Killer whales put on a show

THERE was a flurry of killer whale sightings in Shetland on Monday, with nature photographer Jim Nicolson snapping this brilliant image of one of the mammals flipping a seal into the air.

Jim’s image was taken off the east side of the South Mainland around Sandwick and Levenwick, while there were also numerous sightings in Lerwick Harbour earlier in the day. 

He said: “I was one of a fairly large crowd of onlookers watching the whale activity from the north end of Levenwick as the animals were quite close in and, as always, I had my camera on the tripod shooting some of the action.

“The whales appeared to be feeding as occasionally blood could be seen in the water, when sudenly the crowds started to make all kinds of sounds with great hilarity. At that point my eye caught a feeding frenzy to the left of the pod and a common seal was flipped into the air by an individual.

“I managed to get a shot or two in the few seconds this amazing action took place. The seal hit the water still living and they pounced on it again and shortly after that we never saw it again.”