One whale of a day
On Wednesday 31st July 2024 we jointly hosted a whale and dolphin day in Lochinver Village Hall. The same evening we had also arranged a watching out event at Stoer Head Lighthouse.
The Field Club, Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) and the High Life Highland Countryside Ranger Service were blown away by the incredible turn out at the hall to see ‘Hope’ a life size inflatable Humpback Whale. Hope is 13 metres in length and so is described as an adolescent. Full adult Humpback whales can reach 17 metres. Lochinver Hall wouldn’t have been long enough to accommodate that!
Well over 100 kids and adults enjoyed getting inside the whale and listening to a 10-minute presentation all about humpback whales from the WDC staff and volunteers. Not all at the one time!!
Senior Countryside Ranger Andy Summers had organised a ‘find the whale stickers hunt’ in the hall and a cut out and keep paper whale activity. In addition he had brought along lots of different whale bones for people to see and handle.
It was brilliant, thank you to everyone that came along. We raised £200.00 in donations for WDC which all helps progress their work towards “a world where every whale and dolphin is safe and free“.
Evening watch
If that wasn’t enough excitement for one day then the evening whale watch massively added to the buzz.
We had just set up when a very active pod of around 60 Common Dolphins, Delphinus delphis were spotted out towards the split rock at Clachtoll. They were in a long line and just kept heading straight towards the lighthouse.
As they passed us, we could easily see the diagnostic ‘hour glass’ pattern on their sides. Even more exciting was the presence of lots of young animals still staying very close to their mothers. This means they are still suckling. You can see a few of them in the attached photos.
Finished? No chance, next up were two Minke Whales, Balaenoptera acutorostrata. Sadly, they were too far out for worthwhile photos but with all the binoculars and scopes available many of the 60+ people that braved the storm of midges were able to see these smallest of the baleen whales. Of course, small is a relative term, they can be over 9 metres in length and weigh almost 10 tonnes.
A fly past by a small skein of Greylag Geese Anser anser added to the enjoyment of a great day.