Razorbill To the Farne Islands sea bird sanctuary on a perfect day. At Seahouses, we board The Glad Tidings bound for Staple Island and Inner Farne. Billy Shiel has a fleet of boats and we choose 'a day for ornithologists and photographers’ and everyone climbs aboard bearing binoculars, cameras and tripods. A week later and Iolo Williams and the Spring Watch team cannot film on Farne because weather has deteriorated and it’s wild in the North Sea .
The Glad Tidings approaches Staple Island and serried ranks of sea birds throng the cliffs, outlined in a frieze against a blue sky. Cliff and sea stacks are draped with guano brilliant in the sunlight, an impasto on rocks daubed with a fresh coating each spring from thousands of sea birds. The spectacle is overwhelming in scale and detail. Sensational sea birds. The first impression is the reek of guano and cries raucous and shrill. There’s the distinctive call of the kittiwake I’ve loved from childhood. There's bizarre clicking and burping from shags we try to catch on video, watching closely to see how the sound is made.
Foraging shags and pair bonding is beguiling. Shags fly in bearing swags of seaweed as offerings to mates who weave it all into the fabric of their nests: sea-weed, sea campion, blue rope and an unwieldy chair leg. To keep us safe steel cable is anchored above the cliff, staked with metal posts. It protects us from the vertiginous drop as we peer down the cliff face. Shags nest almost beneath the cable, right at our feet. Sometimes eggs peep from beneath the brooding bird. Some have fledglings, reptilian looking creatures. There are parties of school children wholly engrossed in the sea-birds, as we are. I bet they’ll remember this day. I know I will.
Foraging shags and pair bonding is beguiling. Shags fly in bearing swags of seaweed as offerings to mates who weave it all into the fabric of their nests: sea-weed, sea campion, blue rope and an unwieldy chair leg. To keep us safe steel cable is anchored above the cliff, staked with metal posts. It protects us from the vertiginous drop as we peer down the cliff face. Shags nest almost beneath the cable, right at our feet. Sometimes eggs peep from beneath the brooding bird. Some have fledglings, reptilian looking creatures. There are parties of school children wholly engrossed in the sea-birds, as we are. I bet they’ll remember this day. I know I will.
Shag have piercing green eyes. In strong sunlight the green sheen of their plumage is visible, with delicate dark feather-edges on the mantle. In spring, the adult has a crest of feathers. During the breeding season the proximity of these seabirds leads to fights breaking out. There's a noisy and rough battle between shag.
Arctic tern has the longest migration, a round trip of 56.650 miles when they leave the Farnes in July to arrive in Antarctica in November and back to their northern breeding grounds in spring. This slender tern has translucent wings with a dark fringe and tail streamers extend beyond the wing tips. 2,000 pairs bred on the Farnes in 2016, clamorous birds that lay their eggs on sandy ground and dive at anyone who strays too close, stabbing with blood-red bill.
Seabirds have a winter of solitude out at sea and a tight-packed sharing of sea-cliffs on which colonies breed. And what a contrast for Saint Cuthbert when he lived on Inner Farne as a hermit in the 8th century. He had thousands of seabirds for company during the spring and ten winters of solitude and wild weather.
Seabirds have a winter of solitude out at sea and a tight-packed sharing of sea-cliffs on which colonies breed. And what a contrast for Saint Cuthbert when he lived on Inner Farne as a hermit in the 8th century. He had thousands of seabirds for company during the spring and ten winters of solitude and wild weather.
The National Trust has rangers welcoming visitors, mingling with us and happy to tell us all about the sea bird colonies. Managing increasing numbers of visitors is inherent in a welcome. A sea bird sanctuary is their place, it belongs to the birds, and there are expectations of us visitors. The warden and rangers share the sea bird experience with us, always alert to the needs of the resident sea bird colonies. Blue ropes show us where we may walk, and indicate where we do not have access.
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