Wildlife of the Hebrides

It's important to point out that you don't need to be an expert of any description to enjoy a Scottish wildlife cruise on Chalice. No matter what reason motivates you to join us - a relaxing break, fantastic scenery and seascapes, the natural history, or finding your 'roots' - the wildlife and beauty of the Hebrides is all around you. It doesn't matter if you don't know what 'it' is that you're looking at (we will help with that, if you're interested) the main thing is that you enjoy seeing 'it'!

If you join us specifically to come and see the wildlife of the Scottish Hebrides, then you won't be disappointed. Birdlife abounds, and you can expect to see a variety of species that include the magnificent white-tailed sea eagle and golden eagle, comical puffins, graceful manx shearwaters, menacing bonxies, elusive storm petrels and the tiny and endemic St Kilda wren.

Cetaceans - whales, dolphins and porpoise - are always present in Hebridean waters and are joined mid-season by basking sharks - the second largest fish in the world - all of which can be easily and safely observed in their natural environment from the deck of Chalice.

Elusive otters are always a delight to watch, and are present around most of the quiet anchorages that we might use - but you'll need a keen eye, patience and a touch of luck!

Seals are far from elusive, but just as delightful to watch as they bask on rocks in the sun, or perform their comical 'bottling' routine in the water. And did you know they can 'sing'? This is an eerie and haunting noise when you first hear it, and you'll soon understand the mystery of folklore behind the 'selkies'.

There are often some unusual visitors to these waters too. In 2004 the Sound of Sleat was host to a visiting humpback whale. We were able to watch this magnificent creature on two consecutive days as it fed on shoals of fish in the Sound of Sleat, to the east of Skye. In 2005 and 2006, we had several sightings of the bizzare sunfish - some very close to the mainland, while in 2008 we saw risso's dolphins in the Sound of Harris and there were reported sightings of killer whales (orca) off Ardnamurchan.

Dolphins at Tobermory!

In July 2006, we were treated to a splendid display by two bottlenose dolphins in the harbour at Tobermory, Mull. These magnificent creatures swam around between moored yachts for over two hours, making use of all available space to generally show off and enjoy themselves. They finally worked their way out to Chalice where guest Dave Watkins captured part of the display on his video camera.

You can watch Dave's video clip by clicking here and downloading it to your desktop. It's a .wmv file and will open with Windows Media Player. You can read more about this episode, and other features from our trips, in our cruise log section for 2006

This is how close the wildlife gets to us!