Join us as we continue our journey of intrigue and discovery with Adrian Shine, a seasoned Loch Ness investigator. Adrian is renowned for his dedication to uncovering the truth, and he’ll present a series of four blogs exploring some of the most common cases of mistaken identity in the search for Nessie.
This is part 3 in the series. Parts 1 and 2 were published earlier this year and can be found here: part 1 | part 2.
We now move to things actually on or in or above the water. Boats are the most obvious example of this and can be very misleading when seen at long range. This is particularly true of the 15ft traditional dinghies used for salmon fishing. One of these was the subject of the famous Loch Ness Monster film obtained in 1960 by Tim Dinsdale. In this film, a dinghy, seen by Dinsdale as a hump, crosses the loch away from him and disappears into a dark band of water on the far side. It then reappears as it turns broadside to the camera, becoming visible due to its propeller wash. An important point is that the wake seen from astern can be seen for what it is, without the ‘humps’ which would be seen from the side.
The image below is a small boat on Loch Ness
Other unrecognised things in the water actually begin to include animals! These can give a long necked impression followed by their wake humps. An unexpected example are swimming deer. Both red and roe deer do this in order to cross the loch, generally towards autumn. Two more mammals are occasionally seen in the loch; seals and rarely seen otters. Both grey and harbour seals do enter Loch Ness up the river from the sea. They are chasing the influx of salmon returning to spawn. Grey seals have a distinctive conical head while the harbour seal’s head is more like a Labrador dog. You may briefly see a back as well.
Grey Seal
Harbour Seal
Otters are smaller, but it is difficult to judge scale on water. Distinguishing features are that the otter looks very serpentine in the water and can produce a three humped impression. Also, its ears are more prominent, and it usually exposes a long tail on diving.
Otter
A line of low flying birds can look like a fast moving multi humped monster. An interesting variation of this is when the birds themselves are invisible against the dark shore on the opposite side of the loch, but their reflections on the water beneath remain visible to observers. Sometimes a portion of a line of birds lifts, giving the impression of a head and neck. Long necked fishing waterfowl have caused many ‘sightings’. Cormorants are one example. The hen red breasted merganser, particularly when accompanied with her chicks, gives convincing displays as she swims ahead and they run across the water to catch up. From a distance, the whole family can look like one creature. While fishing, mergansers make ‘torpedo like’ dashes through the waves in pursuit of fish. The drake merganser also makes spectacular courtship displays, sometimes standing erect while running across the water and, from a distance, looking like a long upraised head and neck ploughing along.
The image below is a Cormorant.
Merganser ducks
Until our next instalment from Adrian, visit The Loch Ness Centre to journey through 500 million years of legend and discovery. Explore more examples of mistaken identities, famous hoaxes, and the enduring mystery of Loch Ness!
Have you ever spotted something unusual on the loch? We’d love to hear about it! Share your observations with us using this link. Who knows—you might just have the next big discovery!
