Down, up, around and back - Part 2

The Safari has been to Belfast before and knew there were Harbour Seals to be found in the lough. We found a handful of distant animals hauled out on the low tide rocks but it wasn't until after breakfast while we were chatting on the phone to Wifey back at Base Camp that one came near enough for a pic.

The harbour area also held numbers of Black Guillemots, several commuting between the wide mouth of the lough and the inner dockland area. A couple even perched up on the stern of the ferry docked opposite us.

After breakfast we went ashore and left the rest of the team to do whatever they had planned. We walked the few hundred yards to the RSPB's 'Window on Wildlife' reserve. We arrived before opening time and had a pleasant wait in glorious sunshine watching bees, hoverflies and a few butterflies buzzing around the flowers of the pollinators area at the entrance. After a few minutes the doors were opened and a very helpful young lady told us what had been seen recently and gave us a telescope to use, very handy seeing as how the lake we were viewing was quite large.

A Common Sandpiper appeared just inches in front of the huge viewing window but didn't stick around for a pic. The next nearest bird was this female Tufted Duck sat chiiling out in the warm morning sunshine. Now we always promise ourselves not to take anymore pics of Tufted Ducks cos we've got at least half a dozen more than plenty but as this one was doing something a little out of the ordinary - sitting still on dry land - we fired a few shots off.

The young warden had mentioned there was a nesting pair of Mediterranean Gulls on site but that last year they had five pairs, this pair being the only ones to have survived a severe outbreak of Avian Flu. After filling our SD card with sitting duck pics it took us 0.00001 of a second to find the Mediterranean Gulls among the throngs of Black Headed Gulls on the nesting rafts. Can't believe it took us that long to sniff em out, musta been because we were behind a thick plate glass window!

Out on the water there were several Little Grebes, mostly refusing to come close until one did venture just about in range.

Meanwhile a Moorhen walked the shoreline behind the still snoozing Tufted Duck.

Positioned out in the water were several posts and 'goal posts' for the gulls and terns to loaf on. At this time all the terns were Common Terns, news from the other birders who had now joined us that the Arctic Terns were very late this year with only one being recorded so far.

The window wasn't the best when taking pics at an angle but not too bad when looking square on, as when the Moorhen walked back.

Eventually one of the Little Grebes did come much closer.

Over in the far corner there was a mixed flock of Black and Bar Tailed Godwits many sporting their brick red breeding plumage. The others birders suggested we get the door code for the little hide over that way from the wardens and go round to get a closer look. It was only a five minute walk down the road then along a wooded fringe where we heard Willow Warbler and Blackcap singing as saw a family of recently feldged Long Tailed Tits. From the hide we did get closer views of the godwits but they still weren't in a good place for pics. A couple of Whimbrel were with them and we heard a Curlew too. Here the loafing posts were much closer and not through glass and although against the light at this time of day offered much better views of the Common Terns.

From the hide the path continued down to the edgse of the lough where we met a couple of guys with cameras we thought were more birders but were actually waiting for a huge bulk carrier, the Atlantic Sakura, to be tug-boated into its dock.

The tug at the back must have powerful engines as it was acting as a brake to slow the ship down.

While watching the ship shenanigans a Black Guillemot sailed past nice and close. We were getting hungry by now and with no cafe at this reserve we gave our thanks to the wardens and birders for all the info and banter, what a friendly and informative bunch, if you're ever in Belfast 'WOW' is well worth a visit, and set off on the walk back to the copious amounts of grub only a cruise ship can offer.

For our sailaway there was stiff breeze giving challenging viewing conditions in the outer lough until we rounded the headland and  headed northwards into the North Channel. Just outside the mouth of the harbour there was a small flock of Eiders A few Shags were further out on the choppy water.

As the evening progressed the sea became weirdly glassy calm and we came across groups of Kittiwake, Razorbill, Guillemot and Fulmar. Small flocks of Gannets cruised by probably on their way to the nearby colony on the tiny island of Ailsa Craig, famed for its granite curling stones. As dusk fell the conditions looked absolutely mint for a Storm Petrel or two but sadly none were found.

The day’s mammal list finished on 7 Common Seals, a single Grey Seal, a couple of unidentified dolphins and a  Harbour Porpoise.

 
Cruising up The Minch in darkness wasn't ideal for us wildlife watchers as this is where we would expect to find good numbers of marine mammals and maybe a Basking Shark or two too. Luckily for us the was some daylight before we arrived at our next port, the tiny Hebridean town of Stornoway. 45 Common Dolphins were seen in several pods, unfortunately all too distant for pics, and two of the guests let us know they'd seen four White-beaked Dolphins.   As we approached the brand spanking new Port of Stornoway cruise terminal, so new it's nowhere near finished yet we had Black Throated, Red Throated and Great Northern Divers along with a pair of Red Breasted Mergansers. 

Once docked we took the shuttle bus into town where House Sparrows and Starlings were seen. There's a very nice whisky shop where we could have all too easily maxed out our credit card but managed to resist the temptation. A bric-a-brak shop came up trumps with an early Slade vinyl LP for our collection but we couln't find a pub with decent beer in which to watch a footy match IH had been looking forward to so it was back to the ship. Later some guests that had been on one of the excursions told us they'd had a Golden Eagle pointed out to them by their guide - lucky devils! The nearest we got to eagle excitement was a Heron flying across a hillside from the shuttle bus into town.  

With The Minch being a cetacean hotspot we had plenty of eager guests out on deck as we left Stornoway heading for the topmost corner of the Scottish mainland, Cape Wrath.

Lady luck wasn't with us and we somewhat disappointingly saw not a lot, the highlight probably being this group of Harbour Seals by the ship's berth.

The usual seabirds included a bathing Guillemot - why does a bird that spends half its life under the waves need to bathe???

Also passing by were a Whimbrel a flock of tundra bound Sanderlings and a couple of Arctic Skuas. Over the mainland we watched the formation of some lenticular clouds. The last time we witnessed these at sea some very severe weather followed, would it be repeated?

We'll see...
Around the time our voyage began the sun had given of several coronal mass ejections directed towards earth and it was looking like five of them had merged so were likely to generate an impressive display of the Aurora Borealis which just happened to be on the same night as a star gazing event aboard ship and many of the guests' phones were pinging aurora alerts from their Apps.  The team spent the late evening in enjoying Howard’s fabulously entertaining and somewhat tongue-in-cheek tribute to Freddie Mercury while every so often heading outside to check how dark the sky was.  As the first stars began to appear we were discussing astronomy and stargazing with guests who were still out on deck, then when we looked out again just before midnight the aurora was visible to the naked eye, directly over the ship! We were thrilled even though it 'only' appeared as a sinously moving grey swirl and not the spectacular colours you see on the telly. The colours would be revealed when we set our phone to 'night mode' and pointed it skywards. After a mind-blowing, jaw-dropping, and too many other idioms to list, experience we eventually headed to our cabins in the early hours of Saturday morning as it began to fade. Bucket list Basking Shark missed, bucket list Aurora Borealis a massive hit!

So as not lose as little daylight as possible on the way up to Lerwick in the Shetland Isles we were out on deck after barely five hour's sleep, and we weren't the first out there a few guests had already been out for an hour or so! The highlight was a Minke Whale, after seeing so many on the first morning we had expected to have seen more by now but it could be that we had got ahead of them as they migrate northwards. A couple of Fulmars took advantage of the ship slipstreaming us for several miles.

Most odd were a couple of Razorbills that decided floating with the current wasn't for them so let a plank do all the hard work.

And so on to Lerwick we steamed over a mostly quiet sea, where were all the cetaceans??? And most especially where's the 'big one', third of our bucket list - Orca.

Where to next? Ashore in Lerwick and the down the North Sea.

In the meantime let us know who's walking the plank in your outback.