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Thursday 4 December 2008

Wildlife

Thankfully it was around four degrees above zero today, which made for pleasant walking conditions!
I have a new-found liking for Findhorn, we actually used to live here until Liam was born and when we first got Snoop we walked here every day. The sea and currents shift the sand constantly though and for a while the beach hasn't been nice to walk on, too pebbly but it seems to be getting back to the way it was a couple of years ago....while Roseisle seems to get more pebbly by the day!

Ooh, who lives here....?


Plenty of running space!


Looking back across the bay towards Forres, Cluny Hill and Nelson's Tower can be seen in the middle of the picture. The trees to the right are the edge of Culbin Forest.

As I approached it's perch, this bird flew....but it was only a seagull, we were more interested in the seals which can be seen resting on the sandbank behind, and on the beach across the bay, the other edge of the Culbin.

The bay was so calm today that I was sure i'd see some seals, and sure enough, there were a few patrolling the river mouth. They are really inquisitive and actually came really close, the limited zoom on my camera is a bit of a disappointment!


I took a video of the seals too, hope you can make them out, you could hear the distant calling, but just a bit too far away.

Once I had come round the point onto the North Shore I caught something out of the corner of my eye in the sea, it was too far out to be seals playing and when I stopped to take more notice I realised it was dolphins, every few seconds a dorsal fin or two or three would break the water's surface and then disappear again in the blink of an eye.

I was so excited....i've never seen them before, I did take a couple of videos, wading in as far as my wellies would let me but unfortunately they were still too far out. I quickly phoned Sue as they were heading her way and she had a better chance at snapping them with her camera but she didn't see them, such a shame!


I went home wishing again that I had a better camera....I didn't even manage to catch the dozen or so bunnies in the car park, sorry Dannan....here's the tasty evidence though!

8 sniffy tailwags:

Gennasus said...

Unfortunately, we weren't as lucky as you, no dolphins for us. Maybe next time....keep your eyes peeled!

Julia said...

Wow, seals and dolphins! That's amazing. We see dolphins sometimes, but we're not in the right place to see seals.

Mino said...

woww the places u guys go are out of the world!!..we only have concrete blocks over here..and the other animals we probably see are stray cats..whine..

Anonymous said...

When my humans visited Scotland, they went on a special boat trip to look for seals and dolphins...and didn't see anything! They were so disappointed.
(They also didn't see the Loch Ness Monster and were disappointed too! Ha! Ha!)

Slobbers,
Honey the Great Dane

Unknown said...

puppies, seals, birds... how can you not love nature. you are compelling me to visit scotland! too bad tempest & riptide cold never join us.

Cocoa the Beagle said...

What an awesome place! Seals!!! We only see seals in our zoo! What were those in the last pic? Some kind of berries??

Wags,
Cocoa and Barley

Cocoa the Beagle said...

Wait a min, are those bunny poop??!

Wags,
Cocoa and Barley

Lindsay said...

Thanks for the bunny poop! I would settle for some of that, although of course I'd love to have an actual bunny! Thanks for trying!

Seals and dolphins....wow!

Brown dog, living vicariously,
Dannan