Blip Heaven

What a day its been. The weather has been glorious and I have been overwhelmed with blip opportunities.

I decided to try and get another shot of the Coal Tit, who we have nicknamed Tommy Tucker, at least until we confirm its sex! Anyway, Tommy appeared quickly and certainly seems to like the camera landing on it umpteen times, although not always keeping his balance!. My favourite shot was the one of him feeding from my fingers.

Now on a normal day I would have been more than happy to post any if these shots, but this was no ordinary day. Wanting to make the most of it, Mrs B and I decided to go for a walk and take a packed lunch with us. We climbed through the woods and up to the top of Deer Hill where the view across the Kilbrannan Sound to Arran was quite stunning. As we walked down the hill and re-entered the woods the autumnal colours were magnificent. Surely the day couldn't get any better?

We decided to head down to the shore and walk along to the harbour just in case the sharks, which have been sighted recently, were still about. As we descended the path we could hear great splashing on the sea despite the fact it was dead calm. Looking through the trees we could see the water 'boiling' in places with what looked like small fish breaking the surface. I hadn't seen a sight like this since the 1960's when large shoals of Mackerel would indulge in a feeding frenzy on the surface. I started to get excited in case the sharks were about and ran the last few hundred yards to the rocky beach.

As I got closer to the edge of the rocks I could see and hear the small Mackerel as they surfaced in unison. Then there it was about 50 metres away from the shoal - a Basking Shark. The first time I have seen one since I attended a BB camp on Arran when I was about 12. The shark glided through the water with only its nose, dorsal fin and tail showing. Beneath the surface was a giant mouth sifting the zooplankton, which appears to be thick in ours waters just now.

The only problem with Basking Sharks is protruding fins and nose don't make a great blip on their own. Instead I settled on this shot, which really needs to be viewed in LARGE to see the dorsal fin and the water being churned by the frenzied Mackerel.

I took lots of shots and it was quite ironic that we were standing only yards from where there once was a factory where sharks were processed for their liver oil. As we walked along the shore I counted 4 sharks and 2 young ones. Others have reported seeing up to 5, along with Otters and Minkie Whales. It seems when the bottom end of the food chain is plentiful, i.e. the zooplankton, all those higher up on it arrive to feed. Anyway, it was a real privilege to see the sharks with the nearest ones being no more than 20 metres away from us.

An interesting footnote to the day. As we returned to the road we met a friend who had been over to Waterfoot researching headstones in the old graveyard. While she was checking some information on her smart phone a little Coal Tit landed on it and gave her the fright of her life. Yes, you've guessed it was Tommy looking for some more food to stash! He seems to be totally unafraid of people and attracted to cameras/phones, which I can only think he now associates with food. Being fearless may not be a good thing and could get him into trouble. I hope not!