Grey Seals.

Today was a fantastic day, the weather was good, I had some set objectives that were all achieved and I had a great run out.

I had been saving the old trike for special occasions, namely the annual 24 hour race, for fear of her not surviving for much longer but, after not being able to use her for a couple of years, I'd decided to give her a few more outings once she was back in working order. Sometimes something just clicks, everything seems right, and I realised the fun I've been missing for the last five or more years.
That's enough sentimentality for now, so let's get on.

My trike ride, had a mission, to find out what the Dolphin Centre has to offer; it boils down to a photocopied sheet listing the companies that run dolphin watching trips; we just have to decide which one to go on, and arrange it. It turns out that our hostess knows them all and will sort it out for us, she's a lovely lady.

It was slow going during the morning: as I picked my way on to the cycle route at Cullen, a cat came and introduced itself. I always like to get a "banker" in early in case I don't see anything else so took out the camera and sat on the ground so that I would be shooting from the right height. The cat immediately assessed the situation and adopted the role of a scarf, purring loudly in my ear and refusing to get down. It was difficult taking the picture without the aid of a viewfinder. Persistence paid off and, eventually, I did get the shot I was after.


A mile along the path, I met a dog and its pet but only managed to escape after a long conversation.

It was at Portgordon that I noticed what, at first, I thought were some eider ducks; they were a bit big, then I noticed they were in pairs and then the wailing caught my attention. The pairs turned out to be the heads and tails of grey seals basking in the typical bowed posture on submerged rocks so that their bodies were below the water. I managed to get close enough for today's blip of a second group of seals without disturbing them and, believe me, you don't want to disturb over 600 lbs of territorial animal with the sort of teeth owned by these chaps.