Orca – Shetland Wildlife Part 3

In this post I set out my top 8 steps to having an amazing encounter with Orca in Shetland.

I have just come back from the most amazing wildlife encounter… ever. I was about 5m from the mouth of a bull Orca. Put another way I was closer to its mouth than it was to its tail! Absolutely epic! A friend said I was so lucky and… yes and no! Yes, any encounter with wildlife is magic. But no, at another level I think this kind of sighting is available to most if we are willing to follow a few simple steps.

1. Book several weeks on Shetland in July or August – you can’t just come for three days and hope to be lucky, we booked three weeks and saw one briefly on the first day, nothing for two weeks and then bingo the experience of a lifetime. 2-3 weeks and you have a great chance. And the summer is the best time for close in orca sightings in Shetland. (I should add that we have had two trips to Orkney too and missed Orca both times, one annoyingly close too).
2. Join the local wildlife/Orca pages. So the main thing to do is join the Facebook page Shetland Orca Sightings. With (at time of writing) 39k followers, the majority of sightings are reported here. Now here is the next step. Either check it 10 times a day or set up alerts to ping you when anything comes in.
3. Drop everything and go. When a good sighting comes in drop everything and go. We were about to have breakfast when we saw the 27s were showing well and were heading consistently south. Breakfast happens every day, Orcas do not. Once a sighting happens follow the comments underneath which track their progress as they move along the coast.
4. Go where the Orcas are going, not where they were 10 minutes ago. Looking at the comments on the Shetland Orca Sightings page we could see the progress on the map the Orcas were making – they were heading south slowly but surely. There is a lag between when they are seen and when this is reported and when you then can get there. My wife drove and I looked at the map for somewhere beyond where they were last reported where we could park and be close to the coast and hopefully wait for them to arrive.
5. Park Safely and take your stuff. Serious point here… just because you are chasing Orcas doesn’t mean you can be an idiot, crash the car, block the road etc. Park safely, be considerate of others. Second, take your binoculars, camera, spare battery, car keys with you. Nothing more annoying than being in the photographic opportunity of a lifetime and finding you are out of battery.
6. Chose your view point wisely. We had two sightings, one from a beach and one from a rocky headland. The second was better as with a bit of height it is much easier to follow the whales. But you have to move quickly, I basically walked quickly from my parking place to the coast, I could see the Orcas appearing a few hundred meters away but I didn’t go towards them but to a small inlet (geo) where they were heading. This meant I had the most magical encounter of a large bull coming into the geo and turning a full 360 degrees onto its back.
7. Shoot away. If your goal is to get good pictures (you may just want to enjoy), now is your moment. Ideally you want a reasonably fast shutter speed (I went for 1/2500 seconds to make a sharp shot), a middle aperture (I went for F9 to get the whole animal in focus) and what ever ISO is needed to have a correctly exposed shot. Most importantly you want high speed burst (I went with 20 frames a second). I took 1,502 photos and have 80 keepers. 1 photo has the perfect blow showing, 19 do not, you need to take 20 to get that 1.
8. Enjoy. Don’t forget to enjoy this amazing encounter with wildlife, these things don’t happen often and they are worth savouring when they do. At some point put the camera down and breath and just absorb the moment.

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Having skipped breakfast and rushed 15 miles down the coast, parked and walked to this beach we were ready. Here was my first sighting of a bull Orca (number 34) as it came into view beyond the small rocky islet.

A minute later the whole pod arrived, we certainly saw 6 at one time but think the 8 Orcas in the 27s pod were present. They moved along the beach allowing great views but they hunt seals and there were no seals around on the beach itself.

They soon moved out to an island in the bay and stayed here for quite some time. It was harder to see the individual Orca’s at this point but I kept firing away and this helped me capture a mother and calf together

At this point the Orcas moved on and we relocated and waited a second time. This time I was on a rocky outcrop very close to the sea.

Several Orca’s went past giving excellent views.

Whilst the other Orca’s passed one mature bull came right into the inlet (geo) I guess checking it out for seals. At one point I was about 5m from it. A once in a lifetime magical experience.

Another Orca, did a complete turn onto its back and then carried on around 360 degrees. I am guessing this was to see what was on the rocks (a few people rather than seals). And I wasn’t about to jump into the water.

I remembered to breathe at this point, it is easy to forget.

This large bull had a clear notch in its tail (number 34 I think from the photo guide).

A few final shots as the group came together to continue around the headland. A wonderful experience, highly recommended, if you ever get the chance, drop everything and go.