Tonight on Springwatch Billy Heaney shares the thrilling sight of orca just metres off John O’Groats pier. He was in Caithness with The Mammal Society running a Youth Sea Watch Event as part of this year’s OrcaWatch, coordinated by the Sea Watch Foundation.

“Our event finished at 3pm and then the first orca shout came not long after. As part of OrcaWatch a Telegram group chat has been set up where everyone posts their cetacean sightings. We managed to track their movements down the coast, enabling us to watch the orca three times as they cruised through the Pentland Firth. In essence, a large-scale game of leap frog with wild orca.

“The three orca were part of the 27’s pod. The big male, number 72, was travelling with 73 and 153. At one stage they were just metres off John O’Groats pier, to the delight of fellow orca geeks. Including an 8-year old lad that came out for his birthday to take part in our Youth Sea Watch event.”

See more tonight at 8pm, BBC Two on Springwatch.