Moray Firth 2006
Day One: Upon our arrival in the Inverness area, we went to the Dolphin & Seal Centre at North Kessock. The centre stands high on the hill above the Beauly Firth.
They have an observation window looking over the Firth and upon looking out we immediatly saw seven bottlenose dolphins in the water below. They appeared to be ‘resting’ with little forward motion. We were able to observe them for around fifteen minutes before they disappeared around the headland.
The centre itself was more of a tourist attraction than a serious scientific endeavor, but the guy who worked there was very helpful and was willing to show me the identification data they had on the Bottlenose population of the Moray Firth.
We then went on to Fortrose, a small town on the east coast of the Black Isle. On the way we had the good fortune to see 4 Ospreys just circling around an inlet called Munlochy Bay. There is a wildlife centre there, but we decided to give it a miss and continued on.
We set up the tent at the Fortrose campsite (much less expensive than the one in Rosemarkie) which is situated at the landward end of Chanonry Point. The couple who run the campsite were very friendly and told us the best times to see the dolphins.
We then went about a mile down the road to Chanonry Point where we immediatly saw four Bottlenose dolphins about 50 metres from the shore. They were steadily travelling north and after about 10 minutes they disappeared from view.
We spoke to some of the serious ‘watchers’ who were on site and they told us that the turn of the tide was the best time to see them and that the next turn was around 7.00pm that evening. We went back to the campsite and had a restful afternoon in preparation for the evening.
We went back down to the Point around 6.30pm and set ourselves on the beach. We didn’t have to wait long…. First we saw a group of around 6/7 bottlenose dolphins travelling with the incoming tide around the Point and into the Inverness Firth. They turned and faced the tide and began to fish. We could see them following the edge of the current as they picked off the salmon swimming up the Firth.
Then we saw another group of around 8 appear on the Moray Firth side of the Point.. They were also fishing… Then another small group appeared. At this point the groups seemed to merge into one large group of around 19 animals and started to cover the incoming surge of the tide.
We watched them fishing, no further than 50/100 metres offshore, for about an hour. They then went into a period of resting, drifting with the tide. Then the fun began!!! They started breaching, tailslapping, even a period of ‘popcorning’. It was just incredible to watch. Some of the animals were just 5 to 10 metres from the shore and were breaching in full view. We even saw a young calf breaching along with the adults.
This show went on for around 3 hours in total… and this was just Day One….
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Day Two: After a restful night we were woken around 5.00am by the most wonderful dawn chorus. Apart from the obvious attraction of the dolphins, the area was also home to many species of birds. After laying listening for around an hour I shook off the sleeping bag and went out for a look.
Imagine my surprise when the first thing I saw was ‘Hamish’… Well at least a passable impression of him… (I should explain to those who are wondering… Hamish was the pet name given to a blue heron frequently sighted on the live feed from orca-live). This was in fact a grey heron, but to all intents and purposes, it was Hamish!!! There he was, standing on his branch in amongst the kelp, frozen, waiting for his chance to pick off the fish as they swam by… Although he was no more than 50 metres away, I picked up the binoculars to watch him closely… I swear, the picture was just like the orca-live feed…
After breakfast, We sat around the campsite waiting for the freighter in the bay to swing round heralding the turn of the tide… As soon as it began to turn we headed back down to Chanonry Point to await the arrival of the dolphins…They were actually there when we arrived at the point… A small group, 4/5… Again very close to shore… They swam around the point into Inverness Firth and seemed to be covering and criss-crossing the whole area…
There was no frolicking, just steady travel. They passed back and forth for around an hour before heading back around the point and out to sea. My impression was that they were an advance ‘patrol’ checking out the area for fish and when no great numbers were found they returned to the open water.We sat around for a while, but no sign, so we decided to drive up to Cromarty, also a common spot for sightings… We spent a couple of hours in Cromarty, no sign of any dolphins, but I visited the ‘eco-tours’ people at their centre in the town.
Now, I don’t like to talk people down, but I wasn’t impressed much! Although they were knowledgable and answered all my questions, there just wasn’t any enthusiasm… It was just a job to them… (God forbid I ever become as jaded as that!!!).We returned to Fortrose and had a quiet afternoon at the campsite… After waking so early, we needed a little siesta… zzzzzzz!!!!!
After a quick evening meal, we returned to the Point… We were becoming recognised now, and many of the ‘regulars’ came over for a chat… It was very much a ‘home from home’, chatting away about the dolphins, the Firth and cetaceans in general. There’s nothing quite like local knowledge and we were informed about many, many aspects of the area by those people.
One such tidbit was… At extreme low tide, if you stood with your toes right at the edge of the water and looked down, that the sea floor fell away to a depth of 140 feet… This was the channel that the dolphins swam and fished in, and why they could be seen so close to the shoreline.
Meawhile, everybody chatting and looking out to sea, a couple of dolphins had sneaked around the point and had surfaced on the other side of the spit. They seemed to be checking the area out as had the dolphins earlier in the day. They made a beeline for a buoy out in the channel and circled it for some time. We were informed that this was common behaviour as fish would congregate below the buoy and the dolphins would circle and pick them off…
After a while they returned to the Point and were joined by another 3 dolphins… It was at this moment I thought I’d died and gone to heaven!!! They started swimming in the rough water just at the very tip of the Point. No more than 15/20 feet from the shore… They were in the fast flowing water of the deep channel I mentioned earlier and were just keeping station…
They would surface one at a time, then all together… Then you would get a spyhop… I swear they were watching us just as much as we were watching them. Every so often a salmon would jump out of the current, quickly followed by a dolphin… By now the current was flowing so fast, I just had difficulty believing that the dolphins could so easily seem to stand still in it…
They were so close to the shoreline that you could look them in the eye, and see them looking at you… A very humbling feeling!!! It felt as though if you reached out a hand you would be able to touch them… I don’t know how long this went on for? Time just slipped by as fast as the current…
All I know is after what must have been around an hour they began to play!!! Suddenly they were porpoising right in front of our eyes… breaching, then breaching again… I don’t know how to get this over to you???? Dolphins porpoising just feet in front of your face… out of the water at your eye level… Spectacular!!!!
Truth is… We watched them for hours and it seemed like minutes! To see such a display is a privilege!! To be so close to these animals in the wild is simply an honour!!! I felt blessed!!!
still more to come….
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Day Three: The morning bagan much as the day before.. watching and listening to the many birds inhabiting the campsite and adjacent coastline. ‘Hamish’ was there, a little closer today.. also crows, gulls, oyster catchers… one of which had made its nest in the shingle of a drive at a nearby house. We were able to watch it sitting on its eggs in plain view. The owner of the house had even started parking his car elsewhere so as not to disturb it…
We spent a quiet morning in the camp as the tide wasn’t due to turn for a few hours… The day was bright and sunny although there was still just a cool edge in the east wind… Many of the boats moored in Fortrose harbour had headed out into the firth, taking advantage of the good conditions… The sea was flat and mirror-like… a beautiful day for sailing!
We headed down to the Point around mid-morning… There were already quite a few people there, just waiting!!! I spotted Charlie Philips, a staff photographer with the WDCS. I recognised him from his profile on the BDMLR forums, so I went over and introduced myself… We chatted for ages… and he gave me lots of great info on the Moray bottlenose population. Apparently, they are beginning to split into different communities. There are still a large number who are resident in the Moray Firth, but now there is a large group who have taken on a transient nature and travel far and wide.It is part of this latter group that I see in my own area near Carnoustie.
It was at this point that Liz received a text message from a friend, informing us that she was watching dolphins at Westhaven (Near Carnoustie). We had gone all the way to the Moray Firth to see them.. and there they were at our home town! As Charlie laughingly said.. “Bloody dolphins!!”
Suddenly Charlie gave me a nod and said “here they come”. Off in the distance we could see small groups coming in from different directions. they were all converging on the Point. All in all, there must have been around 19/20 and as the groups came closer to each other we began to see the salmon jumping out of the water. They were fishing!
The excitement of the dolphins was obvious as they circled and dove in search of their prey… The excitement of the watching people was just as obvious as the ooohs and aaaahs rang out every time a dolphin leapt out of the water after a jumping fish.All this activity was once again taking place in the deepwater channel no more than 50 metres from the shore.
Charlie began to reel off the names of the dolphins present.. He is resident at the Point just as much as the dolphins and recognises many on sight.We watched them for about an hour before they turned as one and headed back out into the Moray Firth. When last seen, they appeared to have formed a resting line of sorts and were only slowly moving out of sight.We stayed for a while to see if they would come back, but eventually gave up and went to the nearby town of Rosemarkie to visit the Faerie Glen.
The RSPB run guided tours up the Faerie Glen,which is a gorge that runs out the back of the town. We didn’t take the tour, but went ourselves… It was a lovely walk… We saw and heard many, many birds as we headed up the gorge toward the waterfall at the top.
I have to say… The waterfall, although not huge, was quite beautiful!! The face of the rock had moss growing on it which gave the face a green colour, and with the gushing white of the water, it was quite a stunning sight!
Later in the day, we took a drive around the Black Isle, just looking at the sights and getting the geography of the area into my head. We treated ourselves to a chinese takeaway for our tea, which we ate while sitting looking over the Firth…
We returned to Chanonry Point about 9.00pm that evening and sat chatting to people from all over the world. At one point, Liz and I started up a little sing-song just to keep us all occupied while we waited… Songs from the ‘Bonzo Dog Doodah Band’ were the order of the day… (For those who have never heard of them, I suggest you check them out).
However we saw no dolphins that evening and around 11.00pm we called it a day and went back to camp for a well deserved kip… ZZZZZzzzzz…..
One more day to go.. no dolphins, but a lovely drive home down the west coast of Scotland….
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Day Four: Another lovely morning… the wind had dropped and it was much warmer… We decided we would pack up all the gear and take one last trip down to the Point to see if we could catch a last glimpse of the dolphins before hitting the road for home…
The usual crowd of people were there, but no sign of the dolphins. We stayed for about an hour, but no luck!!! We said our goodbyes and took the road towards Drumnadrochit… The town is situated on the north shore of Loch Ness… Perhaps we’d be lucky and get a glimpse of Nessie??? LOL!
We took the back road to avoid going through Inverness which made for a lovely drive although the hill leading into Drumnadrochit is pretty scary, low gear notwithstanding…
Loch Ness is always impressive… It’s easy to believe that Nessie is hiding somewhere in its depths… We ran down the north shore taking in its glory until we reached Fort Augustus. Ther are a set of lock gates which connect the Caledonian canal to Loch Ness. They are situated right in the centre of the town and give the whole place an elegant air…
We travelled on down past Loch Oich and Loch Lochy into Fort William, where we stopped for a bite to eat and a well-earned cuppa… The town was absolutely humming with tourists.. (far too busy for me!!) so we hastily moved on down the edge of Loch Linnhe and round the headland into Glencoe.
Now for me, Glencoe is Scotland!!! I think it is one of the most beautiful places on the planet… The glen (valley) itself is shadowed by the bens (mountains) and is quite exquisite!!! We pulled into the Clachaig Inn (down a narrow one track road) and sat in the afternoon sun, drinking coffee and taking in the beauty that was all around us.
We went for a short walk down into the nearby gorge and sat on an old wooden bridge, watching the river tumble over the rocks and thunder on down through the glen… It was just beautiful!!!
All too soon it was time to go… we then travelled up the glen and onto Rannoch Moor (home to the highest pub in Scotland). The moor is very flat , but surrounded by mountains which gives it a very desolate air, but impressive nonetheless…
After that it was all downhill… Really!! We went down through Tyndrum (btw, ‘drum’ means the ‘edge’ in the scots tongue), a big left turn at Crianlarich, on past Loch Tay through Aberfeldy and Dunkeld, then down the road towards Dundee and through to Carnoustie… Home!!!
We arrived home at about 11.00pm and had been on the road for around 11 hours. It was taking the long way home, but worth every minute!!! I can still hear the voice of Scotland whispering in my head…. “Haste ye back”… “Haste ye back”….
