Seabird Safari - Part 1

At the beginning of this week I headed up to the North-East of England to photograph some sea birds with my friends Steve and Austin. The original intention was a day on the Farnes Islands followed by a visit to Bass Rock on the second day. I will post the resulting photographs over a few posts.

The journey up was a bit tortuous as we decided to go via the Yorkshire Dales to see if any curlew were around on the moorland but having gone up a month later this year they had already disappeared.

First stop on arrival at Seahouses was to check the harbour and beach for Eider Duck. The sun was beaming as we got out the car but soon disappeared.

Given that we were later this year, as we normally visit in early June, the males had dispersed with only one male bird in eclipse plumage drifting around the outer harbour but there were plenty of females and young around. Eider are one of my favourite ducks with the bold monochrome of the males and the intricate patterns of the females. A few photographs to start of the birds resting on the seaweed covered foreshore

Paddling around the harbour area

There were various young eider at different stages of growth, this being one of the smaller ones.

After the harbour we took a walk south to an area of low lying cliff where rock pipit, sand martin, kittiwake and fulmar are present. I decided to concentrate most of my efforts there on the Rock Pipits.

and calling or prehaps more accurately 'pipping'

By this time the rain clouds were gathering fast so it was time to be a rapid rapid retreat towards the hotel.

Birds of Rock and Snow

A couple of weeks back there were two male snow bunting being reported at Rhos-on Sea in North Wales and so I decided to take a trip over to see them before they disappeared back up to their upland breeding areas. We tend to get a few snow bunting appearing round the local coast each winter, feeding on the seeds washed up along the tide line. On arrival my attention was immediately drawn away from the attractive snow bunting to a rock pipit there was going through singing display flights over the rocky shore. We seldom get these on my local coast so thought I would take the opportunity for a couple of photos.

However, my attention was quickly diverted back to the male buntings

The birds were looking great and changing into their black and white summer plumage.

All too soon the brief session was over and it was time to leave. My trip had been well timed as the birds had been in that spot for around 2 weeks and disappeared two days after my visit. Luck always plays its part in wildlife photography.

Heading North for Seabirds - The Journey and Seahouses

Last week my friend Steve and I headed north-eastwards for a couple of days seabird photography. I am still processing images so the trip will be spread over several posts. Our first destination was Seahouses in Northumbria for a trip over to the Farne ISlands. We decided on the drive up to head across the North Yorkshire Dales to see if there were any curlew or red grouse to be found en route. We found both and stopped briefly to photograph some curlew in flight.

Continuing our journey, we arrived in Seahouses in the early evening, booked into the accomodation and headed straight to the harbour for a short session with the Eider that reside there.

The drake Eider
and some junior Eider

We also took a short walk south from the town and found a low cliff with Kittiwake, Fulmar, Sand Martin and Rock Pipit.

Kittiwake on one of their precarious nests

and Rock Pipit that was gathering seaweed maggots to feed young.

We decided to call it a day and headed back to the accomodation charge the batteries and sort out the kit for the following day's trip out to the Farne Islands, hoping the weather would be kind.

Seabird Tour - Seahouses Eider

We arrived at Seahouses late and headed straight to the harbour to see if there were any Eider around. These birds are very approachable especially if your carrying a loaf of bread. The light was poor andso we only took a few shots before heading to the hotel. We woke the next morning to heavy mist at Seahouses but it appeared to be slowly clearing. The boat out to the Farne Islands was rescheduled for a noon depature with the Staple Island landing cancelled. This gave us some time to take some more Eider shots.

Some photos of the female first

The males were a difficult bird to photograph and get a good exposure on both the black and whites.
A group of ducklings also appeared on the beach complete with personal Eider down.
A look a few moments also to try some shots of Rock Pipit that were using the beach.