Orca

I've been busy at work today, hence I didn't really look at my phone until about half five which is when I knocked off for the day. Seventeen new messages on the local cetacean WhatsApp group...wow, that never happens! I opened the chat - two Orca at the top end of Skye at 4pm. A map of where they were at midday, this coming after the 4pm message. Odd. Yep, definitely seven of them...WTF?!?!! I skimmed down to the most recent message, which was from two minutes earlier "I'm at Flodigarry...they're heading north again. Got very clear view. At least 7" from none other than Yorkshire Sylvia. Knowing Sylvia can be a little...obtuse...sometimes, I immediately decided to clarify. "Just finished work and seen all this - wow! Sylvia, are you onto 7 Orca right now? From Flod?" and she instantly replied with a thumbs up. Blimey, this was happening in real time. She was watching seven Orca right now. From me to Flodigarry is, according to Google maps, 1hr and 4 mins. I did it in 43 minutes, and that included pulling into a shop for sandwiches, a pack of Doritos, a Mars Bar and a Red Bull. Well, I hadn't eaten since breakfast...

I found myself on a hilltop overlooking Flodigarry Island, but without any sign of the Orca. That familiar sinking feeling came over me once again. Why can't I ever connect with these beasts? I scrolled back through the previous messages and suddenly realised one said that they were heading northwards. Hmmm, that's basically the open sea, next stop Stornoway. I used to work at Flodigarry a while back, so I know the area fairly well. There's an old WWII radar station, just a shell of a building nowadays, that sits on a headland giving fine views across the sea looking northwards. It's just a couple of miles from Flodigarry, a little north of it too. I aimed for that.

I arrived to find none other than Rigell (local cetacean nutjob) and his girlfriend, who's name I don't know, stood at the clifftop. He had his drone out with the telephoto lens deployed, scanning for the Orca. He gave up in the end, said that he'd seen them from Flodigarry an hour earlier but that they had been heading very far out until even Sylvia's spotting scope couldn't pick them up, which is when he'd redeployed to the radar station. Great minds and all that..

After about 15 minutes they left, but a young Italian tourist arrived, closely followed by a couple of local guys. We scanned the sea for a few minutes before I decided to grab my scope from the car. Using the building as a windbreak, I began intently scanning the sea to the north. After about three minutes I thought I glimpsed a tall black fin, absolutely miles out. Had I imagined it? I locked on to the patch of sea in question and just stared. BOOM - three black shapes broke the surface and, with a bit of a splash, disappeared once more. A single second of viewing time - but holy crap, surely those were Orca?? Still locked onto same patch of sea, a huge upright black dorsal fin attached to a black and white body suddenly rose into view with a very forceful blow - ORCA!!!!!! "I've got them! I've got the Orca! I've got them in my scope!" I yelled, possibly with a f-word thrown in, I can't honesty recall. I slammed my eye back to the scope and watched as more and more fins and backs appeared in my view, definitely five in sight at the same time. Incredible!

By now the other three guys were standing beside me, obviously all keen to have a peer through the scope. The first guy had a look but couldn't see anything for ages. I began with "they're really small. Well no, I mean obviously they're big, but they're far away so they look really small" which caused his mate to burst out laughing, whereupon we re-enacted the Father Ted scene with the small vs far away cows. The Italian lad looked both worried and confused, I'm guessing that Father Ted isn't exactly mainstream on Italian TV.

Using a distant fishing boat as a marker, and the different bands of colour of the sea itself to guide him, I explained whereabouts he should be looking and suddenly he exclaimed "I see them! I see them!" which is when his mate basically pushed him out of the way so he could have a peer too. The second guy got onto them straight away and watched for a short while. The Italian lad seemed a little hesitant to use the scope, but I insisted and pretty soon he too was watching them and his huge smile was just awesome to see. The first two guys were locals on the WhatsApp group, but the young guy was a tourist who had seen people standing on the hilltop and simply wondered what was going on.  

After a few minutes of the guys taking turns to look through my scope, they eventually stood back and I reclaimed it for myself and settled down for some proper viewing. And what a treat! There were definitely three larger animals, the fin on the bull was just ridiculously tall, like a black isosceles triangle and the pale saddle was easy to see on him. The smaller Orca didn't seem to ride as high in the water when they surfaced, it wasn't as easy to see their saddle markings. The white face patch was clearly apparent on the larger animals as they surfaced with a surprisingly forceful blow, a high white plume that was very visible even at such a distance. A few times I saw one do a kind of half-lob breach and on just one occasion I saw one leap. The group milled around in much the same vicinity for most of the time I watched them, before they began to swim more purposefully eastwards, spending far less time at the surface and without any splashing. In fact, they were quite difficult to follow and, after accidentally knocking my scope, I failed to relocate them. 

By now a crofter was trying to park his tractor inside the derelict building and my car was in his way. At the same time, three young Highland Cattle arrived to be fed and had a little panic as I opened my car door, scattering in all directions. I figured it was as good a time as any to quit, I had finally managed to chase down Orca, and not the expected John Coe and Aquarius duo. I don't know where this particular Orca pod came from, presumably one of the Irish/Icelandic family units? What I do know is that they were utterly awesome and worth every second of the long wait I've endured before seeing them. Magical!