Monday 28th June: The Farne Isles

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 Today we were booked onto a 3 hour boat trip to the Farne Islands, departing at 9.30 am. We were a bit concerned on waking to see the bay was thick with a sea fret, and feared the trip would be cancelled. Fortunately, by the time we were due to sail the sun was pushing though and it transformed into a glorious morning with calm seas and blue skies.

This truly was an amazing trip, which definitely had the ‘wow’ factor. We had barely left the harbour before  we were seeing our first Guillemots floating on the sea, and then, my first sighting of a Puffin with multi coloured bill. Seeing a Puffin was the reason we booked this trip to Northumberland, so I was thrilled to finally encounter these delightful birds. They were less tolerant of the boat than the Guillemots, frustratingly either diving or flying away as we approached, but we had excellent sight views and also good binocular views, including the classic mouth full of sand eels. They were highly entertaining to watch, pedalling on the water as they took off with red feet trailing behind as they flew off with wings whirring away like a clockwork toy. 

Puffin!

The sea was soon full of auks, with a few Razorbills interspersed amongst the many Guillemots and Puffins. We were excited to see such close views of these birds, but this paled into insignificance as we approached the islands and encountered cliff faces literally covered in birds, an assault of the senses with the barking calls of thousands of birds and the overwhelming scent of their guava permeating the air. Perhaps this was the only advantage of having to wear a face mask for the entire journey!



It was interesting to see how the Kittiwakes, Guillemots and Razorbills all nested together on the ledges, whereas in other locations this has not been the case. Some Shags were also on the islands, another new tick for the year. The Puffins were lined up on sentry duty at the top of the cliffs, where their burrows are located. In another area, both Common and Arctic Terns were circling the air and resting on the island, presumably on nesting sites. 


Shag


Guillemot and Chick


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