Saturday 18 June 2011

Adventures with Peedies and......Puffins!!!!!!

Those boots are off again on a peedie adventure..........this time they are off to the Brough of Birsay looking for atlantic puffins!
The brough is a tidal island  only accessible at low water, at the north west point of Orkney, which is lovely to go and explore for the archaelogy and bonnie cliffs full of flowers and birds - but first we have to negotiate the beach (it's a hard life!) and walk across the causeway. As we head down the steps we spy an old tractor, how cool eh? Having a bit of sun on the beach, I suspect there was a boat involved in the tractors adventure on the beach I don't think the tractor is up for a bit of puffin adventurising with us today - never mind!
 Gorgeous day! How bonnie does that sand look, we come here quite often - the shell sand here is great for the hens and we often take home a bucket for them. Not today though, today is puffin exploring day!
 Over we go - a few nice fulmars tucked away on nests as we walk along.......
 And the sea pinks or thrift (Armeria maritima) are looking very gorgeous indeed.
 Looking out towards the west, nothing much to see but perhaps Canada in the very far distance, um however, its a few thousand miles away though! 

 More birds on cliffs but no puffins yet - a couple of fulmars
 I love the cliffs they are so rugged in Orkney - and teaming with life!
Now what are those guys looking at over there - they seem very interested in what they are doing! Me thinks they spy puffins! They do, they do, they spy puffins! Try and find them, to the right of the men, down a bit on that ledge before it opened up a bit....can you find them? Right there in the centre of the picture, three black and white dots!
 Oh look a bit closer there be three puffins, you'll have to squint very hard to see them!!!!!
How excited am I?
 One, two, three, puffins! Time to get over to where those guys are on the cliffs! To say we walked at speed would be a little of an understatement, but you cannot exactly run full tilt on the edge of cliffs with bunny and puffin burrows everywhere!!! These awesome birds only come to land during the breeding season - so you've a short window of opportunity to see them!
Hello my pretty, pretty, pretty gorgeous puffin! I'm currently on my belly - lying out on the furthest bit of the cliff I'm safely allowed to by Mr Flowers. Given my ability for clumsiness - he's always a bit nervous of my cliff action!

 Now, these are not the best photos of puffins in the world - but these are MY photos of puffins - I'm so happy a few of them worked out I want to do a little dance. (In fact I will, right now in my chair!)

Its just a look to the left...............
And then a look to the right..............thank you very much monseuir le puffin - I'll leave you in peace now! During all the mad photo taking, Peedie pup was very good - so we had a lovely scamp on the beach on the way back to the car!
 Time for your photo sir Peedie - sorry about all the puffin pics we love you too!
 And, now for your close up, oh dear you're too busy licking your nose! Gamerboy even came long on the walk today and the cellist - hes wandering off in the backgroud - they were both very keen to see puffins too and were also enthusiastically helping to take photos!
 Time for a quick dip in the sea! We didn't want to go back to the car all clean and dry did we?
 Quick expore of a few rock pools and the inlets under the causeway we walked along.......so thats how the sea gets out!
 And, time to plod back up the steps to the car - me thinks an ice-cream is in order to complete the day out looking for puffins!
  Well aside an ice-cream and the cost of petrol a lovely *free* day out in gorgeous Orkney. Now we all know the weather can be a bit unpredictable here - so the old addage - 'it  pays to make hay whilst the sun shines' seems appropriate - although we weren't hay making, we were puffin adventurising - which did pay off!

20 comments:

  1. We saw puffins when we were in Scotland. That's the royal we. I can't do the leaning over the edge of the cliff bit, but I saw his pictures!

    Down south we make do with penguins, but your puffins are amazing. Happy dance here too ;~)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lovely pictures, lovely birds!

    And I think you're right, I swear I CAN see Canada in one of the photos!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Amazing photo's!

    Loved the pic towards Canada, the water looks beautiful.

    Peedie looked to be enjoying his day out too!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Always wanted to see a puffin, not likely to but your photos are great. Thank you. My daughter has a cairn pup called Fern, lovely dogs,

    ReplyDelete
  5. We really wanted to see a puffin when we lived in reach of Lundy but failed to manage it. Your photos capture them beautifully.

    ReplyDelete
  6. More happy dancing here too! I'm so glad you kept on snapping, its lovely to see a series of them as well.

    Canada! Yay! And Peedie galloping along the beach and into the sea :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. So fond of puffins. I was a member of the Puffin Club in its original incarnation, under the wonderful Kaye Webb. Not the watered-down marketing thing it is today. I still have my Puffin Club badge.
    The birds always remind me of jesters. We saw scores of them on a boat trip from Seahouses, in Northumberland. It was truly awesome.
    Your cliff-top antics make me feel quite faint!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you all, I've discovered that I can only reply in kind on this handy device.

    Linda I need to find out about this puffin club - they remind me of jesters or old men. Great you saw them Northumberland :)

    Jan happy dancing indeed, there would have been so many more photos if I had not been belly down over a cliff edge and these pesky birds had stayed still! They comically constantly move around.

    The curates wfe thank you for your lovely comments over the past week, great you work with dyslexic children, living in reach of puffins can be a little frustrating as you often DON'T see them! I'm very much an amateur where photos are concerned but I'm liking snapping life up here. Glad u like them!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Maty peedie did have fun and ring of brogar is indeed where Billy connolly danced naked, unsurprisingly I've never been tempted!

    Penny give fern a pat from us, glad you liked the puffins! Cairn terriers are awesome family dogs. The children call him a COG - half cat half dog (in manner) he's brilliant walk forever, or, sleep curled up on the sofa.

    Anne Canada indeed! Nice to see you, we took one of our lodgers, naughtily we said and if you look really hard that way ypou can see Canada.......naughty naughty!!

    E eye -I'd love to see penguins! The royal we made me giggle, mr flowers doesn't like me near cliff edges, so of course I do even nearer the edge! Glad you got to see penguins in Scotland

    Yay! I've finally managed to comment back. My computer will not let me comment at the moment, and I'm not often figured out why.

    Thank you lovely lot :) xx

    ReplyDelete
  10. This has got to be one of my FAVOURITE POSTS EVER!

    Sft has a big smile on her face and dreams of one day also seeing puffins. The scenery photos are wonderful too.

    A frugal day out with priceless memories.

    Sft x

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wonderful Puffin pics. Made me laugh! And the quality of you light there(especially compared to London!) is breathtaking. Love reading your posts -from what seem like a different planet to my world. V.best Naomi

    ReplyDelete
  12. puffins are so lovely. i gasped when i saw your first picture and then smiled for the rest. thank you for the close-ups and risking life and limb to get them.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I saw them, I saw them, and then I really did see them, up close! Marvellous, and because I am ashamed to say that I have never actually seen a Puffin for real, your pictures of them, are the best.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Yet again, more fantastic photos. The puffins are rather dapper aren't they. I have never seen a puffin but the photos are enough for me. Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  15. What beautiful birds, cute doggie too. Good pics. What a fab place to live.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Fab pics - really well done! I just love the first one - peeping around the corner at you!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Puffins are genuinely special little birds, I think. They are so comical, colourful, curious and relatively unscared of adventures with goggle-eyed uses. First saw them over 40 years ago up on the NW Scottish coast and then again years later in the Hebrides. Lovely pics of a lovely outing.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Oh, how utterly fabulous. I love puffins, have done ever since I was small and reading puffin books, but have never seen them in the wild. Wonderful rock formations too.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Amazing photo's!

    Loved the pic towards Canada, the water looks beautiful

    ReplyDelete