Little Auk

Over the past few day's we have had a good few Little Auks passing the Farnes.

I have to say I do love these little birds and they are half the size of Puffins. When some of our guests have seen them they just go ahhh, and for some reason they are right, as they are cute little things. You have to take your hat of to them as they breed on Islands in the high Artic and it makes you think how they survive.

I tried to get a picture of them in flight today but I had no chance, as these little birds can not half motor and with them being so small it makes it even harder, so in the end I gave up. We also had one in the harbour the other morning and that is a first for me.

I have to say the Farnes is a great place and one of the best places in the UK to see these little gems. The Rangers recorded over 4000 yesterday flying north but I think the Farnes holds the record for Little Auks passing in one day at something like 28,000. Now that's alot of birds in one day and I bet they had to go and buy new clickers by the end of it.

Never mind I'm waffleling now here are a few pictures I got the other day.

Just Seals

Not alot to say about this blog but here are some pictures I took the other day from one of our trips. Tomorrow it's all about those Little Auks.

Longstone Lighthouse

Over the last 3 weeks the Longstone Lighthouse has been having a new paint job and she looks mighty fine. The weather has been good to the lads with only a few days of rain. They have also been doing some maintenance on the compressor.

The lads putting the final touches to the Lighthouse and then they will go straight to another Lighthouse. 

The Galasea is a Trinity House vessel and she is some size. She is 84m long with a service speed of 13 knots. She has been changing the Bouys around the area and also filling the Longstone Lighthouse with fuel.
The Lighthouse is automatic but when they do maintenance on the they have a big generator as back up. 

First Little Auk

On Saturday I was near the Longstone Island when I spotted my first Little Auk of the year.

After not seeing them for a long time you tend to forget how small the are and nippy they can be.
Everytime I pick the camera up to take a picture of it, splash it was gone, and as I looked at my pictures tonight I had loads of it rear end as it was taking a dive.

I did eventually got a picture of the little beauty and hopefully this is the first of many to come. Sorry about the pictures as the light was rubbish but then half an hour later the sun came out. Typical.

We have also had a lot of lingering Razorbills, Guillemots and a few Puffins feeding along the shoreline and around the Islands.

Today was just a stunning day and I got some nice pictures of a wintering baby Puffin, Guillemot and a Razorbill.

Bonxie (Great Skua)

On Thursday the weather was beautiful and as we were at the Longstone looking at the seals a Great Skua stopped to pinch some food from a Herring Gull. After its first bill full it decided it wanted a bit more but other gulls were not having any of it. The Great Skua has a name for itself for being aggressive but oh boy the gulls showed how they can look after themselves to. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of the birds fighting as it was so quick but I did manage to get a picture of the Skua and even the seals were looking to see what the hell was going on.

We also have had lots of Waders around the rock edges and they looked beautiful in the sunlight. Here is a Purple Sandpiper in the afternoon sun.

Below is a branded Grey Seal sleeping on the rocks. This seal will appear in another blog later, as I have found more  branded seals and tagged seals this year than I ever have, so watch this space.
 

 

And some lovely Gannets passing through Staple Sound on their way back to Bass Rock.

Pale Artic Skua

We had fresh west winds the other day and as we were steaming back to the harbour we noticed a Pale-phase Artic Skua. At first it would not behave itself and pose for the camera but after a while it played the game and I good few shots of it.   Enjoy.