5-2-2012. Sea conditions have been improving all day and by the afternoon i thought it worth a look from Swiney Hill Lybster. I had seen a report on the caithness.org about dead birds on Lybster beach so i was interested in looking to see what the  bird feeding situation looked like. I could see from Swiney Hill that there were Guillemots, Black Guillemots,Shags, Fulmars all feeding over a large area. After half hour i spotted a single Harbour Porpoise surface twice in Lybster Bay then it vanished. Forty minutes later i spotted 3 Harbour Porpoise 2 adults and a juvenile feeding over quite a large area. This suggested that there was no concentrated area of food and was also an explaination why dead birds were washing up on Lybster beach. I had looked at the birds earlier and with the exception of 2 gulls and a Guillemot they were all first Winter Auks. With the food spread over a wide area the young birds inexperience would make it more difficult for them to find food rather than the more experienced birds that had fed in this area for many years.

14-1-2012. Quite good sea conditions had me rushing up to the view point at Swiney Hill Lybster in time to see the sun rise. I spent 2 hours watching and apart from seeing lots of Fulmars on the water and a bottling seal there was little to report.

I then drove a few miles North to the Whaligoe Steps Ulbster and set up at the top of the steps, within 5 minutes i had a cetacean sighting, a single Harbour Porpoise logging on the surface. Again there were hundreds of Fulmars on the surface and lots of squawking on the ledges.

Colin Bird

30-12-2011. Sea looked quite calm compared with resent days so i slid and sliped my way along the icy Harbour road and up Swiney Hill at Lybster to see if anything was about. I was there for about 30 minutes before the wind started to pick up and the sea state changed making seeing anything a matter of luck and my luck was not in. During the 3 hours i was there i did see a few birds on the water, various Gulls, Gannet, Eider male and female, Guillemot, and what looked very much like a Puffin. that was the second time i've seen what looked like a Puffin close to shore during this week. After 3 hours my toes were telling me it was time to go home pour myself a glass of Brady and warm up.

Colin Bird

24-12-2-11. The year is almost over and it is very clear that this was a very challenging year for obtaining sightings, we saw one of the coldest starts to a year that have not been seen for decades, the Summer was far from one of the best with strong winds with no shortage of rain. It looks as if there was a shift in fish stocks, mackerel catches close to the Caithness shore were very poor and it seems Herring was the same. The movement of fish away from the Caithness shore would explain the low sightings this year around Caithness and North Sutherland of Minke Whales close to shore, even the reliable appearance of Risso's Dolphins is a lot lower than expected, this was noted on both the East coast and the North coast. Karen this year found sightings to be very few and far between in the Thurso Bay area with few Minke Whale sightings compared with previous years and fewer Harbour Porpoise. The Harbour Porpoise that appear off Gills Bay at the start of August only showed for about a week instead of the usual 2 months, this was very disappointing for  tourist that go out on wildlife cruises. This year also saw the loss of the Northcoast Marine Adventure boat that sank in one of the sea caves around Stroma, the crew of this boat were a fantastic source of sighting reports that are now lost to us. Strathy Point is a fantastic place to go and see Minke Whales, Risso's Dolphins, White-sided Dolphins and Harbour Porpoise, but this year saw fewer sightings of all species particularly the Minke Whale which hardly showed at all. One good sign this year was the movement of Killer Whales which seemed to have moved further South with more reported around Orkney than Shetland so with luck this may lead to more sighting during 2012 around the Caithness coast, thats if this southerly movement continues. With the seas being in a state of flux because of climate changes, there will be movement of fish and their prey and the same with cetaceans who in turn hunt the fish, so our loss in sightings is probably someone elses gain. Sea Watching is all about recording and reporting cetacean so that scientist can monitor these changes and find ways to protect the worlds cetacean species, and this give us the watchers some fantastic breath taking moments while watching these splended creatures in their natural habitat.