Well now, the only time I’ve been to the Farnes out of season before has been courtesy of William Shiel (of Billy Shiel boat operators) one Christmas Eve to get shots of the newborn grey seals. That day, after literally months of watching the weather, I was delighted to eventually get out to see the wildlife of the Farne Islands in its full grey-seal pupping glory. Having said that, I pretty much ignored all other wildlife out there and concentrated on the seals. That was appropriate for that day, but I missed out on all the other stuff that happens out on the Farnes in autumn and winter.
Fast forward to today and, courtesy of Serenity Boat Tours‘ Andrew Douglas, I had a tour round the islands to look at birds and seals. On board was naturalist Keith of Wild About Northumberland. Keith’s ability to spot birds just from their flight pattern was amazing and he and Andrew entertained us throughout the trip. I thought I knew a bit about the Farne Islands, but this out of season trip enhanced my knowledge to the point where I realised I wanted to keep returning out of season to get pictures and information for the second edition of the book.
Today we saw:
- Grey seals
- Great skua (there were other skuas, but I missed them – D’oh)
- Red-throated and great northern divers
- Peregrine falcon
- Merlin
- Gannet
- Puffin (yes, there was one out there!)
- Guillemot
- Eider duck
- Shag
- Fieldfare
- Brambling
- Blackbird
- Turnstone
- Oystercatcher
- Great black-backed gull
- Herring gull
Ellie Harrison was also filming the seals for BBC Countryfile. This is THE time to see the seals at the Farne Islands, so it’s worth a visit if you can get there. The Countryfile programme will be out on 30 Oct.
I’m afraid my pictures of the skua, divers and birds of prey are strictly record shots (i.e. rubbish!), but here are a selection of pics that were ok:
