Rupert Kirkwood's Wild World of Water. As seen from a Kayak.
I’m seriously behind with these blogs. The action is coming thick and fast at the mo because the weather is kayaking-perfect. Warmth, cloudless skies, turquoise clear water…you just can’t beat it. Better still, now is when the sea life really kicks off. August is prime time for the birds, the big sea mammals and…if you … Continue reading The Blue Flash
Lewis, the largest island of the Outer Hebrides has a rather cosy high-street name that doesn’t quite do its rugged beauty justice. It sits at the top of the 130 mile chain of islands that protect the west coast of Scotland from the worst of the Atlantic swell. At its worst it is bleak and … Continue reading Lewis
You can of course use the Skye bridge to access Scotland’s most renowned island, and that would still technically be going ‘over the sea’, but we opted for the traditional crossing on a well-worn Calmac ferry from Mallaig to Armadale. The vista that unfolds as the bow-ramp of the ferry creeps open is the gateway … Continue reading Over the Sea to Skye
I thought the first day’s smorgasbord of golden wildlife nuggets would be hard to beat. I was wrong… Common Dolphins…an unrestrained performance: Risso’s Dolphins…impossibly big and impossibly blowy… Apologies to the three porpoises which I failed to photograph. They are small and charming, in fact they could weigh a tenth as much as a Risso’s. … Continue reading A Couple of Crackers. Day 2: South…
I’m getting way behind with these blogs. The weather is the reason…wall-to-wall sunshine and calm seas means I am out and about on my little craft. Spotting the creatures is so much easier when the sea surface is smooth, and taking pics from a platform that is not being heaved about by waves is a … Continue reading A Couple of Crackers. Day 1: North Cornish Coast
I never got round to publishing this post a month ago. Being exclusively about birds, most of which I didn’t actually see, I thought it was a bit TOO niche. However it features a world-class, best-of-British natural phenomenon, the morning chorus, so maybe it is worth crowing about after all. Becky and I were in … Continue reading A Ten Warbler Day…Almost
If you think that sitting in a kayak a mile from the coast would not reap rewards for a butterfly enthusiast, you’d be wrong On almost every sunny day from spring to late autumn I see pioneering little insects from the continent flitting across the English Channel to feast on our green and pleasant land. … Continue reading Fins, Wings and Flutterbies
There has been an excited chatter amongst the small community of kayak safari enthusiasts recently…when are the Risso’s going to return? The intensity of expectation has been fuelled by the spectacular numbers of these exotic-sounding and exotic-looking dolphins that showed up around Devon nad Cornwall last year. My own records reflect that 2025 was the … Continue reading The Return of the Risso’s
Will and I weren’t expecting a Bottlenose Dolphin. Common Dolphins were very possible and there was an outside chance of a Minke Whale…my paddling chum Paul had seen one in this location almost exactly a year ago. But not a Bottlenose Dolphin because I havn’t seen one along the north coast of Cornwall for about … Continue reading BOSCASTLE BOTTLENOSE
I like setting myself stupid challenges. It ensures that I get out on the water as often as possible, so even if the objective I have set myself fails…which it usually does…I have maximised the chance of an interesting observation. All the stuff I love to see is directly proportional to how much time I … Continue reading BEAVER!