A grey dawn today off the Ormsaigbeg shore, but one of those starts which suggests that the sun is about to break through for yet another fine day. That's the fully-loaded bulk carrier
Yeoman Bank in the distance.
But the excitement was closer inshore. As we spotted this basking shark in the bay below our house a sea eagle heaved by, moving low along the cliffs. The basking shark stayed around, to be joined by another, smaller individual, giving me time to hurry down to the point where the larger one did a leisurely swim-by.
It often looks as if there are two in the water close together, but it's the dorsal fin and the top of the tail. In the top picture, the third object breaking the surface is the tip of his nose - hence the beast's genus name,
Cetorhinus,
ceto meaning 'marine monster' and
rhinus meaning 'nose'. Basking sharks are migratory, covering thousands of miles each year in their search for the plankton and small invertebrates off which this ten-plus ton animal survives.
Basking shark don't often venture into Kilchoan Bay. We saw two regularly during one week of 2008, but they're far more common off the north coast where six were recently seen from Ardnamurchan Lighthouse. More recently still, no less than nine were spotted by one favoured Portuairk resident - but what would one expect with Portuairk's gravitational pull, that lovely little village being the acknowledged centre of the universe?
A grey dawn today off the Ormsaigbeg shore, but one of those starts which suggests that the sun is about to break through for yet another fine day. That's the fully-loaded bulk carrier Yeoman Bank in the distance.
But the excitement was closer inshore. As we spotted this basking shark in the bay below our house a sea eagle heaved by, moving low along the cliffs. The basking shark stayed around, to be joined by another, smaller individual, giving me time to hurry down to the point where the larger one did a leisurely swim-by.
It often looks as if there are two in the water close together, but it's the dorsal fin and the top of the tail. In the top picture, the third object breaking the surface is the tip of his nose - hence the beast's genus name, Cetorhinus, ceto meaning 'marine monster' and rhinus meaning 'nose'. Basking sharks are migratory, covering thousands of miles each year in their search for the plankton and small invertebrates off which this ten-plus ton animal survives.
Basking shark don't often venture into Kilchoan Bay. We saw two regularly during one week of 2008, but they're far more common off the north coast where six were recently seen from Ardnamurchan Lighthouse. More recently still, no less than nine were spotted by one favoured Portuairk resident - but what would one expect with Portuairk's gravitational pull, that lovely little village being the acknowledged centre of the universe?
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