Above and Below
Sir David Attenborough was once questioned..... "Where in the UK offers the best opportunity to capture magnificent nature?" His answer was... "The Farne Islands during the breeding season in spring would be my favourite" When a man like Sir David Attenborough say's something like this it puts a chill down my spine as I get to see it [...]
Seal Pup Trips
The seal season is now underway with a few pups born already. We are delighted to offer you a chance to see the pups up close with a landing trip onto Staple Island. This trip will be 2.5 hours long with 1 hour on the Island. You will be guided by the National Trust staff around the Island giving you [...]
Greenland Shark
The Greenland Shark, also known as a Gurry Shark or a Grey Shark washed up our shores this morning. It was found this morning at daylight on the beach at Dunstan Steads/Embelton. I received a phone call from my crewman Andy telling me that a Shark was on the beach, so I jumped into the van with my camera and [...]
Baby Puffin (Pufflings)
As the breeding season has finished I wanted to say farewell to the Puffins this year as they had a dreadful start to the season last year with all the rain and the winter was no better. We had big seas, strong winds and by the time they arrived for the breeding season alot of the Puffins did not make [...]
Seal Tagging
The first seal pup of the year has just been born, so I thought I would post about the seals we see over the year. Now I don't tag seals but I have been taking pictures of the seals over the last few years and trying to get the numbers from the tags to find out where they come from, [...]
Artic Skua
We have had a good few Artic Skuas around the Farnes lately and they have been doing what they do best and attack other birds for their food. We also saw one sitting on the rocks at Blue Caps and it was not bothered at all. It was just a pity it was directly into the sun. Here are a [...]
Sunset Cruises
The Sunset Cruises are now finished for the year and I must say they are the best trips. In the breeding season we have watched Jumplings (Guillemot Chicks) take that leap of faith. We have had the perfect light for all our photographers that have joined me and most of all we had had some cracking sunsets. Here is some [...]
Grace Darling
September 7th 1838 the Rescue Mission William Brooks, the youngest Darling living at home, was away fishing at Seahouses when the shipwreck occurred. This meant that only Grace and her parents were in the lighthouse, at the mercy of the dreadful storm. Grace, unable to sleep, was watching the storm through her bedroom window. She saw a large, black shape [...]
40+ White Beaked Dolphins
Continued from the Not 1 but 5 Minke Whale blog... We headed a little further out after seeing the last Minke and we passed 2 Sooty Shearwaters a few more Manx Shearwaters and then nothing. We only saw a few passing Gannets but that was it, until we had 2 White Beaked Dolphins arrive from nowhere. They played with the [...]
Mental Manx
In all my years of going around the Farne Islands I have never seen as many Manx Shearwaters resting on the water. Yes we do get large numbers but never as many just resting on the water. We have had small groups and very large groups and today was one of the large groups. We dropped or guests on the [...]