Sea birds on Staple Island 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 .
Sea stacks with shag, kittiwake, guillemot, puffin and razorbill
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 to hear from childhood. There is bizarre clicking and burping from the shags that we try to catch on video, watching closely to see how the sound is made.
Foraging shags and pair bonding is beguiling. Birds 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. Some have fledglings, reptilian looking creatures. And sometimes eggs peep from beneath the brooding bird. 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. Birds 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. Some have fledglings, reptilian looking creatures. And sometimes eggs peep from beneath the brooding bird. 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.
Top left to right: shag brings an offering of weed to its partner as nest material. Fresh foliage adorns a shag nest. Blue nylon rope introduced to a shag nest. The blue nylon rope that asks us not to walk on those lichen rocks.
Caption top left to right: sea stacks with sea bird colonies. Nesting shag, with eggs. Close-ups of shag, showing the green eye, the yellow gape and the yellow skin of the throat, black-flecked. Images of Arctic tern, plumage translucent in sunlight. And an eider drake.
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.
As visitor numbers to the Farnes has increased, so site designation has changed to recognise international importance. Visitor management is key. I’m revelling in the Farne Islands and reflecting on this balance: site designation and the protection it affords wildlife, visitor management. This has been and continues to be my theme, in my concern for Scout Scar and in exploring how all this takes effect in locations across Cumbria.
Taking photographs and video, I come home with the sound of the sea and the cries of sea birds to remind me of a very special experience.
As visitor numbers to the Farnes has increased, so site designation has changed to recognise international importance. Visitor management is key. I’m revelling in the Farne Islands and reflecting on this balance: site designation and the protection it affords wildlife, visitor management. This has been and continues to be my theme, in my concern for Scout Scar and in exploring how all this takes effect in locations across Cumbria.
Taking photographs and video, I come home with the sound of the sea and the cries of sea birds to remind me of a very special experience.
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