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Today we went on a boat trip to the Farne Islands. Decided to write a single blog entry about this as there are a lot of bird photos (they go onto a second page)! The Farne Islands are one of the reasons that I wanted to come to Northumberland. They are home to a wide variety of sea birds including 70,000 puffins!
All the boat trips go from Seahouses and although there are 4 companies running trips there is really nothing to choose between. They all cost the same and leave at about the same time (they stagger the departures by 5 minutes as there is only one space to board the boat). We went for serenity II for no real good reason apart from the fact it had a toilet on board!
It takes about 15 - 20 minutes to reach the first of the Farne islands. You cannot land on all of them and we started by cruising around them. As soon as we got close there were loads of birds flying around. As well as the ubiquitous seagull there were also lots of other sea birds. I obviously started my search to spot a puffin.
The captain brought the boat alongside some cliffs which were absolutely covered with guillemots. I have never seen so many guillemots, I am not sure I have ever seen a guillemot but that is beside the point! Guillemots seem to like to breed on open cliff tops with the bare minimum amount of space between them and their neighbours. As they don't really build nests and just seem to lay their eggs of a tiny ledge, the eggs are cone shaped to they don't roll away - very clever
As well as thousands of guillemots we also saw some razorbills which was another new bird spot for me and some cormorants and shags. We did spot a couple of puffins too although this seemed to be guillemot territory.
We then cruised to some other islands including Longstone which has been made famous by Grace Darling. In 1838 she and her father (who lived in the light house) rowed out in the middle of the night to rescue survivors from a ship wreck. The seas around here can be fairly treacherous and there are numerous wrecks.
Our next stop was at a seal colony. As it was high
tide the rocks they usually lie on were well under water but there were lots of them swimming in the water. They kept popping their heads up to look at us. They were very cute.
We then worked our way back to Inner Farne where we landed. Once we got off the boat and started along the path things took a turn for the worse. To get to the puffin nesting area you had to walk along a 30 metre long path, unfortunately this was the same place that the terns had decided to nest, and they are VERY territorial. As we got off the boat they started doing distress calls and within seconds they were swooping on us and pecking hard! We got away fairly lightly with only a bit of mess on Tim's coat for our troubles but others were pecked on the ears and on their heads by these vicious birds!
Once you got beyond this nesting site it was calm again. Suddenly there were Puffins everywhere you looked. They fly in such a funny way and it was good fun just watching them, we tried many times to get a good shot of them
Bridled Guillemot
There is a white line around the eyein the air but it was almost impossible to get one in focus. If you think I am into photography you should have seen the camera geeks this island attracts. If you weren't carrying a tripod and if your lens was less than a foot long you really didn't get to call yourself a keen photographer.
We also saw Cormorants nesting, these seemed quite happy for us to stand just centimetres away without so much as a squawk. Even Seagulls seem nicely tempered after the turns and left people alone even when they were picnicking close by.
Getting back to the boat involved running the tern gauntlet again, this time we got away without any damage as we moved quickly whilst ducked down to ensure we weren't the tallest targets. We recommend taking a brolly or something else you can hold above your head if you visit. The warden told us that they sometimes draw blood!
We arrived back and after a rest went back to the beach - we took advantage of the empty expanses of sand and played frisbee again. After burning off at least 10 calories we refueled at the Pinnacles fish restaurant -
favourite of the Hairy Bikers - it was a nice old fashioned place and good value. You got a mug of tea, plaice, chips and mushy peas for about £7 a person.
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Ruth
non-member comment
good photos!
Hey Laura Loving the bird photos! Drop me an email when you're back as the one I sent you bounced back? Hope you had good weather. Ruth