My son , @philellwood, has popped up for the weekend. Having done some son-dad things like going for a pint, curry, and discussing iPhone app programming :-), we’d decided to go out for a wildlife trip.

In Cromarty, we have an excellent operator called Ecoventures, who run dolphin/wildlife trips on their 9.5m RIB Saorsa. We booked on to it yesterday and went out on the 1300 trip.

Quick trip down the Firth to check for dolphins, passing some of the oilrigs in the Firth

Oil rigs in the cromarty Firth

[Image credit Andrewrpalmer CC-BY-SA-3.0]

On the way back out we saw multiple groups of dolphins - feeding, and some playing;probably about 20 or so, a number of which tracked along by the boat.

We also saw cormorants, shags, razorbills, kittiwakes, guillemots, fulmars, and black-backed gulls.

A trip I’d recommend to anyone.