Saturday 30 June 2012

Feeding Frenzy

While our guests were on the Inner Farne the other day we were drifting on the south side of the Inner Farne enjoying the calm seas and the sun. Which makes a change. I noticed alot of gulls feeding, but as I glanced around their were lots of feeding frenzy's going on.

I decided to have a little noisy to see what all the fuss was about and with it being calm and sunny the first thing would be to take some pictures.

As I was clicking away I noticed lots of Gulls, Guillemots, Razorbills, Puffins Terns and Shags feeding on tiny tiny sand-eels. I started to take pictures of the birds with freshly caught sand-eels in their bills and then I got a bit to close and they all flew away. When they had gone I could see a black patch in the water and it was the tiny sand-eels they were feeding on, and then all of a sudden a Shag swims underneath them and bang, he had caught them by surprise and with a bill full sand-eels he broke the surface to eat them. It was just great to see and then it was the Guillemots turn.

With the camera in hand it would be a shame not to try and get a few pictures so here we go. Please they are not that good but you will see what I mean.














I suppose at the end of the day this is why the Farne Islands does so well as if there was no food for the birds they would not be here. Just aswell we have lots of sand-eels then.

2 comments:

anniecase said...

Thanks for sharing this, some great shots!

Robin and Anne said...

Andrew - thank you so much for a wonderful trip around the islands this afternoon and for making that detour to find the minke whales. Not found, but wonderful sight of the gannets, skuas and seals. Look forward to seeing your next set of photos. All the best.