Islands and Highlands 2 - The Farnes

Pulling into the harbour car park at Seahouses on the Northumberland coast proved a relief on two counts. First a chance to stretch my legs and get some fresh sea air after the long drive from South Wales via a 2.5 hour sleep in Rotherham on the way up. More important was the sight of good weather boding well for a run out to the Farne Isalnds. Buoyed by the Red Bull now flowing through my veins life was looking good.

This hadn't been the plan. I knew I wasn't going to get away early on the Friday night, so I'd decided to tootle my way up on Saturday, then out to the islands on Sunday and Monday. However Chris Grady had headed up on Thursday and relayed the news that the boatmen were wondering about the prospects of getting out over the weekend given the predicted winds. The forecast for Saturday looked ok, hence the overnight run, via Kay's folks.

Historically the Farnes are perhaps best known as the site of the lighthouse where Grace Darling rowed her boat to save some drowning sailors. There's still a lighthouse there, but now the islands seem to make the news because of the opportunities they offer for superb views of nesting seabirds.

Visits are controlled so that one island (Staple) is open in the morning and then Inner Farne in the afternoon, the aim being to minimise the disturbance to the birds. Boat trips include 'all day' trips to both islands, and these were the ones we went for - along with all the other birding paparazzi. If one of those boats went down the insurers would have to bump up the premiums to cover all those lenses.

Although the islands are busier now than when I last went some years ago they still offer a brilliant experience. You get off the boat on Staple straight into a puffin roost, whereas on Inner Farne it's the fun of being dive-bombed by arctic terns, whilst their youngsters scrabble around your feet.

You can get caught up in this and almost neglect the other birds - shags, guillemots, razorbills, sandwich terns, kittiwakes - but you shouldn't, despite the desire to just get that decent puffin flight shot (and no I didn't get it!). Many people missed the ringed plover nesting right next to the path near the jetty, walking straight past - too much to see to be able to look.

Day 2 saw the wind pick up as expected so we were diverted to a landbound day - more of that to come - but we did get out again on the Monday, albeit with a delayed landing on Staple, round the back door, and a heavier dose of cloud.

As I said in the first of these posts I won't laden the blog with dozens of pictures - you can look at the image galleries via the link on the right, but I've included a few more to whet your appetite.

Points of note:

- seabirds seem to have vividly coloured oral mucous membranes (ooh, err missus). Orange for razorbills, red for kittiwakes, yellow for puffins. Why?

- puffins can hold multiple fish like sandeels at the one time. you can see how the jaw hinge is wide to allow for this, but how do they catch them all?

- the puffins run the gauntlet of black-headed or lesser black backed gulls when they come in with their catch, being mobbed or even unceremoniously dumped upside down, but it was amazing how many kept most if not all their catch despite this. Sometimes they would just dive into the nearest burrow to appear cautiously a few minutes later, check the coast was clear and sprint to their own.

- Shags are pretty in close up. Their chicks are from your nightmares!

- terns are fun to watch but tricky to get lit well (must buy a flash) - and I do wish there was some microchip device that prevented the bling having to be used. It really spoils the line of those legs, and I can't yet bring myself to start trying to photoshop the rings out.

- watch where you sit on the boat when the weather is choppy. On our second trip out we were threequarters of the way out when a wave broke fully over a couple on the back corner of the boat. They only had light rain gear on and were pretty soggy. Heading from Staple to Inner Farne they stayed in the same spot - at least they were heading in the opposite direction. Sadly the sea is a fickle master, and incredibly the same thing happened to the same couple in the same spot. No-one else, just them. On the final leg, the trip back to Seahouses they shifted to the other side. You've guessed it. Another drenching, and I got a fit of the giggles. Like a kid. Couldn't stop. They didn't see, fortunately, but I just couldn't help it. Thank God the wind and spray meant my hood was up and my head tucked down. [In the unlikely event you're reading this I'm sorry, although I have to say you both took the drenchings surprisingly well. But seriously you must have pissed off Neptune in a big way some time in the past].

Last point aside - go there. It's great, even if you're not into photography. That's my say on the Farnes over. And I even resisted the temptation to mention the auks and Mordor.

Islands and Highlands 1

It's been a while since my last post, but I can only plead memory problems as the cause. Not that I have forgotten to post, but a trip away left me with so many gigabytes of pictures to sort through that at times it's seemed almost overwhelming!

To those who follow a range of blogs like myself the increasing popularity of the Farne Islands and Bass Rock to folks with wildlife photography as a hobby is all too evident, so I'll post the majority of the pictures on the web album and just a proportion here to illustrate a tale of hits and misses, near-drownings (on board!), grey, grey skies and as Rich Steel so aptly described it 'puffin fever'.

We have cute

cheeky

romantic

action

and horror.

It doesn't end there, with glimpses of Scottish pipers and flying fish.

More to come over the next week - and apologies to those who have seen enough seabirds elsewhere recently to last them a lifetime!

Worts and all

I couldn't resist a trip back to check on my flycatcher family. The good news was that the adults were actively hunting, and clearly feeding chicks. Sadly the nest hadn't transformed into a good site for photography, and the one or two pictures that were even vaguely usable at low resolution didn't show any insects.
A new perch was in use, and more user friendly for snaps. I won't see the family again now, but hopefully all will go well for them. Judging by the vuvuzela hum of insects in the background there should be plenty of food. (I think I nearly mentioned the world cup there - sorry!).

Nearer home I had to look twice at this bird before realising it was a juvenile bullfinch. A first for me.

One surprise near the flycatchers was what I'm believe is a golden-ringed dragonfly. In my minds eye I had never pictured this as a Forest of Dean species - always thought more of upland areas.

Staying on the insect theme in a meadow near home a common blue damselfly

and in the garden a mullein moth caterpillar had decided to leave the mulleins (verbascum) alone, and was tucking into this figwort (balm leaved?) - not a mullein, but same family - Scrophulariaceae, which sounds more like a disease than anything.

A local woodland hosted centaury

and, I think, hairy St John's wort (happy to be corrected on that one, but it seems the best fit - just not over hairy).

Southern Marsh orchid ....

and pyramidal orchid at Newport wetlands - no sign of any bee orchids. Don't know if I'd missed them or they just hadn't shown up this year.

Also at the wetlands self-heal.

And last but not least back to that local meadow (thanks Paul) for a lovely example of a common spotted orchid.

Mine, all mine!

I don't get to spend a lot of time in the field really. It's a bit better at this time of year when I can get in 3 or 4 hours at the weekend before Kay has even stirred, but generally it does mean I tend to pick up a lot of the birds I snap from internet reports (often passing comments) or from tip-offs from friends like Chris Grady (see links to right for an increasingly impressive collection).

However I do find my own birds and this year I have been really pleased to track down a spotted flycatcher nest, as mentioned in a previous post. On Sunday there was a nip in the air despite the sun, and one bird was mainly on the nest - I'm not sure it would still be incubating, but there wasn't an awful lot of feeding activity going on. I did find a feeding site though and although it didn't seem to be the most favoured it was reasonably lit, enabling me to grab a few shots. So often the Forest is surprisingly dark.

Although the first impression is of a slightly drab little thing they have a real appeal if you watch them - dainty and nimble (if you can apply that to a bird?). Didn't get the 'insects in the beak' shot, but maybe I'll get another go when they are feeding more actively.

As always better quality versions of the shots in the web albums HERE

A bit late to start, but worth a go

I thought I'd probably blown my chance of snapping the woodland migrants this year - except maybe the spotted flycatchers, but that nest isn't at all well sited for photography. However a tip about a pair of redstarts led me to the Forest and a fun few hours trying to get them in camera range - the female (not brightly coloured, but very cute) was already primed, the male took a bit longer to join in. As the nest was way up in a tree there was never going to be a chance to catch them by finding a favoured branch near the nest hole, so the pictures are largely at ground level, and not so pretty as these by Steve Round . Still I like them enough, even though as Chris G pointed out they are looking a little bit the worse for wear (he looks at pictures with a more forensic eye than I do - I'll learn in time!). All that feeding takes it's toll.

Meanwhile on returning home I found the forest had come to our garden in the shape of a male and juvenile great spotted woodpecker. Despite it's size the male was still carefully breaking up food for the youngster. We've since heard the female was doing the same in a neighbours garden. Not great quality pic's - handheld in lowish light. I knew that 'post' would provide a photo-opportunity of some kind in the end!

As always some better resolution versions of the pictures HERE