Holy Island Tour

When we do our Holy Island Trip we have to work the tides so their is enough water to get the boat into the harbour. As our dates are set for the year we always pray that its good weather. So on Sunday afternoon we had a trip bound for Holy Island for a few hours and it was just beautiful. I love to go up to Holy Island as I can get a chance for a bit of bird watching myself.

About half an hour before we were due to leave the fog came rolling in, and after a scorching hot day and flat calm seas I could not believe what I was seeing. The problem with the Farne Islands sometimes is the Dolerite Rock, with the hot sun on the cold rock it sometimes produces the fog, which is a real pain as you can go south to Beadnell and it will be beautiful, so after debating on whether to go ahead with the trip I quickly phoned a friend on Holy Island to see if they had fog up their to. 

As I put the phone down I gave it the thumbs up as it was all clear up there. 

We left the harbour and headed towards the Inner Farne and it was still thick fog. After chatting to the guests about the birds and the Inner Farne we steamed up to the Megstone to see the seals. We had only got a few hundred yards away from the islands when it started to clear. It was a bit surreal as the fog was just on the bottom and the top of the island was clear.

   

After arriving on Holy Island we went for a little wonder around. We never saw anything to shout about but as we headed back to the boat we saw 4 Ringed-Plover chicks. They were cute little things and I was surprised on how well they blended in with the pebbles on the beach.

Ringed Plover chick hiding beside the pebbles.

Standing Tall.

After leaving the jetty we cruised towards Black Law Rock. As we approached the rock we encountered 22 Female Red Breasted Mergansers and 2 Males, a Seal, 12 Cormorants, loads of Arctic Terns and over a thousand Eider Ducks. Alot of the Eider Ducks we going through the colour change which looks quite nice but also a bit weird.

After leaving we steamed towards Stag Rock in the hope we would see some Harbour Porpoises but no such luck. The only thing we saw was some big waves crashing upon the shore but it gave me some nice pictures from the seaward side of Stag Rock and Bamburgh Castle.