Inside the Circle Day 7 Part 1 - Puffin Fever

As I made the two hour drive north, I started to repeat the mantra 'ignore the puffins, ignore the puffins'. I wasn't suffering from to much northern daylight but was traveling to catch the 9am boat from Vardo to the sea bird colonies on Hornoya Island. The mantra repeating continued,to try ward off 'Puffin Fever' on landing, as I took the ten minute inflatable boat journey across a calm but dark sea. 'Puffin Fever' is a common affliction of photographers visiting sea bird colonies and has the main symptom of becoming completely absorbed in photographing these charismatic and colourful birds. The danger of the 'fever' is that it is painless and enjoyable and results in an absence of photos of the other wonderful seabirds present. All my target species were decidedly non-puffin.

On landing I took the path to the south which skirts round and upwards to the lighthouse. It turned in to a bit of hike. On reaching the top there were a few puffins on ledges just over the cliff edge. Razorbill were the only other species on offer and I resisted the pull of the 'fever' and took a few photographs.

It was at this point I made the mistake of thinking it would do no harm and may ward off the 'fever' just to take a couple of puffin photographs before I went off around the other side of the island to search for my target species.

As I made my way back around the island fully loaded with camera kit I came to a long flight of wooden stairs. I stepped on to the first step at the top only to see my legs suddenly appear from underneath me and horizontally in front of me. I am not sure how but I manage to stop the fall about three steps further down. If I hadn't it would of been messy, a lucky escape from serious injury.

When I reached the far side of the island and to the base of a high vertical it became quickly obvious that my target species were high up on the cliff face and out of camera range. Meanwhile hundreds of puffins were streaming in around me from the sea and the 'fever' took hold. I thought I would try something I had want to do for a while which was take a couple of photographs using a wide angle lens to get images of birds in the landscape. I had forgotten how close you have to get to your subject with a 24-70mm lens as I crawled up the side of an enormous boulder to a bird perched on the top. The bird standing proud over its offshore domain.

As the sun broke through the overcast sky all I could see everywhere was puffins as the 'fever' had firmly taken its grip. I thought I would take some flight photos given the sun was showing but the skies were still a grey-white which was not going to make for an attractive background. So as an alternative I thought I would use the vertical cliff as a backdrop to the passing puffins. The side lighting from the sun was not ideal and made for some difficult camera exposure settings but had the benefit of adding a bit of drama to the images and a dark background from the cliff-face.

Before walking away to see what else I could find, I noticed some back-lit puffins which deserved some attention as their beaks appeared to be really glowing.

It then started to rain and the back-lighting through the falling water created a magical scene.

Fortunately the falling rain extinguished the 'fever' and it was now time to see what else the island had to offer but that will have to wait until the next blog post.

Seabird Safari - Part 3

I had the best of intentions as I stepped of the boat on to the small concrete land stage of Staple Island, with some thoughts of the photos that I wanted to get. However, as soon I arrived at the top of the short path from the boat and caught the sight of puffins at close range the plans quickly dissolved away and 'puffin fever' took over. They are such photogenic birds and very distracting.

In fact they are distracting to the point that I actually photographed little else during the short time on Staple Island.

I did a few flight photographs but the light was awkward.

So in the end I decided on taking some portraits. These two birds made for a colourful dispute.

I am a big fan of the 'over the shoulder look portrait' and it suits puffins particularly well.

To finish off this festival of all things puffin, one particular bird came in with a very full beak of fish and landed at close range and sat their looking a little bemused for about 10 minutes which allowed plenty of time to get some full frame head photographs.

The short time on Staple Island was cut short by 30 minutes by an increasing swell and rapidly moving tide. The next destination was Inner Farne Island for which I had a well formed plan from which no puffin was going to distract me.

Seabird Safari - Part 2

There were some glum faces sat around the breakfast table as the rain fell heavily outside. Surely we were not going to be hit with poor weather for the second year running, following the mists of last year. Fortunately soon after leaving the harbour quay the rain stopped and the skies started to clear as we headed out towards Staple Island. As usual I was on the look out for any passing birds as we were shipped out to the island but the combination of a crowded rocking boat and fast moving sea birds is never an easy combination. I did manage to get a photograph of a passing gannet. I love they way they skim the water when flying out at sea.

The boat paused briefly to check out some grey seas that had hauled themselves up on to a small area of exposed rocks. They are so much easier to photograph than the birds.

We then went onwards to Staple Island, which I put in the third installment, but had to leave early due to a swell that was developing and fast tidal currents. This meant that the boat had to motor around for about 1.5 hours before we could make the landing on Inner Farne Island. A cormorant drying out its feathers after a fishing expedition.

Another cormorant surfaced at the base of the cliffs with what initally looked like a wrasse but turned out to be a fish known as a Lumpsucker. I always thought these fish were a grey / brown colour.

The smaller and greener Shag were also present perched along the base of the low cliffs.

The light suddenly became very harsh which is probably the worst conditions for trying to photograph kittiwakes, that were nesting along narrow ledges on the cliff face.

To finish off this post in one area where the boat stopped briefly there were a small number of puffins perched along the cliff top, This bird was in the process of jumping between rocks.

BBC Countryfile Photographic Competition

I decided to enter the BBC Countryfile Photographic Competition this year which had the theme of 'animals in action'. This is a very popular competition which has the prize of the 12 finalists being used to create a calender to raise money for Children in Need. You could enter 4 photographs and I was going to enter four hare shots but at the last minute decided to enter 3 hares and a puffin. A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by the BBC and informed that the puffin photo had been selected by the judges as one of the final 12. The puffin shot entered is below.
Having announced the final 12 there was then a week of public telephone voting to decide the overall winner. As I heard nothing for a couple of days after the phone lines had closed, I assumed that someone else had won. However, unbeknown to me there was all kinds of secret plotting going on in the background, the first of which I knew about it was when a film crew burst into a meeting I was having at work. The surprise was further compounded by having my parents, my better half and some family waiting outside the door. I was then whisked away by the film crew to the local area of coast to record some further footage. The programme went out last Sunday and can be viewed for the next seven days on BBC iplayer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search/?uri=%2Fiplayer%2F&go=toolbar&q=countryfile

The bit of the programme with my appearance starts at 44 minutes and 20 seconds into the programme.

So I would like to finish this post by thanking all the people who made the BBC visit such a surprise and pleasant day, to the judges for selecting the photo, to the public for voting for it, to my parents for making the long trip north but most of all to my better half , Dawn, for putting up with all those early mornings when I creep out of the house.

The calender can be purchased online from the following:

https://www.hcsonline.co.uk/countryfile2009/home/index.asp

Heading North For Seabirds - Boat Journey and Staple Island Puffins

I never sleep well the first night in a new place and so was up at 6a.m and decided to do a quick lap of the harbour before breakfast. The sun was shining but eastward out over the Farne Islands, hung a grey low bank of mist which was slowly approaching. By the time we set sail the mist had enveloped the Seahouses harbour. Give me sun, wind, rain or snow but mist is probably the worst for photography. The boat took its usual route out around the islands but the only photography possible was of some lounging grey seals.We were duly depoisted on Staple Island for 2 hours. A more comfortable landing than Inner Farne Island with the absence of Arctic Tern attacks. Plenty of puffins, guillimots, fulmar, razorbill, shag and kittiwake to choose from. I mainly concentrated on the puffins as potraits seemed a better option than flight shots under the conditions.

A warm welcome to Staple Island.

Always good fun to photograph.

Large numbers of puffins were flying in either with nesting material or sandeels to feed young. Despite conditions being far from ideal for flight photography I couldn't resist.Another clump of nest material heading for a burrow.

For the next installment I will show some other birds that can be found on Staple Island before heading over to the photographs from Inner Farne Island.

Seabird Tour - Shags and Puffins

The next birds that we came across on the island were the shags, kittiwake and razorbill on the ledges. By this time the sun was out full strength and the light quite harsh.

I finshed off on the island doing some Puffin portraits before dashing back to catch the boat. An enjoyable ending to the trip.

Seabird Tour - Sandwich Tern and Puffin

On reaching the top of the island the path past a Sandwich Tern colony and I spent a while trying to get some shots of them.

Looking for the right place to land

They are a graceful sight when flying. While trying to get some shots of them I noticed I seemed to be in-line with a puffin flying route with a constant stream of birds flying towards and past me. Many of the birds were carrying beaks full of sandeels. I always forget what small birds and fast fliers puffins are.

I became so adsorbed in the terns and puffins that before I knew it and hour had already passed and I had only managed to get about 300 metres from the landing jetty!!! It was time to see what else the island offered.