Northern Bottlenose Whale...

Thank God my son loves going for walks along Seaton sea front!  This morning we arrived just as local birder Phil Abbott had found a large, dark object moving about on top of the water just off Beer Head. At first sight it appeared as though it may have been a large Leatherback Turtle but soon revealed itself to be something quite different.

As we struggled to get good clear views because of the distance, it showed just long enough for a few photos,the best of which are shown below.

Northern Bottlenose Whale, Seaton

Northern Bottlenose Whale, Seaton

It was in fact a Northern Bottlenose Whale!  It showed briefly but fairly frequently and we watched it over a 40 minute period before continuing with our walk. It was seen again several times over a two hour period before we left around 1 pm. I'm not entirely sure of their status but they are certainly not common around the UK coast and this was a great find by Phil.