Shetland whales

Although we haven't seen Orca for a few weeks there has been plenty of Minkie Whales

                        In Mousa sound there was at least 4 and with a calm sea easy to spot.

also around 40 Porpoise close in to the lower layby coming up the hill from Cunningsburgh

 

Large Minke Whale-Shetland

 Mousa sound just a few mins away from home is always good for Minke Whales often having two or three most days but often a way off shore

This Minke may have been over 25 feet long and came close into Sandsaye and along the cliffs at the top of Sandwick

It first moved south along the coast then doubled back and headed north giving superb views

A few observers had headed south to Noness thinking it would carry on but this didn't. You could hearing it blowing it was so still

These whales are now becoming very common from mid June with the east side the best for viewing.

Dolphins and Minke whale -Shetland

 A large pod of dolphin passed Sumburgh Head the other day. These were a long way out even using a 800mm lens and a big crop

anyway these became good enough to use as ID and they turned out to be a mix of White Beaked and White sided Dolphin, more than 100 in the pod

The pod was well spread out but very active and were joined by a small pod of porpoise and a couple of Minke Whales

Sumburgh Head is always a good spot for whale watching

Shetland Orca

Pod 27 was first spotted off of Noss heading south

A tour on the Mousa boat hoping to get a few photos 

 

Sperm Whale - day 9

 Back to see the Sperm whale a few times and its good to see that it appears to be getting stronger. 

I watched it for about 2.5 hours and although it spent all the time in the upper reaches of the voe it was alot more active, diving and stronger blows

Today is day 9, amazing its still there as it should be in deep water off to the west on the contential shelf. It eats squid but those monitoring the whale have said it perhaps hadn't eaten since coming into the voe, this is not uncommon.

They can dive down to 10,000 feet spending two hours on the dive, which is amazing. 

Sperm Whales have the biggest head and brain on the planet. Their brains 5x times heavier than a humans.

They have occasionally attacked Killer Whales, none have been seen aound these parts for weeks, spending most of the time up north around Yell, Unst and the north mainland.

They can have a life span of 70 year so we are hoping it can get back out to sea and increase its chances of achieving an old age.

This whale has been estimated at around 45 feet long, but they can go up to nearly 70 feet long, with the head being a 1/3 of the size. Moby- Dick was said to be 85 feet long.

The blowhole is located to the left of the head and gives a distinctive blow that way, a good way to ID the whale.

Blow hole

I restricted myself to just taken 1200 photos, well worth it too

Later tonight i received information that it was moving back out of the voe, past Nesbister bod where it beached briefly on day two.