Arisaig 2026 4: Wildlife Feature

A look at some of the creatures I have been privileged to see here in the wild west of Scotland.

There is some amazing wildlife to be seen in the wild west of Scotland, and this post shows of some of my favourites so far. Most are from today’s Canna Puffin Cruise including the Minke whale that has already had its own post.

I will again display one by one:

I displayed this one as part of my gallery for the Mingary Castle post – it shows four alpacas and two sheep.

I saw this splendid wading bird while out walking in the vicinity of our cottage yesterday.

I also saw these two splendid equines while on a local walk.

These two pictures, one cropped but not edited, and the other edited show a large deer that was near our kitchen window.

Four sea birds flying nearly in parallel

Close focus on the three birds flying closest together.

Four puffins in the sea – the leftmost bird shows the characteristic bright coloured bill.

Two puffins in the sea. The colouring of the birds is very obvious in this picture.

Four guillemots make their presence felt.

Four guillemots, one with wings outspread.

Closer focus on the guillemot with spread wings.

The Minke whale showing itself – the people who run these cruises recognize this as a great photograph (I have emailed them).

Four guillemots

A huge corvid, tentatively identified courtesy of Mastodon as a hooded crow perches on a fence post on Canna.

A pair of ducks of some species or other that like the far north – the one on te left with the elaborate colours and markings is clearly the male.

Two black and white (with a hint of gold) beauties, taken just before leaving 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.

King’s Lynn on a Summer Sunday

I have some fine pictures from yesterday. As well as those included here, which are all things I saw in and around King’s Lynn, I did photograph some books while in East Rudham for Sunday lunch, but as I did not edit these images due to time constraints they do not feature. 

While many of the objects featured here were very close to me, one was a quarter of a million miles away…

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