ere are a few pictures and impressions of our trip
around Noss. Starting at the wrong end of the day just because I like the picture. it does show the good weather we had
We were lucky enough to have a clear, calm and quite warm day. Being winter we could not bank on good weather, but this time the sea was like a millpond. The wildlife obligingly bobbed and flapped in large numbers. Sadly the images on the monitor from the underwater robot were not really transferable so you’ll have to go and see for yourself.
The amount of underwater creatures/plants was amazing, not a surface un-colonised and any hole occupied by a life form busy setting up home and looking for safety with an option on food, sex or both. The occasional artefact such as a paint tin was seen as a pied-a-mer for a lonely sea urchin rather than a pollutant, and a small colony of coffee mugs, presumably not a life form in their own right, would soon become homes to crabs and a whole load of critters I've never identified.
The product of all this life force makes as busy and vibrant a reef as any tropical example, it’s not only the warm areas that get busy. The Dunter website has a few images that are well worth looking at, including an underwater bit. go back a page or click the button.
If the weather is ok to set out (ie not a howling gale driving the ship onto the rocks etc ) then you should be able to get a squint at loads of gannets and other seabirds,all of whom I can pretend to recognise even if I am directly asked "What's that then?" with some tiny black and white dot indicated. My trick is to feign a fit of coughing and waggle my hand toward Fiona, who always knows. If she doesn't then I recover and firmly identify it as a Skua if it's flying and a Penguin if it isn't. Those in the picture on the left are Gannets.
Above are some I prepared earlier (by lifting it from the seabirds and seals site)
The obligatory seal or two, The crew of The Dunter avoid disturbing the wildlife, that way they'll still be there next week, however they did seem a little more twitchy than expected, (the seals not the crew) possibly thinking about the killer whale.
It's never the same looking at other people's photos, so get out there, get under the cliffs and have a look for yourself, you might even learn why it can (occasionally) be a good idea to jump off a cliff.
