Fair Isle 2023. Part 7. Back on Shetland Mainland and an Orca encounter

We arrived back at Tingwall and picked up the hire car Star had left for us before heading to Lerwick to Tesco's for an essential 'meal deal' lunch. Our plan was to head norht to Lunna where a Veery had been found by friends visitng from Chehsire - well done Marion & Steve Jason has the distinction of being one of the very few people to see two Veery's in one day when he lived on Whalsay. One on Foula and later the same day another on his home island! I'd twitched on on Muck a few years ago - see here for the story behind that bird. Its a rare bird with only a handful of UK records so well worth a look! 

That plan went completely out the window when news popped up on the Shetland Cetaceans WhatsApp group that a group of Orca were heading down the east side of Shetland mainland about twenty minutes away. Despite visiting Shetland so many times I'd yet to see Orca so it really was a no-brainer to skip Lunna and head south to try and intercept them. This is another one of those encounters on my bucket list of wildlife sightings! 

We saw people watching from a layby so pulled over in time to see the Orca steaming away from us about 1 km out to sea. A quick glance at the map and the chase was on. Hobbling behind Jason we intercepted them several times from different headlands before making our way to Sumburgh Head in the hope we'd intercept them if they passed around the headland. On arrival we found a crowd of around 40 people already present and it wasn't long before the orca were picked up coming towards us. 

What an incredible experience. The Orca off Shetland are well documented and the pod we were watching were the 27's led by the massive bull, designated 34. He can be identified by a nick in the top rear of his dorsal fin. 

They swam right past us before surging around Sumburgh Head and headed towards the Ness of Burgi and Scatness allowing us to identify the other bull in the group - No.72  (Thanks Hugh! )

Bull No. 72

As the light faded we watched the pod hunt down an kill a Harbour Porpoise. The rest of the Porpoise were in full blown panic mode and stuck close to the sandy beach on our side of the bay in the hope that the Orca couldn't chase them in the shallows. They were moving up and down in front of us unable to escape the bay whilst the orca were patrolling it. With tail slaps and full on breaches the Orca put on a spectacular show and  I was still buzzing from the encounter when we arrived at the Sumburgh Hotel. After celebrating with a couple of beers I was soon sound asleep.

See here for more information on the identification of Orca in Scottish waters.