May 31, 2021
By: Robin Petch
We’re off to a great start despite some poor visibility due to fog in places and the Orca Watch Breaking News Sightings Page already outlines some fabulous encounters here! We also have a Verified Sightings Page which features sightings already entered into the National Sightings Database here.
Every evening of course we have Orca Watch Live! at 7:30pm with sightings updates, live interviews and presentations. Admission to this virtual event is free so why not register right now for Tuesday’s event here.
SightingsMaps
The sightings maps do not necessarily feature all of the sightings, as they may have been produced before all the sighting for that day have been received. It may in fact be a few days before we receive some sightings. For the latest Breaking News Sightings list, please click here.
Friday 28th May
As you can see, the map shows 3 species seen, including the orca we reported in yesterday’s blog and seen at Staxigoe and Duncansby Head, Caithness by John Bray, Clare Boycott-Boardman and Steve Truluck. A further sighting at Muckle Flugga, Unst, Shetland is also shown. The sighting reported by Christina Worth and Robert Foubister at Hoxa Head, Orkney, where the wonderful photograph above was taken, is not shown, and actually since the map was made, a 4th species, minke whale, was seen by Mick Reynolds at Walls, Shetland! The 10 Risso’s dolphins seen by Tom Allen at Fetlar, Shetland and the Harbour Porpoises seen by Brian Gray at Quendale, also on Shetland, do feature.
Saturday 29th May
There are 5 species recorded on Saturday’s map including for the first time, common dolphins seen in the northern Hebrides. Our target species the orca was seen around the Out Skerries by Kris Wilson and Philip Hack and near Grif Skerry (east of Whalsay) by Philip Hack and Ryan Leith. The former sighting is reported in more detail below. The Out Skerries sighting in fact began with Kris spotting 8 Risso’s dolphins half an hour earlier and that species was also seen by Nick McCaffrey at Dore Helm, another 10 animals at least.
Sunday 30th May
Sunday was unfortunately an orca-free day but on the plus side was still the day with the highest number of species! We added a new cetacean species, bottlenose dolphin, seen in their Moray home territory by Andy Lawson at Burghead and Steve Adamson at Spey Bay but 5-6 were also seen up at Strathy Point in Caithness by Alexandra Kniese. The other new species was not a cetacean but a basking shark, seen by Angus Gragg in Scapa Bay, Shetland.
Welcome to the 169s!
This group of orca was first seen off Mio Ness, part of the Out Skerries group, heading south west on Saturday. Having been reported and photographed by Kris Wilson they were then picked up by Philip Hack who took this photograph as they moved further around the Out Skerries. The photographs allowed Hugh Harrop to confirm that the 5 animals included matriarch #169 as well as her young and as yet unnamed calf and the other two members of the group, #170 and #171. They had last been seen in Shetland on June 8th 2020 but more recently were off Caithness on May 9th this year where they were first photo-identified on May 21st 2017.
