Isle of May in May by Gertie
located on the outer Firth of Forth, this wee island is owned by the Scottish Natural Heritage and maintained as a National Nature Reserve. To get to there, we caught the “May Princess” ferry in Anstruther, Fife. In under 1 hour we arrived at the island, where we were greeted by a ranger who gave a quick talk about what they do there and also how important it was to pack out our rubbish and keep inside the blue trail markings (don’t want to step on and crush any wee birdies).
The sail across was mild, and I had high hopes for it clearing up, unfortunately it did not. It only rained for a brief time (just to the left of me, so funny enough my right side remained dry) but otherwise we did okay for the weather.
After the chat the group headed off to the right, so my friends and I immediately turned left. Took all of one minute before I became separated, but as we were on a small island with a set time to meet at the boat, I didn’t worry about trying to catch up to them.
I arrived at the cliffside and the view was simply breathtaking. It may not have been sunny, but the choppy green sea and deep grey clouds set nicely against the enormous basalt and greenstone rock. Then, the very first puffin I see has a beak full of sand eel, and I could hardly contain the schoolgirl squeal that bubbled up!
He was very patient with the photo taking, most likely because we were blocking his access to the nest. The seagulls were starting to circle and I worried for the wee fella so I moved away to give him some room.
So many different species of birds on this island— puffins, guillemots, razorbills, shags, cormorants, pigeon, and terns; as well as Grey seals and rabbits.
I hiked past the foghorn and over to the lighthouse (there are two), got a bit closer to the edge of a cliff than I was comfortable with, saw one dead rabbit, and then discovered a seagull’s nest with an egg in it. I was walking down the trail and saw a large seagull sort of back in and out of this hole in the ground, so I slowed a bit in the hopes I wouldn’t scare him. As I approached he took off and I happened to glance down to where he was (guess I should say she) and saw a large egg. I was so startled but only had time to snap a quick shot because she wasn’t too pleased with me hanging about and I was fast approaching the danger of being pecked.
I headed back to the visitor centre to make a quick loo stop and then continued on up another hill where I chose to stop for lunch. Camera stowed safely away, I kicked back and enjoyed my meal while watching the puffins fly to and fro. They really don’t land smoothly, so its quite a comical thing to see.
Too soon it was time to head back to the dock, but as we pulled away I got a closer look at some of the seals, one basking on the rocks and several more bobbing around in the water as they followed our boat. Once away from the shores the water turned more than choppy, so I slipped inside to get away from the spraying waves. Swaying back and forth, and knackered from 3 hours of play in the fresh air, it wasn’t long before I fell asleep, napping the entire journey back to Anstruther.
I’m definitely up for going back, hopefully with sunny weather, and this time I’m going to have a much better lens with me…
