Dead Pilot Whale

A very, very dead Long-finned Pilot Whale was washed up on the beach near Uiskentuie Farm in the last 24 hours. It wasn't there yesterday morning, and I only discovered it this afternoon because I was driving past and saw a local council worker with digger and trailer ready to take it to the council waste disposal site. It had clearly died a considerable time ago as bones were showing and the belly was split completely open. I will spare you a sight of that, and so have appended this photograph of just its head, with the characteristic bulging forehead and stubby teeth in both jaws. I'm not sure when the last one was found on an Islay beach, but this is the species which gets reported every so often for the mass strandings of live animals. Fortunately, we've never had such an occurrence. The last one was in September 2012 near Anstruther, Fife, when 22 animals came ashore and died.
Malcolm