Just as I was settling down to a long slog of birdless observations, a remarkable thing happened. Way off to the east, a cloud appeared, just above the sea. On inspection, it turned out to be a cloud of about 300 Kittiwakes, uncharacteristicly throwing themselves downward, into the melee that was undoubtedly going on just below the surface. Auks were also in attendance, and Skuas lurked menacingly. "There must be cetaceans about", I thought to myself, and bugger me ragged if I wasn't right! Harbour porpoises were continuously on show, and Manx shears dodged in and out of the Kittis. All of a sudden, the water's surface formed into a shallow bubble, which gave way to a breaching Minke whale! What a beast! It absolutely dwarfed the porpoises, and all the birds postponed their feeding and circled round the scene, as if to say "what the fuck was that?"

    All the action had been slowly drifting towards me, and I was now getting crippling views of what was at least 2 minkes, each time they breached. Not only that, but they were so close now, that I could see them turning under the water, the white marked fins really standing out, and allowing me to follow them. They slowly passed to the north, and soon, things returned to normality. Birds rested on the water, as if they were trying to get over all that excitement, and I'd soon picked out a Black guillemot among the auks, and at least 4 Arctic skuas and one Great had benefitted from the feeding frenzy.

     But it didn't end there...2 more minkes passed SW about an hour later, much further out this time, and without the associated excitement. They looked a little feeble compared to the exreme close ups I'd had earlier, but it was great to get these "normal" views all the same.

     At the other end of the scale, a Red admiral was on the platform, the first butterfly I've seen on the rig. But, as you can imagine, its a little difficult getting excited about that when you've just eyeballed a whale!