Happy New Year

Welcome to 2008.

Of course, some of my US buddies won't be quite there as I type this but then they won't be online either.

The weather forecast for today is slowly becoming very windy, possible gusts up to gale force here on the coast and at sea. It will then calm down overnight as a band of HEAVY SNOW comes in. We are then forecast heavy snow then for the next 3-4 days even at lower levels.

The plan for today is to head out to Fort George and see if we can see the Dolphins again. Failing that to get some shots of the seabirds and waders. These two activities require totally different tides: Dolphins require the two hours either side (and especially before) high tide, whereas the birds require low tide, especially wader who get the best of the food as the tide recedes. This means you have to plan to be there for at least 6 hours.

High Tide today is 18:09 which is also completely dark so we are going to be struggling a bit. The magical two hours before will be in last light and darkness so the plan at the moment is to have a spot of breakfast then head out for low tide. This will enable us to get the waders and shore birds first. We can then have a spot of lunch and wait for the tide to start rising.

The fish are driven into the narrowing of the Firth and the Dolphins just follow them in really.

Unfortunatley with the high winds the sea is not going to be calm and this will make life even more difficult.

The best weather for watching Dolphins is a calm day and preferably overcast. Although overcast is not good for dramatic or perhaps even particularly pleasing photography it is good for clear shots which aid indentifying individuals. Spotting the rise and fall of a Dolphins back or a whales blow and fluke rise is far easier when there aren't many waves.

I have sighted over the last few days the following (not all on the coast); Black Throated Diver (which is actually white throated in winter just to make things difficult), Cormorant, Shag (less common), Mallard, Eider, Long Tailed Duck, Goldeneye, Red-Breasted Merganser, Buzzard, Kestrel (sits on the telegraph pole at the back of the house watching the mole hills and the two fields at the back of the house), and a brief sight of a single Merlin, Ringed Plover, Red Shank, Oystercatchers, and several Great Tits.

People often ask me why I choose to live here. Afterall, it's cold, we have limited daylight in winter (we also have almost non-stop daylight in summer), it's wet (most of the time), and the roads (and pay levels) are appauling. The reason is above; I can look out my house and see Swallows nesting (in season of course), I see birds of prey sitting by the roadside on fences every day, I see thousands of geese coming in to roost on the way to the supermarket, I can take a walk down to the harbour and see wildfowl and gulls, I can take a walk along the shore and see seals - but most of all, of all this, I can walk along the footpaths of the coast and I can see Dolphins.

The government is set out to distroy this though. The human greed for a fuel that's really obsolete is driving men to commit the most cardinal sin. We are going to wipe out a whole population. Now, whatever you choose to believe about Dolphins I defy anyone not to be moved by even the briefest of encounters. Personally I have looked at a lot of research into these magnificient creatures and I firmly agree with several scientists that we are dealing with a 'who' not a 'what'.

Dolphins display all the traits that humans say we need for self awareness and moral standing. This is especially remarkable given that they have adapted for a totally different environment. In fact, if the role was reversed they would probably think of us as very basic and primative creatures.

They are an older species than us. They have more of a right to this planet than we do and if they fit our moral codes for refraining from harming or causing suffering and distress then we are not fit to be amongst them by the way we behave towards them.

We certainly shouldn't be doing anything that even has a possibility of causing them harm. Have you see a Dolphin when it looses its calf? It will bring you to tears. Anyone with any empathy will see and feel their pain and this is not because we want to put a humanise an animal (as we may do with our pets) - the emotion is there and you can see it, you can feel it.

We cannot communicate with them on their level as we don't have the facilities to understand eachothers' language. We cannot even hear most of their sounds without aids. They probably can't hear us either but they hear us when we distroy their planet.

We understand so little but we distroy so much.

and here ends the leason for New Years Day 2008.

Let's make this a good year for everyone, even if they don't have two legs and two arms.

Jan