Saturday, 31 October 2015

Tour at 13:00

Report from Eldey: The weather could not be better, the wind had calmed down, skies where blue and the visibility, phenomenal. It was the perfect day to be out on see on a cold but gorgeous winters day. We sailed for about 40 minutes before we saw the first glimpse of a minke whale, at first it was a little elusive but soon it become comfortable with our presence and was surfacing less than 100m from our boat. It is always amazing when wild animals come this close. After 30 minutes of watching and enjoying the whale surfacing slowly and dive deep we left it in peace. We sailed for a bit longer and found another that surfaced a few times but was busy traveling. We searched further offshore for other cetaceans but none other was seen, instead we enjoyed the birds, landscape and the weather. A wonderful day. 

- Megan Whittaker

Tour at 09:00

Report from Eldey: The last morning tour of the season sailed out in perfect conditions. The weather was clear with sunshine and weak winds. We really enjoyed the sailing throughout the tour. After only twenty minutes of sailing we encountered a pod of 2-3 white-beaked dolphins. They were difficult only coming up quickly in one area and then surfacing further away. We got some short views of the dolphins before we headed further out. We came to the same area were we have been seeing a lot of minke whales the last couples of days. Soon one minke whale surfaced really close to us, unfortunately we couldn't find it again after that. We searched for some time but no minke to be seen. A pod of 3-4 harbour porpoises was seen during our search. On our way back we spotted another pod of dolphins, 3-4 individuals could be observed coming towards us and we got some excellent views of these dolphins. We could sail back summing up a tour with one whale and 2 pods of dolphins and a stunning autumn landscape. Happy Halloween everyone!

- Marcus Bergström   

Bird species seen on todays tours include: northern gannets, glaucous gulls, Iceland gulls, kittiwakes, black-headed gulls, greater black-backed gulls, common gulls, great northern diver, sooty shearwater, razorbills, common guillemots and eider ducks.