The return - Part 1

Photo of Bottlenose dolphins from the cliff top.

So; it has been a very long time (around 2 years) since the last post. Yet again, I had forgotten about the existence of this blog! I am determined to carry it on this time, now that I am actually more involved in the animal world. I have been up to a fair bit since the last post. I have spent this summer fulfilling several placements. The first in Cromarty, Scotland; working with the University of Aberdeen at the Lighthouse Field Station. I was carrying out research for a PhD student, doing visual observations of Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) from a cliff, which was used in conjunction with a Cpod to look into the effects of shipping from the oil rig repair station in Nigg bay, on the behaviour of the dolphins. Whilst here I also managed to help analyse Cpod porpoise recordings from another project, help with photo-id of birthing common seals at Loch Fleet, and also participate in Photo id surveys of Bottlenose from the survey boat. While here, we also saw a juvenile minke whale; which was around 4 metres long (Video can be seen here ).