Mothers Day Aurora

How fitting was it to have a truly wonderful aurora on mother's day. My brother and I lost our mam a few months ago and this was the first mother's day without her, so it was beautiful to see mother's nature light up the skies not only for my mam but all the mam's out there.

I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

A Mixed Week.

On Thursday there was an old converted  dutch barge moored at the islands. She was called The Spirit of Loch Ness and was built in 1930. She looked well for her age. I found out that she has been working as a Luxury Hotel for the last 10 years in the Caledonian Canal.

The day itself was very overcast but every now and then the sun tried to get out. I got some nice pictures of the sun trying to break through over Bamburgh Castle.

On Friday it was very quite and it looked as it was going to rain but it held off. I was pleased it did as we had a Charity Doo up to Holy Island for a few hours. Well they were all on the drink for a few hours. While they were at the pub I went for a walk around the Island. The light was not the best but I did manage to get some nice pictures of Juvenile Goldfinch and Swallows.

On Saturday it was overcast again but with showers. You can tell everyone was heading home after the summer holidays as it was dead. On our last trip it just started to rain when we noticed 3 Harbour Porpoise on the way home. The rain was a problem but all of a sudden when we seen the Porpoise the guests seem to forget about it. We watched them for about 15 minutes before heading home. It was the first time for while we had them really close, plus I switched the engines off as they are very shy and I wanted to see if they would hang around a little longer. It worked for a little bit but they were feeding so it was not long before they were off catching fish again.

On Sunday it was just amazing. The seas were flat calm and the sun was out to play. It was about the best day of the year. I heard over the VHF that 4 Minke Whales were spotted of Beadnell and I had my fingers crossed that they would head towards the Islands. I gave David Steel (The Head Warden) a shout and he went up to the top of the Pele Tower to have a look. I laughed at first but then I heard that he had a new scope. When he told me he seen them about 2 miles of Beadnell Point I just thought WOW, that must be some scope. He also said that he would be surprised if they came up to the Islands as there were boats chasing them around. Sure enough they disappeared.

Today it was beautiful to start but by the end of the day we had very heavy showers. Keith spotted a Peregrine on Staple Island. I grabbed the camera as 2 Great Black-backed Gulls were chasing it. Only got one picture but I was pleased with it as I could hardly keep up with it.

We should start to see a few birds of prey throughout the rest of the year now. Longstone Island seems to be the place for the birds at the moment and the Golden Plovers count is up to 900 now. I'm also looking forward to our 4 hour winter trips soon, and it will not be long before we will see our first Grey Seal Pups so hopefully I will see enough to write about over the Autumn and Winter.

Sunset Cruise 5/8/2011

Just some lovely pictures from our Sunset Cruise tonight. Thank you to everyone for joining me tonight.

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.