Isle of May

Hi folks. We took a trip out to the Isle of May in the Forth estuary on Thursday so I thought I’d share a few photos with you. The boat was called The May Princess and left from Anstruther on the Fife coast. The Island is around five miles offshore and the trip out took round about one hour. The sea was quite choppy which I have to admit to enjoying although Mrs A was a strange colour by the time we got out there. The only criticism that I have is that due to tides we only got to spend around two and a half hours on the island which is no-where near enough time to see it all without running around everywhere. This of course means that we’ll have to take another trip out in three or four week’s time to see the other half of the island (the sacrifices I have to make).!! There are toilet facilities on the boat and also a small refreshments area where you can purchase snacks, coffee and the likes. The boat is very well kept with comfortable seats and seating is available ‘outside’ or ‘inside’. There is a wee hut at the harbour where payments are made (£24 per adult) and it is advisable to book in advance, especially at weekends or on public holidays. The crew were also very helpful and talked a bit about the island and the wildlife through speakers on the boat on the way out to the island. This first photo is a map of the island produced by Scottish National Heritage. I've loaded this on as quite a large image so if you feel like clicking on it you should be able to see a detailed map of the island. Note the scale of 200 metres which gives an idea of the actual size of the island. The isle is approached from the 'top' of the map with the harbour being at the bottom left.

The Isle of May

This next photo is of the May Princess

A photo of the harbour before we set out.

There is another way out to the Island on this boat, 'The Osprey’, but I think that I'll leave that to the more adventurous.!!

The Osprey overtaking us on the way out.

I had to wait until we were a good way out to pick the Island up in the haze.

The Isle of May

As we got in closer, the Skipper took us on a slow sail past the cliffs (which are around 60 metres high at the tallest bits). There were birds nesting on all the ledges, mostly Guillemot's but with some Razorbill's and Kittiwake's among them.

Another view a bit further round.

This next photo is the landing area on the far side of the island. The waves here are coming straight in from the North Sea and although they don't look too big in the photos, the boat was rising and falling around fifteen feet as we came into the narrow channel for the small harbour. Great fun (although Mrs A strongly disagrees with me on this point).!!

Once on the island, a nice man from the reserve gave us a quick talk about the rules and the need to stay on the paths due to birds nesting on the ground very close to where you walk. There is a colony of Arctic Terns that nest at each side of the only way forward so we were bombarded by angry birds within five minutes of our arrival. I had the 170 -500mm lens on so actually found it really difficult to get any really good shots of the Terns as they were right on top of us. It's also advisable to wear a hat or put a hood up as their beaks are very sharp and they can peck you on the head with surprising force as I found out (three times).!! A few shots of Arctic Terns, although I hope to get better shots the next time we're here.

We decided to head over to the West sid of the island to begin with as I really wanted to see if we could find an area where we could see some Fulmars. I got a few shots along the way, this frist one of a Great Black-backed Gull taking it easy in the sunshine.

A few Puffins were around as well.