Skip to content
All articles
  • All articles
  • About whales & dolphins
  • Create healthy seas
  • End captivity
  • Fundraising
  • Green Whale
  • Prevent bycatch
  • Prevent deaths in nets
  • Stop whaling
North Atlantic right whale - Peter Flood

Whale AID 2023: A Night of Music and Hope for North Atlantic Right Whales

The inaugural Whale AID concert to support Whale and Dolphin Conservation's (WDC's) work to protect...
IMG_6030

Meet the 2023 Interns: Thomas Zoutis

I'm happy to introduce WDC's first Marine Mammal Conservation Intern of the year, Thomas Zoutis!...
MicrosoftTeams-image (9)

Double Your Impact for Marine Animal Rescue & Response

On a chilly day this past December, the WDC North America team celebrated the first...
20230126_091707

WDC’s Education Wishlist = Cleared!

To the WDC Community, I want to thank you so much for your support of...
Hysazu Photography

Looking forward for Southern Resident orcas in 2023

Hysazu Photography 2022 was a big year for Southern Resident orcas - 2022 brought the...
Credit: Seacoast Science Center

The Unlikely Adventure of Shoebert, a Young Grey Seal Who Visited an Industrial Park Pond

Credit: Seacoast Science Center In mid-September, our stranding partners in northern Massachusetts were inundated with...
Leaping harbour porpoise

The power of harbour porpoise poo

We know we need to save the whale to save the world. Now we are...
Right whale - Regina WDC

Whale and Dolphin Conservation: Change Through Policy.

WDC focuses on education, research, conservation projects, and policy work to create a sustainable future...

Recent Sightings at Spey Bay

Three months in and still seeing something new every week! Most evidence of winter has now disappeared and has been replaced with lush green trees and plants. Quite a different scene to when we first arrived back in February.

We have been enjoying the warmer and lighter evenings, going for walks and having fires on the beach, watching dolphins and osprey most of the time! Although the last couple of days have been rather grey and blustery! Hopefully the sun will have has his hat on again soon.

We’ve had dolphins here at Spey Bay for 16 days straight – not bad going! On one of these days they were out there for eight hours, setting the record so far for this year!

I have been a little more into insects this week, managed to get a few snapshots of different butterflies and identifying weevils! Of the butterflies, I have seen the orange tip, the green veined white, the peacock, small copper and small tortoiseshell. The nettle weevil tagged a lift home with me on one of my walks and the pine weevil found its way into my bedroom!

We have had the arrival of the house martins and the swifts down by the river. On the reserve, the sedge warbler and reed bunting have been spotted. I was lucky the other day, on one of my walks, to spot the first ducklings for the year! Seem to be a lot later than usual this far up north! But they’ve arrived, so on the lookout for some more now. The spotted flycatcher has also been seen which is rather exciting as they are quite scarce in the North. The American widgeon, spotted by Keith, a keen birder and friend of SDC, also ruffled a few feathers! 

Expanding a little further into the Moray Firth, we’ve had some rather exciting ceteceans spotted! Starting with two different sightings of minke whales off of Burghead and also a pod of orcas off of Hopeman! Sadly I haven’t witnessed these for myself, yet!

At the moment, I am getting ready for Big Watch Weekend, where our shorewatchers get together and do as many watches as they can! I will be getting up at the crack of dawn on Saturday 7th June, aiming to get my first watch done at 4am! We will also be having an evening watch with a beach fire (open to all) on one of the evenings. Fingers crossed for some good weather!