November 16th

It was very mild and without any wind this morning. The sea was just a rolling light swell and relatively calm. I took a visitor out to Fife Ness first thing to see some gannets – they live in Paris and seabirds are in short supply. Unusually no gannets apart from a distant juvenile struggling past in the absence of wind. It is getting late in the season and gannets head off for their winter holiday in the Bay of Biscay about now for the next three months. The consolation was an extended pod of bottle-nosed dolphins passing by at about 100 meters giving great views. They were heading up the coast towards St Andrews bay in a long line, with some nearly leaping out of the water and others milling about as if fishing. They are always hard to count but at least 30 and probably 50 passed over ten minutes.

Bottle-nosed dolphin