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North Minch Shore WatchA cetacean journal kept from land

Land based cetacean journal

Watching the whales of the Minch from the land

A field journal of the whales, dolphins and porpoises of the north Minch and the north west coast of Scotland: which species pass, in which months, and how sea state, swell and glare decide what a watcher on a headland can actually see. Kept from the shore, not from a deck.

Kept from land · 10 species · 5 watch points · seasons and sea state

A wide grey sea under low cloud with a distant headland and a single seabird crossing
Illustration made for this journal. Not a photograph of a real animal, sighting or site.

01-03The three registers

What passes this coast, where it can be watched from land, and what the year does to both.

  1. A flat grey sea below a grass headland with the long dark back and small curved dorsal fin of a whale breaking the surface

    · Species

    The species of the north Minch

    Ten animals, ordered by how often a shore watcher meets them, and described by what is visible at a distance: the fin, the blow, the roll and the company they keep.

  2. A stone lookout shelter on a cliff top with the open sea behind it and low cloud

    · Watch points

    The shore watch points

    Five places on the Minch where the Hebridean Whale Trail sends watchers, described by what they offer a pair of eyes: depth close in, height above the water, and shelter from the prevailing wind.

  3. Low evening light across a long ocean swell, with the white spray of a distant whale blow hanging above the water and no land in the frame

    · Seasons and sea state

    Seasons, sea state and light

    The year decides what is out there. The morning decides how much of it you can see. Both are recorded on a standard scale, and both are worth learning.

LOGThe log

Everything this journal keeps, dated, newest first, with the entries read elsewhere among them.

  1. Low winter sun across a cold grey sea with snow on the hills behind a dark shoreline

    · Seasons and sea state

    Winter shore watching on this coast

    The season people write off. The resident animals do not leave, the light is low and clean, and the standardised watches keep going through it.

  2. Bright hazy sea under a high sun with strong glare and a low green headland in shadow

    · Seasons and sea state

    Summer on the Minch: peak, haze and glare

    The season when the animals are least of the problem. What costs a summer watcher a sighting is usually the sun, the crowd or the hour of the day.

  3. A wide grey sea under low cloud with a distant headland and a single seabird crossing

    · Seasons and sea state

    The north Minch season, month by month

    Eight of the ten species in this journal are recorded in every month of the year. The season is therefore not about presence. It is about peaks, and there are only four of them.

  4. A small white lighthouse on a low rocky point above a calm sea loch with hills beyond

    · Watch points

    Rhue and Loch Broom: the sheltered option

    A sea loch inside a harbour porpoise Special Area of Conservation, a lighthouse with a view to the Summer Isles, and a standardised watch already in place.

  5. A pale sand beach in the north west Highlands of Scotland between low outcrops of dark red sandstone, wet green grass and low grey hills behind under an overcast sky

    · Watch points

    Clachtoll: a low shore on the Assynt coast

    The lowest watching position in this register, and the one with the strangest published reason for its animals: channels cut into the seabed by ice.

  6. Vertical basalt columns dropping to the sea with a waterfall falling from the clifftop

    · Watch points

    Kilt Rock: height over the Sound of Raasay

    One of the few places in the UK where very deep water sits this close to a road, and the only site in this register where the problem is looking down rather than out.

  7. A tall red brick lighthouse above dark twisted cliffs with white water breaking below

    · Watch points

    The Butt of Lewis: watching from the edge

    The most exposed position in this register, with the widest field of view and the least shelter. Good spotting is possible without leaving the car park.

  8. A white lighthouse on a low green headland above a dark sea with a long horizon behind

    · Watch points

    Tiumpan Head: deep water under a lighthouse

    Water that drops away sharply a few hundred metres from your feet, a Risso’s dolphin protected area offshore, and a car park that fills by ten.

  9. A sea surface breaking into small whitecaps under a grey sky with a rocky foreshore

    · Seasons and sea state

    Sea state, and what each step hides

    One number, from zero to seven, explains more about a blank afternoon than any other single thing a shore watcher can write down.

  10. A sperm whale far out on a grey sea, seen at a distance: a long low dark back with a rounded hump and no dorsal fin, and a bushy blow leaning forward and to the left

    · Species

    Sperm whales beyond the Outer Hebrides

    A deep water whale that belongs beyond the shelf. Very rare here, unmistakable when it appears, and most often met on this coast as a stranding.

  11. A humpback whale raising its broad pale fluke above the sea, with a long white flipper alongside

    · Species

    Humpback whales on the north-west coast

    Still rare in UK waters, still recovering from whaling, and the one large whale here that announces itself: a four metre blow and a lifted tail.

  12. Long low swell running past a rocky point with the sun low and the water in silver light

    · Seasons and sea state

    Swell, visibility and glare on a shore watch

    Sea state gets the attention. Swell hides animals in troughs, haze eats the far half of the sector, and glare removes the method altogether.

  13. A killer whale with a tall straight black dorsal fin cutting across a flat sea below a dark basalt cliff

    · Species

    Killer whales of the Hebrides from a headland

    Eight resident animals, no calves in living memory, and visitors from Shetland, Orkney, Iceland and Norway. The rarest sighting here that is also the easiest to identify.

  14. A tight group of Atlantic white sided dolphins surfacing fast, one animal showing the yellow and white flank stripe

    · Species

    Atlantic white-sided dolphin: the yellow blaze

    A shelf edge dolphin with the most sharply delineated markings of any animal in these waters, and the one you are least likely to see from a headland.

  15. A white beaked dolphin, stocky with a tall dark fin and a pale saddle patch behind it, surfacing in short grey swell

    · Species

    White-beaked dolphin: a cold water dolphin

    A powerful North Atlantic dolphin whose numbers here may be falling as common dolphin numbers rise. The saddle patch is what settles it.

  16. The pale, heavily scarred back and tall dark dorsal fin of a Risso’s dolphin breaking the surface, its head under the water, in deep water below high cliffs

    · Species

    Risso’s dolphin: the scarred grey of deep water

    The dolphin that gets whiter as it gets older, feeds on squid at night, and has a Marine Protected Area on this coast designated for it.

  17. A pod of common dolphins crossing open water in a spread of small splashes, one animal clear of the surface showing its pale flank

    · Species

    Common dolphin: the hourglass of the open Minch

    The one species on this coast that a watcher usually detects before identifying: a distant line of white water that turns out to be thirty animals in a hurry.

  18. Two bottlenose dolphins, large and pale grey, surfacing together in a bay with a rocky point in the foreground

    · Species

    Bottlenose dolphins of the west coast

    Bigger than the dolphins most people expect, tied to headlands and bays, and counted in tens rather than in thousands on this coast.

  19. Three harbour porpoises, small and blunt headed with no beak, dark grey with a low triangular dorsal fin, rolling at the surface close under a rocky shore in flat light

    · Species

    Harbour porpoise: a small roll, close in

    Recorded in every month of the year in the Hebrides, present in numbers among the highest in Europe, and invisible above sea state 2. The porpoise is a lesson in conditions.

  20. A minke whale showing a dark low back and a small hooked dorsal fin breaking a calm grey sea, with a grassy headland behind

    · Species

    Minke whale in the north Minch, from land

    The large whale a shore watcher on the Minch is most likely to meet, and the one most often missed, because it does not announce itself with a blow.

KEPTKept up to date

The pages revised as the season moves, not left behind by it.

  1. A wide grey sea under low cloud with a distant headland and a single seabird crossing

    · Seasons and sea state

    The north Minch season, month by month

    Eight of the ten species in this journal are recorded in every month of the year. The season is therefore not about presence. It is about peaks, and there are only four of them.

  2. A minke whale showing a dark low back and a small hooked dorsal fin breaking a calm grey sea, with a grassy headland behind

    · Species

    Minke whale in the north Minch, from land

    The large whale a shore watcher on the Minch is most likely to meet, and the one most often missed, because it does not announce itself with a blow.

  3. A white lighthouse on a low green headland above a dark sea with a long horizon behind

    · Watch points

    Tiumpan Head: deep water under a lighthouse

    Water that drops away sharply a few hundred metres from your feet, a Risso’s dolphin protected area offshore, and a car park that fills by ten.

  4. A pair of binoculars resting on a dry stone wall above a wide grey sea

    · The journal

    About North Minch Shore Watch

    A journal kept from land, by watchers, about what passes the coast: which species, in which months, and what the sea state allows.

This journal is a third party account of what passes the coast: The Shore Watch desk keeps it and answers for it. the season page is the page every season note leans on, and the contact page reaches the desk.