The day before, I was checking Twitter, and saw an unbelievable tweet from an ecologist in Gravesend, Kent, reading: 'BELUGA in the Thames!' I got very excited, and on the next day, my mum, brother and I headed to Gravesend in the evening, to see the whale for ourselves. We parked outside a pub called the Ship and Lobster, and it was a twenty-minute walk along the riverfront to three barges, the area in which the Beluga was last seen in. There was a huge crowd, made of mostly birders (yes, birders also appreciate other animals), who were all very friendly.
Suddenly, a small, white head rose calmly out of the Thames, looked round, shot water out of its blowhole and swiftly disappeared beneath the surface. I could not believe what I had just seen- my first whale, let alone a whale in the Thames- a Beluga, hundreds of miles off course from its home in the Arctic. I hope 'Benny' is healthy, and somehow manages to travel back to his natural habitat. Here are a few record shots of this stunning mammal:
'Benny' in the sunset
Just breaking the surface
Brilliant, lucky you
ReplyDeleteIt was a brilliant mammal to watch. Did you get to see it?
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