see any!

harbourporpoise
Harbour porpoise

Other wildlife of Scotland:

baskingshark1 baskingshark2
Basking shark
seal1 seal2
Seal
highlandcow highlandsheep
Highland cow Highland sheep
sheep scotland_deer
Sheep Red deer
otter fulmar
Otter Fulmar
guillemot guillemot2
Guillemots
puffin oystercatcher
Puffin Oyster catcher
herringgull gannet
Herring Gull - Juvenile Gannet

Some of my friends in the tour stayed behind at Inverness and went to Chanonry Point where the adopted dolphins usually occur.  They later told me that dolphins came really close to shore during certain tidal periods.  So, if you would like to see dolphins in Scotland, it may be a better idea to visit Chanonry Point.
(The blog: http://www.adoptadolphin.com/blog/)