Ulrike encountered 3-4 bottlenose dolphins feeding at the mouth of the river Spey. The dolphins have been around most days for the last fortnight with some good breaching and feeding observed, according to the WDCS staff
dolphins and a minke whale were observed on sunday at Aberdeen. and Colin bird from Golspie has recorded Orca and dolphins in his area.
all good sightings and hopefully more to come

This coming Wed. the 16th will see the first of our mid week watches. meeting up at the headland we hope to encounter a vast number of cetaceans and birds and seals. you never know.
starting time of watch 7pm

9 members of the group took in the workshop held at Aberdeen today. many thanks to Ian Hay and Colin Mcleod for putting the day together.
Some of us had alreadyundertaken the survey workshop and had some time at sea on the Hascosay, but it was good to see old and new folk at the Pier. was even better to see 10+ dolphins including a wee calf outside the harbour giving it big loups.
Alan is away to the Shetlands with Kevin on Thursday and no dout others will follow. everyone is looking forward to going up north and seeing and recording a few cetaceans on their travels. Many thanks to North-Link Ferries for allowing us on the Hascosay and to Seawatch, Aberdeen Uni and the East Grampian Coastal Partnership

HI
Hope you all got your newsletter and renewal forms. Thanks to Clare for a fine job.
The membership stays the same but we have decided to just call in the membership each may.
No dates for your wee books. May 16th dolphin watch at Burghead at 7pm. Craft fair at Findhorn on the 19th in the village hall and the following week a celebration of dolphins in the Universal hall at the Findhorn community.
an amazing evening of music ,song ,poems and photgraphs all dedicated to the dolphins.
entry will be £3 and if you wish to contribute then just join in , stories and tales required.
LOOKOUT for the longest day of the year 21st june we have a great day planned and all will be filmed by the BBC details to follow in poster later on.
weather nae bad here today windy but sunny. finechty looking grand.
see ya
pete

with the fine weather and calm sea's sadly brings out the jet skier's.
this time over at Portgordon. we have also heard of jet skiers at Banff and Cullen.
Lets hope something can be done to controll their behaviour before someone or a cetacean is injured. We do not wish to ban the use of jet skiers ,BUT some sort of test or licence must be issued before people can go hurtling along the coast with such powerful machines.

Minke whales, harbour porpoise and Bottlenose dolphins were all seen this weekend. various encounters on boats and from the land. great to hear about the Minke whales coming into the Firth so early, maybe 2007 will be like last year. nice to see the harbour porpoise in good numbers off Portknockie and as ever the dolphins are seen in various locations.
The weather today is sunny but a good stiff breeze fae the west a gale is forecast so time to do some paper work eh.
lots to do in the coming weeks with watches and fairs and events to put together. keep an eye on the site for details, and mini newsletter on the way.
pete

The group are pleased to announce that we have recived funding from the East Grampian Coastal Project of the sum of £1000. This will be used to take our roadshow along the North East coast of Scotland to schools and to hold a few public events. This will enable us to link up with the groups that we are already working with and to promote even further cetacean watching in our part of the world.

A training event for the 2007 NORCET whale and dolphin surveys will be held on May 12th.
NORCET surveys are a collaboration between Aberdeen University, SeaWatch, Northlink Ferries and the EECP. They involvevolunteers carrying out surveys abourd the MV Hascosay . from Aberdeen to Shetland and Orkney.
anyone wishing to take part in the workshop should contact EGCP at egcp@macaulay.ac.uk
The Friends have been involved in this survey work for three years now and its a great oppurtunity to see at least 5 species and see our fantastic nothren islands.

WOW what a month April has been hardly any rain and lots of sunshine. good sightings too( see sightings page) at least 5 different species and some great watches. may is the morn time to wash our faces in the morning dew.
happy May day commrades.

two trips on board the Puffin sailing out of Macduff today. a mixture of weather from cold cloudy sky to summer sunshine, calm sea's to sea state 3-4 but all in all a great day out for the group
24 foolk and a dog were onboard the puffin sadly no sightings of cetaceans but this was made up by the amazing sight of thousands of sea birds with the gannets at troup head being the main stars. a trip well worth taking if you plan to come up.
The trip along the coastline takes you close to 3 wee villages then ends with the tour at the bottom of 400 ft cliffs and the birds.
The Skipper John is a real gem with a wealth on knowlage of the sea and this area. a real laid back approach with a real sence of joy at doing his job. Many thanks to all who came along today. for those who could not make it ,try and do so this year. and big thanks to John Smith and the Puffin for a great day out.