We woke this morning to a stunning winters day. The bay was so still and the sun looked like he was ready for a full day of shining so we set out & decided to head down the road towards Udrigle House to see if the local otter was sunbathing on the rocks.
Walking along the road we were talking how it was such a still day surely it was perfect conditions for spotting dolphins when low & behold we turned from the road toward the beach & up popped a pod of 3 dolphins (or harbour porpoise, not sure which) feeding and a few metres away another pod of 4 or 5, our first sighting of dolphins in Gruinard Bay.
Unfortunately they were just too far away to get a photo of them but watching them through the binoculars was amazing. There was obviously plenty of Mackerel around for them as they and several divers & cormorants spent the whole day covering every inch of the bay
Whilst stood on the beach watching the dolphins the day just got better as the local otter surfaced with a crab in it’s mouth it headed for some rocks where it devoured its meal then splashed back into the water & had a swim around, the gulls were flying overhead looking for leftovers.
When we got back to the house we had a look through the telescope to see if the dolphins were still around, a fishing boat was out toward the Summer Isles and a large pod of dolphins were feeding around the boat. Fantastic to see them from the house, even if they were very very wee.
an cois na mara b&b 