Shorewatch News - WDC, Whale and Dolphin Conservation · 2015-11-13 · Shorewatch Shorewatch News...

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A Issue 21 - Autumn 2015

In this issue of Shorewatch News:• Autumn Big Watch Weekend review and results• The latest news• AimeeBurrowsdescribestheShorewatchfieldtriptoStoerHead• Colin Graham talks tides and cetacean sightings• Matt’s Scottish cetacean adventure continues• Shorewatch frequently asked questions• & Andrew and Matt say their goodbyes

© Andrew Scullion

Issue 21 - Autumn 2015Autumn Big Watch Weekend

t: 01343 820 339e: [email protected]/shorewatch A world where every whale and dolphin is safe and free

© Wikipedia

Did you know? The sighting of orca (an adult male, four adult females/ juvenile males and a calf) in the Firth of Forth on 28th May this year was only the third time on record they’ve been seen there.

Spey Bay

Watches: 19Sightings: 2

Cullen


Aberdeen


North Kessock


North Shawbost


Rodel


Fort George


Nairn


Stoer


Tiumpan

Watches: 17 (30 total)

Sightings: 2

Strathy Point


Dunnet Head

Watches: 5 (8 total)Sightings: 0

Burghead

Watches: 36 (72 total)

Sightings: 6

Issue 21 - Autumn 2015Autumn Big Watch Weekend

Autumn Big Watch Weekend Winners

Most Watches (site) Most Watches (individual) Most Species1st Burghead - 36* 1st Steve Truluck - 16* 1st Stoer - 902nd North Kessock 26 2nd Graham Kidd - 15 2nd Burghead 643rdSpeyBay - 19 3rdTessaO’Hara - 14 3rdNairn - 17 3rd Walter Innes - 14

* Adjusted for multiple watch * Adjusted for multiple watch sites e.g. Burghead A and B sites e.g. Burghead A and B

Congratulations Burghead, Steve and Stoer!

Firstly a BIG thank you to everyone who participated in Autumn Big Watch Weekend, it isn’t possible without your effort

so thank you very much

A world where every whale and dolphin is safe and free

t: 01343 820 339e: [email protected]/shorewatch

Did you know? 28 species of cetacean can be seen around the coast of Scotland

Sightings

Cetaceans Pinnipeds

Bottlenose Dolphin Grey Seal Burghead - 23 Burghead - 9Cullen - 8 North Shawbost 4Spey Bay - 5 Cullen - 3

Harbour Porpoise Common (Harbour) Seal Burghead - 5 Nairn No dataTiumpan - 2Stoer - 1 Seal (unidentified) Burghead - 6Minke Whale North Shawbost 2Tiumpan - 2

Risso’s DolphinNorth Shawbost 11

Together we conducted 227 shorewatches over the three days11th - 13th September.

33 volunteers were involved and recorded:

14 sightings of cetacean; 12 on watch and two casuals.

15 seal sightings on watch, with a further unknown number of casual common seal sightings.

Issue 21 - Autumn 2015Big Watch Weekend Photos


© Andrew Scullion

© Abigail Hay

© Holly Peek © Roger Rapley © Walter Innes

© Steve Truluck

© Steve Truluck© Steve Truluck

© David Haines

© Katie Dyke

Issue 21 - Autumn 2015News


Unfortunately a minke whale was found dead on a beachjustEastofHopemanintheMorayFirthon11th October. The whale was approximately 3.5m long and looked very underweight with concave channels down either side of its back. There were no signoffisheriesinteractionorcollision.

Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS) performed a necropsy on 12th October and released a briefsummaryoftheirfindingsonthe21st.

“The young juvenile adult male was in an emaciated condition and exhibited signs of live stranding. It had a severe parasite burden throughout the intestine as well as in the omentum and peritoneum, causing reactive changes in the associated lymph nodes. A subsample of parasites was collected and sent to the NaturalHistoryMuseumforspeciesidentification,andthe case is awaiting further histopathological and bacteriological examination”.

The cause of death is consider to be parasitic enteritis.

© Andrew Scullion

© Andrew Scullion

EcoVenturers, Cromarty had an encounter with approximately 20 pilot whales just East of the Cromarty Sutors on 3rd October. It was only the second time in ten years that they’ve seen them in the Moray Firth.

The whales did cause some concern when they came with 150m of the beach at Nigg, but after a couple of hours milling about off Cromarty, they turned and headed back out in to the Moray Firth

TheMorayFirthisthelargestoftheScottishfirthsandis a wildlife haven. With many different ecosystems it provides life for a number of different species. Whales anddolphinsareattractedtothefirthbecauseoftheabundanceoffoodthefirthoffers.Thenumberofriversrunningintothefirthsuppliesanumberoffishandbecause of the strong tidal currents which churns up sediment and supports plankton growth there is a food supplyforallthefishwhichinturnfeedallthewhalesand dolphins.

© EcoVentures, Cromarty

© EcoVentures, Cromarty

Issue 21 - Autumn 2015Shorewatch Field Trip


Shorewatch Turns into Raptorwatch at Stoer Head | Aimee Burrows

At the end of August a gang of Shorewatchers from around Scotland descended on Stoer to meet the famous duo, David and Avril. We left our respective sites (Spey Bay, Burghead, Aberdeen, Dunnet Head, Tiumpan Head and Nairn) and headed off on an adventure!

Did you know? When seen in the UK White beaked dolphins are in the most southerly extent of there distribution range.... They inhabit cold temperate - sub polar waters of the North Atlantic.

Golden eagle © Aimee Burrows

Dead white-beaked dolphin © Aimee Burrows

Being in true Scottish fashion it was delightfully sunny as I ventured from my house to be picked up by Walter and to round up the rest of the adventurers on the way to the West coast... the sun did not follow us. It was only when I attempted to say hello did I realise that I had lost my voice; which to fellow Shorewatchers was highly amusing! Having picked up Katie D, Katie B, Adeleand Paul on the way along the coast, the Kessock Bridge was in sight! Checking Charlie’s twitter page, dolphins had just been spotted in the Kessock Chan-nel; cue the craning of necks out of each window to gainaglimpseofafin (alaswewereunsuccessful). Howeverraptorwatchhadbegun!AsolitaryRedKitewas hovering as we ventured further into the Black Isle, followed by Buzzards a plenty -not a bad start!

Afterall thatexcitementwefinallymade it toStoerwherewemetupwithDavid,Avril,Janet,Carol,Ste-veandthenevertoofarawayRiley,thedog. Say-ing it was a bit breezy would have been a bit of an understatement, nonetheless we persisted, scopes and binoculars in hand. We even managed a few watches. There were gannets a plenty and a seal who was taking shelter in a section which wasn’t get-ting as battered by the waves. After battling with the weatherforafewhoursandafleetingglimpseofanunidentifiedfin,Davidhadasurpriseuphissleeve.

A couple of hours later down a single track road in the middle of nowhere I let out a scream (well an at-tempt at one, more like a whisper) forWalter to stop because soaring high in the sky wasmy first everGolden Eagle! Abandoning the convoy, we watched it a while along with attempting to get a photograph. There were no words to describe how happy I was... mainly because I couldn’t physically say anything!

Hepulledoutsomewhite-beakeddolphinteethandaskedusifwewantedtoseethewholething.Ofcoursewesaidyes,althoughwewerewarnedaboutthesmell.WesetoffinsearchofitleavingSteveandRileystaringoutto sea praying for orca. It was incredibly interesting to see the dolphin (another new species for me, not sure if it countsifit’sdeadthough?).Thesizeiswhattookmemostbysurprise;gettingafleetingglimpseofafininthewater you don’t really fully appreciate the sheer size of the different cetaceans. The colouration of the dolphin had disappeared due to its stage of decomposition, but fascinating nonetheless. On route to our base for the >>>

Issue 21 - Autumn 2015Shorewatch Fieldtrip


>>>night,DavidandAvrilhadanotherlittlegemtoshowusanditwasoneofthemostimpressivesightsfromtheweekend.AfinwhalejawboneandskullinClachtoll.In2007afemalefinwhalewasheduplessthan2kmSouth from Stoer lighthouse measuring over 19m long! Of course we took the opportunity to get a group photo asking some passers-by who were slightly confused at how happy we were to be outside in the wind.

Of course I couldn’t write this newsletter article without mentioning the wine incident which happened during our meal out. Choosing a house wine between three people (Adele, Steve and I) is normally very reasonable; not on this occasion. Steve was left in charge of choosing the wine,firstmistake.Severalglasseslateranotherbottlewas ordered (by Steve) and all was consumed, thankfully Adel and I prevented a third bottle being ordered as whenthebillarrivedIreaditandthought£25forthewineisquiteagoodsplitbetweenthree.HoweverImissedthe x2 at the end of it. Safe to say £25 a bottle is the most expensive but delicious wine I have ever had. Moral of the story, always check the price!

Daytwostartedoffaswindyandwetasdayonefinished,maybeevenworse.Howeverbeingtreatedtothefamous Leigh’s pancakes certainly made the wind feel not so bad and if anyone is ever over to Stoer they are must

thing to have. The effects of the pancakes were short livedastheswellworsenedsoDavidandAvriltookusto one of their favourite birding spots just along the coastline called the Bay of Culkein. It was birds galore the most memorable being the peregrine falcon which appeared out of nowhere and it wasn’t until it was right inourfacesdidweseeit;exceptforDavidwhopointedand shouted peregrine before we even knew what was happening. The bay was so calm compared to the Stoer side; I couldn’t believe we had only moved around the headland! But even the calm seas would not help us in

ourquesttolocateafin.SeveralcupsoftealaterwesaidourgoodbyestoDavidandAvril-Ijustwanttosayitwas a pleasure to meet them at last - and we headed back to Moray. Of course raptorwatch continued, which also meantsodidmysqueakingandflailingofarmstocompensateforthelackofvoice.AsaresultwemadeWalterpull over and saw another golden eagle - smiles all round again! The stop in Ullapool was brief but necessary ashotdrinkswereconsumedtowarmusupafterbeingattackedbythewindallweekend.ThereweleftJanetto catch her ferry back to Lewis and we convoyed back to drop everyone back home. It wasn’t until we reached Burgheadhoweverthatwesawourfinalspeciestoconcluderaptorwatch;akestrelhuntingoutsideAdel’shouse.

ItwasafantastictripwithamazingpeopleandformeagreatwaytoroundoffmytimeworkingforWDCandliv-ing in Scotland. Everyone is so enthusiastic and it’s wonderful to see people are as crazy as I am about dolphins. Keep spotting these amazing creatures and making me jealous. One day I hope to return as there are a few species I am yet to see.

Did you know? Fin whales can produce up to 970 litres of urine per day; thats equal to three bath tubs!

The famous pancakes © Steve Truluck

The gang © Aimee Burrows

Issue 21 - Autumn 2015Shorewatch Citizen Science


The Influence of Tidal Currents on Cetacean Sightings | by Shorewatcher Colin Graham

IhavebeenconductingShorewatchesatDunnetHead,ontheNorthcoastofCaithness,forovertwoyearsnow.In that time, cetacean sightings by myself and the other watchers have been few and far between, despite watching on a fairly regular basis all year round. The upside to this is that each sighting is a special event. For example, I can list and describe all of my rare sightings from memory, including weather conditions, numbers, direction of travel and behaviour (minke x 2, humpback x 1 and porpoises x 3).

ThelackofsightingsappearstobesignificantwhencomparedwiththeapparentlymorefrequentsightingsreportedonsocialmediafromotherWDCsitesaroundScotland,and,significantly,fromcetaceansobserversingeneral at other locations in the general vicinity. This impression is further enhanced by talking to tourists while conducting Shorewatches. Often, they tell me of their own recent sightings of cetaceans at other places around Scotland,sometimesonlyafewhourspreviouslyatnearbyStrathyPointorDuncansbyHead.Icallthesechancesightings shorewatching by proxy!

IstherelativeabsenceofsightingsoffDunnetHeadsubjectiveorreal?Ifthelatter,whatcouldbethecause(apartfrom me being rubbish at watching)? I needed a dataset to answer these questions, so I used the sighting results obtainedduringtheWDCBigWatchWeekend(BWW)from11th-13thJune2015(seediagram).

AllofthelocationsthattookpartintheBWWrecordedsightings,exceptforDunnetHead.Despiteconducting20watches, there were no sightings, supporting my impression that cetaceans are less frequent here. Could variations in the number of watches at each location be a factor? I compensated for this by normalising all of the BWW data to 20 watches per location. That is, how many sightings could be expected at each location, >>>



>>> based on the BWW results, if 20 watches had been conducted at each? This analysis shows that, even allowing for variations in the number of watches at each location, the probability ofmakingasightingatDunnetHeadduringtheBWWwas much less than elsewhere. Note that as there were nosightingsatDunnetHeadafter20watches,thedifference in probability of making a sighting between here and the other sites will be even greater than that calculated.

Location must be the reason for the lack of sightings. DunnetHeadhastwowatchstations,bothabout100m

above sea level, with a combined and overlapping viewing angle of about 230 degrees. The combination of elevation and wide view are ideal for watching, which should enhance the chance of making a sighting rather than makingareduction.OnefactorthatisuniquetoDunnetHead,relativetotheotherBWWlocations(andtomostotherareasofcoastlineanywhere),isthestrengthofthetidalcurrents.DunnetHeadislocatedattheWesternendofthePentlandFirth,whichhassomeofthestrongesttidalcurrentsintheworldflowingthroughit.

An analysis of the tidal currents for all BWW locations during the 72 hour period shows that currents were significantlystrongeroffDunnetHeadthanelsewhere.Tidalcurrentsinthevicinitywerelessthan1knt(0.51ms-1) for only 6% of the time, were over 2 knt (1.02 ms-1) for 64% of the time, and peaked at over 5 knt (2.57 ms-1). For several locations, currents never exceeded 1 knt (0.51 ms-1), and, for most others, peak currents were in the rangeof1.1to1.3knt(0.56to0.67m/s)forrelativelyshortperiodsoftime.TheexceptionwasRodelwherecurrentspeakedatover2knt(1.02ms-1)intheSoundofHarrisandat3knt(1.53ms-1)offthecoastofSkye.

However,currentspeedsrarelyexceeded1knt(0.51ms-1)acrossthebulkofthewatcharea.NotethatIwasunable to obtain tidal currrent data for the 3 inner Moray Firth BWW locations, but would expect that tidal currents wouldincreaseasthefirthnarrowsatitswesternend.

TheanalysisstronglysuggeststhatexceptionaltidalcurrentstrengthanddurationisprobablythemostsignificantfactorresponsiblefortherarityofcetaceansightingsoffDunnetHead.Fromthis.itispredictedthatthebesttimefor making a sighting will be during the short periods (about 1 hour) before and after slack water. The sightings that I have made in the past 2 years supports this assertion. All were made at or near to slack water, when current speeds were in the region of 1 knt (0.51 ms-1) or less.

IcanthinkofatleastfourreasonswhythestrongtidalcurrentsoffDunnetHeadcouldreducetheactualpresenceof cetaceans, despite the fact that they are powerful swimmers, reportedly capable of matching or exceeding the tidalcurrentspeedsencounteredoffDunnetHead:

1. Prey species (throughout the food chain) are unlikely to be present during most of the tidal cycle (due to the current strength) so there is no reason for cetaceans to be hanging around when they can look elsewhere for food. I notice that seabirds seem to be more actively feeding either side of slack water. >>>

Did you know? Post Menopausal female Orcas are very important to the structure of Orca pods, as they share knowledge and control unruly male teenagers

Dunnet Head Weat © Andrew Scullion



2. Swimming forwards (or even maintaining position) in strong tidal currents costs energy. Even with a following current, the turbulence will make swimming somewhatdifficultandenergyconsuming(likeustrying to maintain balance and breathing while running with a strong and gusty wind at our back).

3. There will be increased background acoustic noise due to the interaction of the currents with the sea surface and the irregular sea bed. This will degrade a cetacean’s sonar capability, a primary means of sensing underwater. The turbulence will distort and bend emitted and received sounds so it will be harder to process information (like us listening and vocalising in a strong and gusty wind). Group communication, prey detection and danger detection will all be degraded as a result.

4. Often the tidal current is from one direction while the swell and/or surface wind is from another. This makes the sea surface rougher than could be expected from the wind speed alone. The roughness, white water and spray willpossiblymakeitmoredifficultforcetaceanstousetheirvisionoutofthewater,tolookforthreatsandtoseeothergroupmembers.KatieDykehassuggestedthatitmayalsomakeitharderforthemtobreathe,asthey will have to ride higher out of the water.

I can also think of one reason why the tidal currents, and, in particular, surface roughness may reduce the apparent presence of cetaceans. The combination of swell, white water and spray will make it harder to spot any cetaceansthatareinthevicinityoutsideoftheslackwaterperiods.Thisfactorcouldbeinfluencingthesighting

statisticsforDunnetHeadtosomedegree,comparedtotheotherlocations.However,Iam fairly sure that I could spot dolphins and possibly whales in these conditions if they were present.

So, while it is tempting to time my watches to coincide with slack water to optimise my chanceofmakingsightings,thescientificpartof me says that I should continue with randomly timed watches. This will help to build a better statistical model to support or refute my theory!

Tidal velocity data obtained from the anyTide tidal current velocity model. NOC (2015) available as an app for mobile devices.

Did you know? Fulmars are related to albatrosses

Dunnet Head North © Andrew Scullion

Fulmars at Dunnet Head North © Andrew Scullion

Issue 21 - Autumn 2015Cetacean Adventures


Cetacean Adventures (Part Two)by Matthew Scott

Duringmylastcetaceanadventurespieceinthespringnewsletter I detailed my cetacean streak, so for this one I thought I would keep it along the same vein and give you a nice breakdown of the cetaceans I have seen since being up here in Scotland. That’s right, I’ve documented every cetacean I’ve seen since I’ve been up here so without further ado, let’s get started!

Date Species No. Site

25/03/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 7 Cullen05/04/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 1 Chanonry10/04/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 10 Aberdeen11/04/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 10 Aberdeen16/04/2015 Risso’s Dolphin 4 Tiumpan23/04/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 2 SpeyBay27/04/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 1 SpeyBay29/04/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 6 SpeyBay04/05/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 2 SpeyBay10/05/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 6 SpeyBay11/05/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 6 SpeyBay13/05/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 3 SpeyBay20/05/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 3 SpeyBay27/05/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 14 SpeyBay28/05/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 3 SpeyBay29/05/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 4 Aberdeen30/05/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 5 SpeyBay31/05/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 8 SpeyBay01/06/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 6 SpeyBay02/06/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 3 SpeyBay03/06/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 2 SpeyBay04/06/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 3 SpeyBay05/06/2015 HarbourPorpoise 1 Stoer06/06/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 4 SpeyBay07/06/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 7 SpeyBay08/06/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 8 SpeyBay09/06/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 3 SpeyBay10/06/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 2 SpeyBay11/06/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 7 SpeyBay12/06/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 3 SpeyBay13/06/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 10 Fort- George

Date Species No. Site

14/06/2015 Minke Whale 1 Burghead15/06/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 2 SpeyBay16/06/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 2 SpeyBay

My cetacean streak lasted for 21 day in the end!

13/07/2015 Minke Whale 1 Tiumpan14/07/2015 MinkeWhale 2 Rodel CommonDolphin 35 Rodel HarbourPorpoise 6 Rodel BaskingShark 1 Rodel24/07/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 10 SpeyBay27/07/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 2 SpeyBay07/08/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 4 SpeyBay09/08/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 14 Fort- George12/08/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 4 SpeyBay13/08/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 29 HarbourPorpoise 3 CommonDolphin 2 21/08/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 2 SpeyBay22/08/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 10 Burghead26/08/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 6 SpeyBay Basking Shark 1 Spey Bay03/09/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 3 North- Kessock07/09/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 3 SpeyBay10/09/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 4 Chanonry28/09/2015 BottlenoseDolphin 5 SpeyBay

Now, there are some things I should mention about this dolphin document. First of all it’s all minimum count of individuals so the actual number of cetaceans is probably a little bit higher but you can rest assured that I haven’t over exaggerated the number of animals I’ve seen over the last 9 months. Secondly, I have not included animals I have seen on the live cameras here at the centre. There are days where dolphins were seen but I’ve been working and haven’t had a chance to go out and see them with my own eyes so they haven’t been mentioned here either (hence the lack of dolphins through October). >>>

Did you know?CommonDolphinshavethemostteethwith268



>>> When I came up here and started to learn about the bottlenose dolphin population I developed a plan to see if Icouldseemorethan190BND’s,thenI could claim I had seen every bottlenose in the east coast population. I think the stats are quite impressive so I will let them speak for themselves:

As of the time of writing I’ve seen 249 BND’sfromarangeofsitesallaroundthe Moray Firth.

BecauseIhaveseenBND’sfromarange of sites this backs up the claim evenmoreascertaingroupsofBND’sdo tend to spend most of their time around different parts of the Moray Firth. I’m going to claim I’ve seen them all anyway!

My best location for sightings has to be Spey Bay simply because this is the site I spent most of my time around and did most of my shorewatches at.

My best day is probably a toss-up between14/7and13/8.InJulyIwentovertotheOuterHebrideswithAndrew and we managed to see a total of 4 different large marine vertebratespeciesfromRodelwiththeBig Eyes. We were there for about 5 hours in total and it seemed that every time one of us looked through the BigEyessomethingelsepoppeduptothesurface!SmallgroupsofHarbourPorpoise,MinkeshowingtheirlongbacksorCommonDolphins!WewatchedapodofcommonsthroughtheBigEyesforoveranhourasabout30of them porpoised around the Little Minch probably looking for food. One particular Minke sighting is something I will never forget, just as we were about to leave, after the shorewatchers had gone, we turned back at the car and saw a Minke about 200m out come to the surface. Andrew and I sprinted across the boggy ground to get closer ontheoffchanceitwouldcomeupagain.JustaswegottothehighestpointnexttotheshorewatchsitetheMinkecameupagainrightinthemiddleofourfieldofvision.That’sdefinitelythebestMinkesightingI’veeverhad.

In August I managed to see the most number of Bottlenose dolphins I’ve seen in a single day along with a couple ofraresightingsofHarbourPorpoiseactuallyporpoising(soIsawtheirfullbodies)andaneverrarer>>>

Did you know? Narwhals have the least teeth with just two (thank you Wendy)

Species No. Sites

BottlenoseDolphin 249 Cullen,Chanonry,Aberdeen,SpeyBay, Fort George, Burghead, North Kessock, Cromarty SutorsCommonDolphin 37 Burghead,RodelHarbourPorpoise 7 Stoer,Rodel,MiddleofMorrayFirthMinkeWhale 4 Burghead,Tiumpan,RodelRisso’sDolphin 4 TiumpanBaskingShark 2 Rodel,SpeyBay



>>> sighting of a couple Common DolphinsheadingintotheMorayFirth. That also happened to be thedayIsuccessfullyI.D’dmyfirstBottlenose,Jigsaw.GrantednotthehardestI.DtomakeouttherebutIhaditconfirmedbyBarbarafromAberdeenLighthousefieldstationas I was helping them on a survey when we spotted him.

I hope you enjoy the stats, they make for some quite interesting analysis, especially if you look at my peak sighting times. It seems aroundJunewasthetimeIsawthemost. Granted this is also the time I was deliberately putting the most effort into looking but in terms of general trends I think it paints a nice picture. In total I have seen 5 cetacean species (still miffed about the lack of Orca!) from 11 shorewatch sites.

I know I can speak for all the vol-unteers when I say we have had a truly unique and amazingtime up here. I will certainly never forget this experience so thank you to all the shorewatch volunteers for making it so good!

Did you know? The sperm whale has the biggest brain of the cetacean order

Rodel looking over toward Skye © Andrew Scullion

Bottlenose off Kingston in Spey Bay © Andrew Scullion

Harris © Andrew Scullion © Andrew Scullion Harris © Andrew Scullion

Issue 21 - Autumn 2015Shorewatch FAQs


GettingconfusedwiththeShorewatchprotocol?Herearesomefrequentlyaskedquestionstohelpyouout.YoucanfindmorequestionsandanswersontheShore-watch website at www.whales.org/shorewatch (under ‘Get involved’), or give us a call on 01343 820 339 / drop us an email at [email protected]

Do I need to write ID cues even when I’m 100% sure what species I’m seeing?Yes,please!YourIDcuesmayhelpustoconfirmanidentityandtheywillalsogiveusanideaofwhatyou(andotherShorewatchers)arenoticinginthefieldsothatwecanupdateourtrainingsandrefreshersappropriately.

How should I record numbers when there are separate groups?If you are clear that there are two separate groups, record each in a separate sighting row and note the number and other sighting details for each group in the relevant row. It is best to note in the comments that you had mul-tiple sightings during your watch.

What do I do if I am disturbed in the middle of my Shorewatch? Shorewatch is 10 minutes of concentrated effort. If a member of the public starts speaking to you during your Shorewatch, explain that you need to keep your eyes on the sea for 10 minutes and invite them to help you watch. If you take your eyes off the watch area for any length of time, the Shorewatch will not be valid. Please indicate that the watch was not completed on the data sheet. If environmental conditions change dramatically during your watch or there is some other disturbance you may also need to stop your Shorewatch and indicate this on the data sheet.

What do I do if I see two distinct groups of cetaceans on a Shorewatch? Two distinct groups of cetaceans should be recorded as two separate sightings on different lines of the Cetacean SightingDataSheet.ThisisalsothecaseiftwodifferentspeciesareseenduringaShorewatch.

What if I see the same group of animals during a second Shorewatch? If you have not left the area between Shorewatches and are 100% sure this is the same group of animals then you donotneedtorecorddetailsofthissightingagain.RecordthecetaceanswerepresentduringthesecondShore-watch on the front of the data sheet. On the back of the data sheet edit your sighting end time to make it clear that your sighting lasted for the time between your two watches.

When do I need to record feeding birds? Recordonlyraftsoffeedingbirdsi.e.whenalargegroupofbirdsarecirclinganddivinginaparticulararea.Thisindicates that there is some activity happening below the surface of the water.

The reticule lines on my binoculars are different sizes – are some halves? No. Even though some of the lines are smaller they are all equal to one reticule.

Issue 21 - Autumn 2015Goodbyes


DearShorewatchers,

It has been a great privilege to work in Scotland and see so much of this great country. To have done it alongside so many great Shorewatchers has made it even better. I really feel like I have come to know Scotland from the perspectives of the people who live here. Thank you for making me feel welcome for the last 9 months! I hope you continue to see the most amazing marine life for years to come and only develop a greater love for the ocean and the creatures that call it their home.

Many thanks, Matt

I’vehadagreattimevolunteeringforWDCinScotlandbutsadlyit’scometoanend;todayismylastday.

I’ve visited 16 of the Shorewatch sites and seen some of the amazing nature and scenery around Scotland. For the firsttime,knowingly,I’veseen39newspeciesofbird;wigeon,red-breastermerganser,goosander,red-throateddiver,fulmar,osprey,ringedplover,curlew,turnstone,puffin,blackguillemot,razorbill,greatskua,arctictern,swift,long-tailedtit,skylark,swallow,housemartin,treecreeper,wheatear,piedflycatcher,linnet,bullfinch,yellow-hammer and reed bunting to name just a few.

There have been bottlenose dolphin galore in the Moray Firth, common dolphin, harbour porpoise and minke whalefromRodel.NotforgettingmysuccessfulorcaweektriptoCaithnessattheendofMaywhenImanagedfulfiloneofmybiggoalsandsawapproximatelysixorcaroundDuncansbyHeadboundfortheNorthofStromaandbeyond.LonghaveIwantedtoseeabaskingsharkandI’vebeenspoiledwiththree,onefromRodelandtwoafewhundredmetresfromtheshinglehereatSpeyBay.Roedeerrightoutsidethehousedownbythecentrehere in Spey Bay. Late nights at Spey Bay looking out across the Firth on a clear night watching the Auroura dance across the sky. Thank you all for being so welcoming and great over the course of the season.

All the best, Andrew

Ps.ThankstoSteve,Graham,Mel,AnneandPippaforlettingmeplaywithRiley,Indie,Bracken&JasminandMegwhenI’vebeenmissingmycolliesbackhome.

© All images Andrew Scullion

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