Sightings galore for Big Watch Weekend
With so many amazing places around the Scottish coastline to watch out for whales and dolphins, you’re never too far away from witnessing an incredible wildlife moment, which we all love to see! That’s why on the 7th, 8th and 9th June 2013 we kicked the watching season off with a bang, in the form of the biannual Shorewatch ‘BIG Watch Weekend’; three days of continuous watching, getting as many trained Shorewatchers to do as many watches as possible from all of our sites. It was a record breaking year of sightings, and brought our Shorewatchers together in a fantastic team effort, sharing their sightings and promoting the important work that the WDC Shorewatch programme is carrying out.
Over the course of the weekend, 37 Shorewatchers from 16 sites completed 292 watches (up from 162 in June 2012), resulting in a record breaking 48.7 hours (over two days!!) of continuous watching! There were 51 positive watches recorded with an impressive total of 237 individuals sighted (up from 75 last year); comprising of bottlenose dolphin, harbour porpoise, common dolphin, Risso’s dolphin, minke whale and orca!!
I think it is safe to say that the weekend was a huge success; as well as all the watches carried out, the sun shone, prizes were won (most watches done etc.), and people had a great time being out and about around our beautiful coastline. It was a lovely weekend and a great way to start off the watching season and hopefully a glimpse of what is to come!
We couldn’t have done it without all of our amazingly dedicated Shorewatchers. Thank you for all of your effort! The valuable data that has been collected, recording the presence and absence of whales, dolphins and porpoises, allows us to get a much broader and detailed picture is what is going on around our coastline.