Wonderful Scotland 2015 (Day 4)

HAVE you ever breathed in the air around a big sea-bird colony - it's something never forgotten.  Rotting fish and bird...well you know what - poop...festering in the sunshine makes quite a sensory impact, but this is what we came for.  Well, actually we visited small, but beautiful, Handa Island to see the birds, rather than smell them, and we were not disappointed.

The super stars of this wonderful place are the puffins, but the great skuas (also known as bonxies), arctic skuas, guillemots and razorbills, red throated divers and eider ducks are also pretty special.

A small inflatable craft takes you from the mainland to this SWT nature reserve, where there are no trees, just the occasional stone walls running over the open moorland, massive cliffs and some beaches.  It's a great place and a real a must-see in the bird breeding season.

Razorbill

Fulmar

Snipe

Great skuas

 

Puffins

 

Kittiwakes

 

Puffin in thrift

 

 

Fulmar (on the right)

Ultra cute juv. oystercatcher

A hatched egg

Guillemots

Big cliffs...