Things are warming up!

We had two half-day wildlife boat trips from Stornoway on Wednesday. A bit grey initially on the morning trip but it turned into a beautiful sunny spring afternoon so we drank in the glorious coastal scenery. We welcomed guests on board of all ages and from both near (young lady from the Stornoway lifeboat) and far (couples from Oz and the US). We had puffins on both trips with plentiful sightings of them in the afternoon..also razorbills, guillemots and suprisingly large number of black guillemots. However, the auks on the seabird colony ledges we often observe were suprisingly absent, possibly out to sea fishing on an important pre-breeding season dispersal (they were there last week!).

Good views of gannets and also many divers in the area ( great northern, red throated and black throated). Pirate-like 'bonxies' (great skua) were seen on the afternoon trip. Also 3 adult white tailed sea eagles, and 1 immature were all seen today. Great to know that after becoming extinct from the UK (Scotland) just over 100 years ago, their eventual re-introduction on Rhum in the mid 70s, and the 1st breeding on Mull, there are now around 100 adult pairs in Scotland, plus 100 or so sub-adults! Best of all for us and our guests is that the biggest stronghold is on the Isle of Lewis. :-) Keep going guys, you are a pleasure to watch.

Things are still a bit quiet on the marine mammal front currently, their food is just not so abundant just yet and summer species are still yet to arrive in numbers. We had brief sightings of harbour porpoise on both trips (most clients at least got a glimpse) and fantastic views of grey seals, both hauled out and swimming.

The weather seems to be getting better now and we know there are good numbers of seabirds down at the Shiant's getting ready to breed, so things are warming up on all fronts making it a great time to be out on the water with us on your own Hebridean Adventure!