Tag: Minke whale

Arisaig 7: Wildlife Cruise to Canna

Continuing my series about my Scottish holiday with a look at the journey to the Isle of Canna.

We have reached the Tuesday of my holiday in Scotland (May 30th to June 6th), which featured a trip to the Isle of Canna. This post is the first of three about the day, with the grounds of Canna House getting a post to themselves and also a general post about Canna and the return journey.

THE WAY THE TRIP WORKED

The boat for Canna runs from Mallaig, eight miles north of where we were staying, and the outbound trip from Mallaig to Canna was the ‘wildlife cruise’ element, with a professional wildlife spotter on board, and several go slows for good sightings. We then had a short time on the island and a swift return journey to Mallaig.

FROM THE COTTAGE TO CANNA

We had a straightforward journey to Mallaig, and boarded our boat in good time. The voyage out was magnificent. I have touched briefly on it in two previous posts, one covering a minke whale sighting and one about some of the best wildlife I saw during this holiday. The sea was calm that day, and there was much to savour.

PHOTOGRAPHS

With a reminder that individual photographs can be viewed at larger size by clicking on them here is the full gallery for the outbound voyage.

The wildlife spotter card (two pictures as it is double sided)
The best of the puffin pictures.
The minke whale
arriving at Canna.

Arisaig 2026 3: Minke Whale Lights up Canna Cruise

A post dedicated to a Minke Whale sighting during today’s ‘Canna Puffin Cruise’, where I was doubly lucky: 1) to be on it at all and 2) to manage to get photographs of the whale.

Earlier today I had the good fortune to go on today’s “Canna Puffin Cruise” during the course of which a Minke whale appeared above the waves on a few occasions, and I captured the evidence on camera. What follows is a short series of pictures…

The first, less good picture:

In the front of this shot part of the rump of Minke whale can be seen just above the surface of the water. Nearby two tiny puffins look on. This was somewhere between Mallaig and Canna.
Close up extracted from the first picture showing the whale rump and the two puffins looking on.
The mid-portion of a Minke whale including the dorsal fin appears above the sea somewhere between Mallaig and the Isle of Canna. Unedited original.
A closer crop showing the whale and a cliff in the distance.
Edited version of the above picture
A different edit of the same picture
Another crop
An edited version of the second crop
A different edit of the same crop

Another crop

An edited version of the final crop.

An edited version of the final crop.

I will be producing more posts about this day, including a ‘wildlife highlights package’, but just to get things started I have opted to give the Minke whale a post all to itself.