We recently spent two weeks in the UK for a holiday, which unsurprisingly included a few birding trips.

Our first expedition took us north, almost to the border with Scotland to a coastal town called ‘Seahouses’.  It is from here that you can take boat trips out to the famous Farne Islands to see nesting colonies for some pelagic birds such as the Atlantic Puffins, Northern Gannets, Common Guillemots and Razorbills.

It was late May, we foolishly expected balmy temperatures of 20°C or more, so we packed lightly.

On the 26th May, we headed down to the harbor and awaited our boats departure. It was gloomy, windy and a bit cold (approx. 10°C), but a few Common Eiders and European Oystercatchers entertained us while waiting for the boat to pull up alongside the dock, together with a Shag or two (the bird variety).

Still waiting for the boat, the gloomy skies turned to rain, and then our open-topped boat arrived.

A cold, wet, wavy and miserable ride for about 45 minutes took us out to Staple Island.  We were cold and wet by the time we reached land, but luckily the rain eased off soon after arriving allowing us to use the bins and cameras.  

For non-National Trust members, there’s a landing fee of £6 per person, per island.

The moment we climbed the rocky steps up from the quay, we had Atlantic Puffins all around us.  Some just watching us, others leaping off the rocks and zooming out to sea.  They’re such gorgeous birds.

The Atlantic Puffin belongs to the Auk family.  Out of the breeding season they fly up to 100km off-shore to feed, but during this time of year when they’re feeding chicks, they’ll keep closer to the shore.

As you might know, they make great swimmers, capable of swimming underwater for up to 70 metres, collecting various fish and molluscs.  They are often seen with Sand Eels hanging out of their bills. They collect the fish individually and use their tongue to press the fish against a barb inside the bill holding it in place.

Puffins nest in burrows, and can be seen running around the grasslands and down into their holes to feed the young. A very comical sight.

Just moments after our lifer experience of the Puffins, we stood and watched hundreds of Common Guillemots (or Common Murre), also of the Auk family.  These birds breed in large colonies.  They can often be seen in large numbers floating on the water and diving down to catch their fish as they are well adapted to swimming underwater as per the Puffins.  Guillemots have been recorded to dive down to a staggering 180 metres, but on average, they dive to 30-60 metres.

Amongst the Guillemots can be found Razorbills.  These birds look like a cross between Guillemots and Penguins, although they are the only remaining species under the ‘Alca’ genus.

Razorbills, like the Guillemots and Puffins also land on the waters’ surface before diving below to catch their fish.  They eat their prey while underwater.

After studying these Auks for a while, we trudged on up the stony path in the freezing cold to see what else was about.  A few European Shags were perching on the rocks.  Shags are of the ‘Phalacrocorax’ genus, making them a cormorant. 

I can’t possibly begin to understand where the name came from and why Cormorant wasn’t adopted, as for my generation, the term ‘Shag’ implies something completely different (and more interesting).

The coloration of these birds is intriguing, a very oily/petrol green colour and they’ve got some fancy crest feathers giving them a slight punky look.

I was really struggling with the cold. I didn’t have any gloves and I found it really hard to operate the camera after a while.  It felt heavy and my fingers couldn’t operate the shutter release in time as they were stiffening.

While walking down to the quay, we noticed a small wader on the beach and it turned out to be a Common Ringed Plover.  This chap differs slightly to the Little Ringed Plover in both size, and the black band across the breast is thicker in the Common than the Little.

After about 1hr30m we jumped back on the boat and headed over to another island known as ‘Inner Farne’.

Straight after setting off from the island we were graced with the presence of a few Gray Seals (lifer).  They were quite curious to watch us as we were of them. Very cute faces, check out the little eye-brows and whiskers!

Tip: When visiting Inner Farne during the nesting season, be sure to wear a hat.

Inner Farne gave us an opportunity to get very close to Common, Sandwich and Arctic Terns.  It’s a strange thing to be able to walk amongst birds on nests that are only 1-2ft from where you are walking. 

Clearly, the birds aren’t particularly bothered by our presence as they continue to breed here year after year.  

OK, so how about that hat? Well, some of the Common Terns try to shoo you away while walking past their nests, so you can expect to have a Tern hovering above your head and a few pecks into your scalp until you move off.

This island has plenty of burrowing Puffins and Common Eiders on the grasslands. 

The Eiders are BIG ducks, between 50 and 70cm in length.  Their down feathers used for nesting are in some places still harvested (after fledging) for use in quilts/duvets/pillows.  If you’ve ever heard the term ‘Eiderdown’, then that’s what it is.

Something caught our eye amongst some of the stony areas and it turned out to be a Ruddy Turnstone. We've seen these in Malaysia, but often through a scope as they just don't like getting close to humans, however, on the Farne Islands, he wasn't so cautious and we managed to see him living up to his namesake, flipping up stones to find food beneath.

While we prayed for it to warm up, it just stayed gloomy and damp and cold, so the actual experience of being there was hampered by the crappy weather, however, the memories of it all are mainly of the birds.

The kick in the nuts was that when we arrived back on dry land, we looked over our shoulders to see that the clouds had gone and the islands were basking in glorious afternoon sunshine!

It’s a great place to visit, and if you ever find yourself in the UK and want to see the above birds, the best time is May-July (regardless of it being Summer, take warm clothes!!)

After our 2 days in Seahouses, we headed south to the balmy climates of North Yorkshire to a particularly awesome place known as Bempton Cliffs.

The cliffs are famous for colonies of nesting Northern Gannets, one of the 10 species of extant Boobies. You can also find Puffins, Guillemots, Razorbills and a particular favourite of mine, the Northern Fulmar.

Let’s start off with the Gannets.  These birds are awesome to see.  They cruise along the coastline at varying heights.  During the nesting season, they’ll bring food back to their chicks after locating their home amongst the thousands of other nesting pairs in the cliff face.  They have a very graceless landing style, more like a controlled crash landing.

Once at the nest, the adult pair will generally clack their bills together, probably as a gesture of something like

“where the hell have you been?, did you remember to get the fish?”

Actually, it looks quite affectionate.

Here's a pair.  The yellow tinge to the head and neck feathers implies breeding plumage.

The immature take around 5 years to get their full adult plumage, so in the case of this next shot, you can see a sub-adult with wing plumage that hasn’t fully turned black.

Bempton Cliffs is such an awesome place.  We were blessed with great weather.  It’s staggering to see how many thousands of birds are nesting amongst the cliff faces.

Photography was a little difficult as the cliffs face East and we were there in the morning, so for those birds cruising past the cliff face, we were often shooting into the light.

Other birds nesting amongst the Gannets, Puffins etc. were Black-legged Kittiwakes (it’s a Gull with a cooler name), and the Northern Fulmar.

Fulmars look like they belong to the Gull family, but are in fact Petrels.  Their bills are quite different and distinguished by their nostrils which are located on the top of the upper mandible, it’s made of horny plates and situated just above the nasal passage is a gland that secretes any excess salt that the bird will have ingested on it’s voyages.

I found the Fulmar to be quite an intriguing bird and was looking forward to be able to get a shot of him in flight. Wow, was it more troublesome than I expected.

First, the skies are filled with birds all the time.  It’s easy to pick out the Gannets, but when searching for Fulmars, you need to distinguish it in a fraction of a second from the Herring Gulls (including Juvs), Black-backed Gulls, and Kittiwakes. 

Once you’ve got the Fulmar in sight, he’s often either flying away from you out to sea, or coming back in again, so to get one doing a fly-by wasn’t easy.  I spent almost the whole morning trying and didn’t have much luck at all, however, within minutes of throwing in the towel to head back to the visitor centre for a coffee, I finally got one.  And here he is:

We then stopped off at Blacktoft Sands, East Yorkshire.  It’s an RSPB reserve consisting of tidal reedbeds.

No sooner had we paid our entry fee did we have a Western Marsh-harrier fly straight past us.

We had a pretty good afternoon of birding here with 21 species of birds seen and for the mammals, a lone European Hare in a field adjacent to the far end of the reserve.

There are hides positioned all around the reserve and in one particular pool we saw a few Pied Avocets. The flagship/bird of the RSPB, and as a bonus, some chicks. Very cute!

After walking around the reserve, we spotted the Marsh-harrier coming over again and I managed to get a few shots off.  We stood and watched it for a long time as it rose into the sky picking up a thermal (yes, a thermal in East Yorkshire!) almost reaching orbit before disappearing out of view.

I’ve not seen a Marsh-harrier get so high before.

So that brings us to the end of our first bird outing on this UK trip.

Individual birdlists can be found here;

Farne Islands

Bempton Cliffs

Blacktoft Sands

Click here to read our report on Bedfordshire, Paxton Pits and Chicksands Woods

Click here to read our report on Minsmere Nature Reserve