Shiny new toy

[Janet M]

At last I scraped up enough spare moolah to get myself a "proper" camera with a lens suitably long enough to do some serious wildlife photography, and guess what, not a single sighting of as much as a porpoise since. Sigh.
Especially galling as several times in the last month the sea at Tiumpan Head has been full of assorted beasties.
This link here http://whales.org/en-au/node/7894 has some footage of some of the dolphins I see very regularly, and yes that was me being referred to in the bit with the common dolphins. I took this image exactly then and you might be able to work out which dolphin it was!

[Chris P]

Thanks Janet, will check out later Inshallah

[DavidM]

That's wonderful, Janet. Thank you.

Basking Shark ! What a .... thing. Amazing.

[Janet M]

I've got hours of footage of whales and dolphins from this summer and will edit it into something watchable. Now I've wetted your appetites here is a short clip of some Sperm Whales than came by in July. Apologies for the shaky camerawork, I seem to have a tripod with a life of its own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=5ARshDdfoRY

[NormanD]

Here's a suggested musical accompaniment - although it would be better to have the whale music without the underlying hunting. Lovely song and beautifully sung, though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBPyNW3vegc

[Janet M]

Oh dear Norman, that link has self destructed.
Its been great watching lately near me, last Sunday I saw 8 species of whale and dolphin including a pod of Orca that hung round for ages, and a couple of Humpbacked Whales that have been leaping round for the last week.
Trouble is that I have to go to work during daylight hours in the week, sigh

[NormanD]

Here's a concert version by Judy Collins. She seems to have recruited a school of whales as backing singers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV29xK2xyZ4

[Janet M]

First the good news: The whale watching for the last few weeks has been so astonishing that people were coming from all over Scotland to see the Humpback Whales leaping close to the Tiumpan Head lighthouse, the pod of Orca, a superpod of around 300 White Beaked Dolphin, lots of Minke, Porpoise, plus Risso's, Common and Bottlenosed Dolphin and a mystery beast which is thought to be a Gervais's Beaked Whale.

Now the bad news: This was while I was struck low with a filthy cold/chest infection that kept me stuck in the house while others kept telling me of the wonderful sightings, sigh.

What is the term for the whale and dolphin equivalent of a twitcher?

[NormanD]

An ahab?

[Janet M]

Its been amazing watching this lovely Indian summer, lots of species seen and even some filmed. I'll post some of my sightings soon

[willvine]

We had a lovely summer here on the south east coast. I saw one seal and the Russian Fleet.