Last weekend I was away on a fun excursion on a wildlife spotting boat trip! While we never saw any of the big mammals that like hanging about in the area (bottlenose dolphins, poor porpoises that get battered by the dolphins and a few whales), we did see one confused looking seal that I didn’t get a photo of and lots and lots of birds.

Below are a selection of the photos I took! For your inspiration and procrastination needs.

1.) Birds. Here was a big collection of feeding birds taken right at the start of the trip, before I remembered how to zoom my camera. We came over as apparently quite often this can signal a lot of fish under the surface, which attract the bigger mammals.

2.) Still couldn’t find the zoom but we COULD find some cormorants and a great black backed gull.

3.) The zoom! Here we have a sea cave tucked into the coast.

4.) This area has a lot of watch posts left over from the war. Here’s one hidden up in the cliffs.

5.) This guillemot is clearly hiding treasure in this cave. I just know it.

6.) Some more caves over on the other side of the firth. They thought they were being stealthy under all that gorse but we found them. It was here that we stopped in the sun for juice and biscuits. Delightful!

7.) A view of two more watch posts in the cliffs.

8.) Some lovely Highland coastline.

9.) An old decommissioned oil rig, which was apparently pretty revolutionary in its day. It was close by here that we stopped next to the marker for the resting place of the crew of the HMS Natal and remembered the tragedy. Moods were lifted by the appearance of a curious seal.

10.) Back at the harbour, some wildlife! There were hundreds of these little guys all over the shop.

11.) And finally, a jellyfish. I had to take a photo of it because I’m so used to seeing them washed up instead of happily splotting through the water.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Anyone been on any fun or inspirational trips recently?