Common Dolphins and the return of the Sharks!

Hello everyone, some great encounters and stories from the last fortnight or so starting with a 7 hour whale watch explorer on May 3rd. A small number on board with me and Andy Tait on as crew. Calm seas and sunshine and we headed out to the open waters in anticipation of a good sighting. When we stopped for tea and coffee I spotted a fin out towards 11 o'clock....Shark! A group of 4 Basking Sharks and over a month early compared to previous years!

Basking Shark, Photography by Shark fanatic Andy Currie....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElcFufkTeSs - Basking Sharks Courting, 03.05.11, Filming by Andy Tait

We moved on and a short time after Andy quoted it to be a good 'Dolphin day' he was locked on a group of Dolphins a good distance away heading towards us! It ended up being breathtaking views of Common Dolphins bow riding for 20 minutes!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svihVpRY3WA - Common Dolphin encounter - 03.05.11........Sorry about my mullet in shot! filming by Andy Tait.

C Dolphin Bow Riding...

Amazing animals....after watching their behaviour you can understand why they are so highly regarded as a species

Their intelligence when they approached the boat and associated with us was unbelievable

Peregrine Falcon can be seen daily on Tobermory main street....look out for it sat around the church tower eyeing up a feral Pigeon for supper. The weather vein on the church is a preferred perching area for the bird. So when your popping into Co-op to get some groceries always make sure you have a glance up at the church tower because you could be treated to a view of one of the top deadly predators on the planet as its the fastest living species alive as well as having the most acute eyesight.

Golden Eagle - Eyesight up to 6 times stronger than ours!

Golden Eagle!

A few excellent encounters of my favourite animal....the mighty Golden Eagle! Nice coastal views on the north part of the island with photos and videos (below) of these fantastic Raptors.

Chicks will have hatched on all the breeding pairs on the island but I have heard that certain pairs have failed already for Golden Eagle and White Tailed Eagle. This is another huge reason why they need to be so well protected because there breeding success rate is quite low having only one brood a year with normally one to four eggs and one or two chicks being reared with the older more dominant chick normally feeding on its younger sibling on the nest. So basically if successful it is normally one Eagle chick that will fledge the nest.

Also young eagles take 4-5 years to reach breeding maturity and with over 80% of fledglings not reaching sexual maturity in the UK it really is vital to protect eagles as one bird lost could lead to the loss of several potential chicks in the years to follow which is huge.

Golden Eagle riding the coastal winds on Mull....

Goldie flying low in to the trees.....

4 Second close Golden Eagle encounter.....

Male Yellowhammer

A great trip on Saturday 7th May. It was a 7 hour Whale Watch explorer and highlights included a Minke whale feeding around the boat for half an hour with rafts of Manx shearwater in the surrounding area. Check out Andy Tait's fantastic footbage from the trip......http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OI1JiDP0cc

The large facial discs on the Owl improve its impeccable hearing as more sound waves are collected into the area allowing the birds to pin point noises such as the rustling of a vole in the grasslands from hundreds of meters away!

I have had a couple of sightings of Long Eared Owl (Above) with several breeding pairs on Mull with fantastic habitat for them with all the dense conifer woodlands for breeding and plenty of upland heather and rough grasslands for hunting grounds. This photo was taken down in Geltsdale, Cumbria.

Fallow Deer, Knock

Fallow Deer were introduced to the UK by the Romans in the first century AD. Until very recently it was thought that the Normans brought them to the UK for hunting in the royal forests however recent finds at the Fishbourne Roman Palace have proven otherwise. Fallow Deer prefer woodland habitat and because of there value for hunting throughout the industrial revolution a lot of major woodlands were protected from timber felling and agricultural use and are now great forests with mature and ancient woodlands to this day for the public to enjoy and also important habitats for wildlife.

Sedge Warbler, Laggan Bay

The Sedge Warbler who has just arrived safely back from Africa, South of the Sahara Desert. The migration across the desert is said to be one of the threats to these birds as the rising tempretures on the planet is causing an increase in the range of the desert southwards by an area of 30 miles every year and less migrants are managing to make their way across the tough heated conditions.

Why do animals migrate????

A question that people will often ask and There is a few simple answers to go with it. The first is food! There is not enough food supply in an area to last all year around Like insect feeding Warblers will struggle for food supply in the winter season and with Whales the fish supplies will severely drop at the end of a breading season. Another factor is temperature, Warmer climates to raise youngsters in with Whales travelling to warmer waters to raise their calves in safer environments. Another Migratory factor is day length and it is vital that species have more daylight hours for hunting for food when raising and feeding young. Avoiding predation is another key factor for migration because if your on the move travelling to different areas it is going to be harder for predators to track you down and prey on you. A very important result in taking migration is 'Survival of the fittest' and with juvenile birds undergoing a migration for the first time it is going to be a huge test of their strength and the journey will weed out all the unfit and select the strongest individuals creating a stronger gene pool for future generations.

On the subject of migration I will finish by telling you that the longest migration of any species is performed by the Arctic Tern which travels from Antarctica to the Arctic circle every season covering a distance of 22,000 miles! During its lifetime it can travel more than 500,000 miles! And you can see Arctic Terns on our boat trips! Amazing birds!

Thanks for reading everyone :-) our Sealife Surveys trips are hotting up with the return of Sharks and Whales as well as the chance to see all sorts of other amazing wildlife including Dolphins, Eagles, Porpoise and a huge array of fascinating sea birds to go with the unique Scottish landscapes, landmarks and rich history.

One of the best things about our Sealife Surveys trips is the big variation in wildlife you can get and coming with us you have the chance to see all of them!

Ewan

Wildlife Guide