Aberdeen Harbour

We've been to Aberdeen Harbour to see the dolphins a few times now. As well as viewing the harbour from Torry ...

... it's interesting to walk the end of the harbour near Fittie where the marine operations centre is.

The new Marine Operations Centre was opened in 2006. There they manage over 17,000 vessel arrivals and departures each year - so it's a busy place!

The pilots often escort boats in and out.

The old harbour operations building is the "Roundhouse" - it was the Navigation Control Centre and was in operation 24 hours a day for more than two centuries until it was superceded by the new Marine Operations Centre in 2006.

Some bonnie sunsets around the harbour...

Walking back along the prom looking out to sea we can sometimes now see dolphins - now that we know where to look! Having said that, they are definitely much easier to spot from the higher vantage point afforded by the Torry Battery. But still, they're there...

I even managed to catch a kayaker (or body boarder?) and 2 dolphins in this one. I wonder if he spotted the dolphins too?

(The black dot/ dolphin like shape towards the left has a yellow board under it - it can clearly be seen to be a person on a board in the large version of this photo.)

A walk round Fittie

We've visited Fittie a few times - or Footdee to give it it's "Sunday name".

It's a lovely wee village just by the harbour in Aberdeen, and was in the news a while back as it got covered in sea foam during stormy weather.

 

I loved the chimneys...

The new harbour building can be seen across the rooftops.

Fittie is full of character...

Well worth a visit if you're in Aberdeen.

Putting on a Show

The bottlenose dolphins really put on a show for us today.

Fantastic!!

The dolphins of Aberdeen

I've been to see the bottlenose dolphins at Aberdeen Harbour a few times over the last month, and today they really put on a show.

I've heard about the dolphins there before, and know lots of people who regularly see them from the Northlink (now Serco unfortunately) ferry, but I've never seen them there, despite travelling on that boat many times.

Recently I heard that the RSPB were encouraging people to go dolphin spotting there, and it's one of their "Date with Nature" sites for the summer, being manned a few days a week, where you can learn more about the work of the RSPB and borrow binoculars and spotting scopes.

We first went there when my parents came up to visit, and spotted our first dolphin within seconds. We've now been back another 3 times, and - apart from the visit where it was totally mosty and we could barely see the large boats going in and out of the harbour, let alone dolphins - on each visit we've seen dolphins within seconds of arriving!

They've not always been as active as they were today, but on each occasion we have seen at least one jumping out of the water.

Here's some photos to set the scene...

More to follow later...