Arctic Terns

Stonechat

We came across a pair of these lovely birds around Lindisfarne castle, only the male was confiding enough to get these photos.

New Life

Arctic tern chicks were everywhere on Inner Farne, from newly hatched to these balls of fluff. You had to watch your step as they were often on the path. The juvenile Dipper was seen on a river in Northumberland on a murky day where we also saw Kingfisher and Grey Wagtail. The Ringed Plover chick was observed on the beach near the jetty on Inner Farne

Dark Green Fritillary

A new species for us. They were in abundance on the sand dunes off the causeway leading to Holy Island (Lindisfarne). They were a difficult butterfly to photograph as they are constantly flitting about, it took an hour of patience just waiting for them to briefly land. Macro shots were impossible but we managed these shots from a distance

Sandwich Terns

Quite a nice colony of these Sandwich Terns, observed in flight and with their little families :)

Sandwich Terns part 2

Adorable Puffins

Such lovely encounters with these gorgeous little birds. We tried to capture intimate moments between them as well as standard puffins shots.

Puffins again

More puffin shots...

Close Encounters of the Tern kind

Inner Farne! What a place. Although we were pecked and poo-ed on lots of times, one Arctic Tern decided Micks head was a good place to sit for a while, it stayed there a good five minutes as he walked around! :)

Northumbria

We are leaving the chaos at home behind for a 3 day visit to the NE to fulfill a long ambition to visit the renowned Farne Islands and surrounding coast. Will update blog asap on our return. Im sure we will not be disappointed :)

Avocet Chick

What a little cutie! 3 of these chicks took up residence in the middle of a main road through my local reserve, they had to be ushered gently to safer ground, this one then became separated from its siblings and ended up in a ditch tangled in weeds and looking very sorry for itself. After a bit of a struggle it freed itself and went on its way.