Goodbye Puffins

Saying goodbye is always hard, but it’s even harder saying goodbye to our beloved puffins that we have enjoyed watching so much this season.

However, this bittersweet feeling comes with a big smile as we have seen this amazing seabird mastering the daily challenges present in their colony life and meeting their achievement of raising their puffling (a puffin chick) successfully. It sure has been a good year for them.

A handful of our tommy noddies (how puffins are known locally) are still around the islands bringing food to the last of the chicks to rear, while bigger numbers have been spotted in small rafts of 5 to 20 puffins on the water. A sign that their winter migration to the north Atlantic has started. 

Therefore, the open ocean becomes the puffins’ home for the following 7 months of the year, where they live a solitary life and lose some of the bright colours on their beak, except for the distinctive orange colour in their beak and feet.

 In regard to the pufflings, it is goodbye for a longer time, as these strong chicks will spend around 2 to 3 years on the sea learning essential skills to survive. Hopefully they will return to the Farne islands, so we can welcome them home, while enjoying and sharing a close experience with the ‘clown’ of our seas.

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OVER AND OUT

Pufflings are a coming

While we were on a trip around the islands the other we spotted a Puffin with sandeels in it's bill on the edge of the cliff face at Staple Island. I got myself all excited as I knew that if we saw a Puffin with sandeels then there had to be a Puffling or Pufflings down the burrows. Yes it's a great name for a puffin chick don't you think.
Anyway this is exciting news and this will put a smile on all the photographers who just love to get that perfect picture with sandeels on the Puffins bill. I was really pleased that I saw the Puffin but while we were steaming across to the Longstone Island I realized that even though its great to see, it will not be long before they are all gone and then we will have to wait another year to see them again. It's not until then you realize how short the breeding season actually is and how important it is to the seabirds around the Farnes and other parts of the country that everything has to go to plan. No gales, No flash floods, No big seas etc etc... The more I think about the life of a seabird around the Farnes the more I have to take my hat of to them. They have to put up with some dreadful weather just to bring a young chick into this world and then they are gone until the next year and they do the same thing again.
This is why we should all enjoy the wonderful Farne Islands for it's beauty and wildlife and not throw plastic or any kind of rubbish into our seas but give a little respect to the seabird and they will produce young every year for everyone to enjoy, and that goes to all aspects of wildlife. Rubbish is not the only season but lots of other factors too, but if we can do our little bit to help then that would be great.
Sorry I have gone on a bit of a rant, but we all love wildlife, but to often we forget, so for now just lets enjoy them while they are here.
 A few pictures of the Puffins and a few Pufflings and some of them Black-headed Gulls trying to steel the sandeels from the Puffins.

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Thanks for reading 

Whit Week

Whit week is finally over and all the kids have back to school and it's been a bit of mixed week once again. Some day's it's been beautiful and others not, but we have been able to get out everyday which is the main thing and we have some lovely guests on board the boat too.
Some people have seen what the islands have to offer and other have never been before, but it does not matter if you have been there and done it or never seen the wildlife before they are still blow away by the thousands of seabirds and it's beauty. I still get the same buzz every year and it never becomes boring at all.

We have seen a good few Gannets passing through the islands, our first Guillemot chicks hatching, Puffins with sandeels, Kittiwakes on eggs and a pair of our resident Merganser's  together on the Inner Farne. The Arcric Terns are really attacking everyone that now lands on the Inner Farne and a few of them have laid their eggs right in the middle of the walk way, so please be careful were you put your feet as you go around. Black-headed Gull chicks are arriving every day and loads of Shag chicks and all different sizes too. Boy it's all happening now and long may it last.

The next few weeks is all go for the rangers as it will not be long before they start their counts, so it will be early mornings and late nights but it will all be worth it at the end of the season. In the mean time we will have our fingers crossed for settled weather, calm seas and hopefully some sunshine.

In the mean time here is a selection of pictures to wet your appetite....

 

Young Shag chicks and they are the ugly SHAGling really

Some bigger Shag chicks being feed

This one is defiantly greedy

Kittiwakes with eggs 

First Jumpling (Guillemot chick)

Arctic Tern with a lunch for it's young one

 

 

Black-headed gull with chick

 

Black-headed gulls trying to steel the Puffins sandeels

and successfully doing so

I've got my eye on you.

 

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Baby Puffin (Pufflings)

As the breeding season has finished I wanted to say farewell to the Puffins this year as they had a dreadful start to the season last year with all the rain and the winter was no better. We had big seas, strong winds and by the time they arrived for the breeding season alot of the Puffins did not make it because they were so exhausted. The seas were brown from being churned up all the time so they could not even see through the water to get some food.  The beaches along the east coast were covered in Puffins and and I remember a walk along the beach one day produced 30+ Puffins. However the weather changed and all our seabirds seemed to fluff their feathers and get on with it.

Yes the season was late this year but nature is an amazing thing and they seemed to pull things around. The weather did help and the Farnes is lucky to have huge amount of sandeels which is a wonderful source of food for every seabird, not including Porpoise, Whales and Dolphins and we have had lots and lots of Mackerel this year which is an extra bonus.

The Rangers have done their Puffin count and this is done every 5 years and the Puffin count rose by 8% which is fantastic. The final figure was 39,962 breeding pairs.

We also had a Puffin Cam this year which all the visitors have really enjoyed.

Anyway I was lucky enough to be given some great pictures from Ciaran one of the Rangers of Pufflings growing up and then eventually leaving the Islands, so I have decided to share them with you.

Well done to the Rangers for all their hard work this season as it has been a mad one, but don't worry everyone as this is not the end yet as more twists and turns will come no doubt, but I will leave you with those Puffling pictures.

Huffing and Puffling

When I came down to the boat the other morning I was greeted by a Baby Puffin (Puffling) on the deck of the boat. I was gob smacked it was even there and what on earth was it doing on the boat. I know they are attracted by light and sound but the engines were off, I don't have any flood lights on the boat, so how the hell did it get there.

Before I started to ask questions I put it in the wheelhouse to keep it safe.

On the pier I saw the harbour master and asked him if the harbour office light was on last night. He said no but his assistant said that he was out for a walk and there was lots of noise coming from the harbour office area. He decided to investigate and when he arrived there was a few teenagers playing music quite load and he also noticed the flood light above the harbour office was on, so he turned it off.

Now this could the the answer I was looking for but why my boat? Why was it even on the boat to start with. To be honest I don't have a clue but they are lovely to see, so we decided to take it back out to the open sea.

As we got a bit further out from the harbour we had a look around to see if their were any gulls around and the coast was clear, so we let it go.

Boy oh boy was he happy to be away. Not even a glance back to say thank you.

 

A few day's before that we saw a seal playing with a lobster pot bouy and we just pointed it out the the guests as they do this quite a lot. 

After we had been to see the seals at the Longstone Island we noticed that the seal was totally wrapped up in rope and his head was under the water. We moved the boat close to the seal and it was drowning so we grabbed the rope and pulled the seal towards the boat. A gentleman on the boat helped me by holding the rope while I pulled the rest of the rope of its neck. After a lot growls and a few attempts to bite me it shot of but yet again not even a little look back to say thank you. 

Oh well at least he lived and that's what its all about.

   

The seal and myself were doing the huffing and puffing and the puffling was just being cute. 

Saying that the Puffling can still give a good nip but I'm glad the seal didn't bite.