It's turning out to be quite a summer for whales here on the Yorkshire coast, and today's cetacean spectacle was one to remember for a long time. Sightings of one or two Minke Whales have been pleasingly regular over the last ten days or so, stretching back to the ones just off Whitby harbour we were lucky enough to have the company of on the 6th; since then, we've had singles off the Brigg here at Filey on most days since, and other watchpoints to the north of us have also registered odd sightings.
A couple of days ago, one was sadly found dead on the beach at South Bay, Scarborough, prompting fears that 'our' whale had tragically succumbed to entanglement in crab and lobster pot lines. Tragic indeed, but we'd a strong suspicion there were actually various individuals patrolling our stretch of the coast.
Come this morning, and with a calm North Sea bathed in warm sunshine, we watched, and steadily picked up whales in different directions and at different distances.... half an hour's co-ordinated effort by four of us, scanning together from the top of Carr Naze, produced a minimum of six Minkes simultaneously gracing Filey's inshore waters, and I don't think any of us would be too surprised if there turned out to be a dozen out there. Magical.
