The Farne Islands are an amazing birding destination where close views can be had of cliffs heaving with sea birds, including the lovely PUFFIN. Sea birds are a British speciality with this country holding internationally important numbers of birds throughout the summer months. The Farne Islands are particularly important for these birds, forming an important habitat that holds thousands of birds.
GUILLEMOT
The way to view the islands is from specially chartered boats, run from Seahouses by Billy Shiels. Its not cheap, an all day ticket costs £75, for the boat and admittance onto the islands. The National Trust owns the islands and they do charge you for it, but its a price worth paying to help look after this special place, and to experience the amazing spectacle. There are two groups to the islands, one further out, one further in, and the boats would land on one island from each group, Staple Island and Inner Farne.
PUFFINS inhabited the grassier areas of the island
The trip is an all day one taking around five hours with disembarkation on two islands. As the boat left the harbour there weren't too many birds around, just the odd auk as the boat went out but as we approached the Farnes more birds were seen, until we arrived in their vicinity and the place was heaving, birds on the cliffs, birds on the sea.
It takes about half an hour for the boat to reach the furthest island, Staple Island, with another half an hour spent touring round it. The sea cliffs are choc-a-bloc full of birds, with thousands of birds crammed fully into them. It really is a feast of the senses, the sight, the sounds of all those birds, and the smell of the guano, the putrid reek of bird droppings which hits you over the waves.
SHAG
There were several GREY SEALS resting on the rocky shore. They live here in their thousands, but the choppiness of the water, up and down, made it difficult to get a picture, but for the birds there was an easier way.
PUFFINS with KITTIWAKE
The boat disembarked on Staple Island, at a little jetty and then a set of stairs dug into the cliff side led onto the island top which formed a plateau. This plateau was rocky like a lunar scape, with the visiting humans kept in the centre whilst the birds where protected by roped off areas around the edges of the island.
A squawking KITTIWAKE
We had two and a half hours on the island, which seemed a lot, but when you covered the entire island felt just about right. There was just so much to photograph, so many birds doing different things to witness. The birds were absolutely everywhere, inhabiting every nook and cranny, except the areas where human access was allowed.
View of a cliff giving a scale of the sheer numbers of birds
Rather than photograph everything some bird watchers just took one area and spent all their time in one place. I preferred to explore the area, but the area humans had access to was quite small.
A pair of SHAGS
They would nest nearest to the ropes and humans and would hiss when any photographers got too close.
GUILLEMOT with KITTIWAKES
The GUILLEMOTS made up the numbers, there were tens of thousands of them. They held a tiny fraction of territory, on the cliffs, pressed into the cliff face where they incubated their eggs.
What everyone comes to the Farnes for is the PUFFINS. They were more common on Inner Farne, but Staple Island held decent numbers. They inhabited the more grassy areas which were off limits to most photographers. Those grassy areas were where the puffins could create burrows to raise their young, they aren't a cliff ledge species.
SHAG with material to line their nest
Other species included the RAZORBILL which was like the GUILLEMOT, but had a much thicker bill, and had an all black plumage compared to the brown of the GUILLEMOT.
There were plenty of KITTIWAKES on the cliff ledge, our only true "sea" gull, a bird that spends all its time out in the brine, their presence on these sea cliffs make them our most numerous gull. They are a fairly plain looking bird, your typical "gull", their main ID points are an all yellow bill, a clean head with an obvious black eye, and black tips to their wing.
There were a few FULMARS about, they are unmistakable in flight as they don't bend their wings, they have this strange flapping motion. They look like gulls but are completely unrelated.
Also on the island were a pair of ROCK PIPITS and PIED WAGTAILS, the only small birds on the islands. There was also a female EIDER with young ducklings.
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