Rainy Day on May

The Isle of May, off the Fife coast, is a national nature reserve and home to over 100,000 puffins during the breeding season; which runs from April til June. This small island which has a tremendous variety of wildlife, renowned for its rich bird life, seals and reefs, also has an interesting religious and maritime history.

A small number of visitors are allowed onto the reserve, but the boat trips are dependent on the winds, tide and swell, that can make the landing onto the island perilous. Our choice for this adventure was the May Princess, which sails from Anstruther harbour, it can take up to 100 passengers; although on this grey and drizzly afternoon it was probably half full.

The Isle of May is Scotland’s oldest Bird Observatory, which was founded in 1934, and manned mostly by volunteers during the summer season (March to November). The remains of a 12th Century Monastery, built in memory of St Adrian murrrdered on the island by Vikings, a new and sympathetically built shelter for visitors and the oldest light house in Scotland (1636) are the main buildings on the island.

The stars of the show were these early puffins, who were ashore renewing relationships,

and clearing out their burrows.

Kittwakes already nesting on the cliffs.

Is that a Minke whale in the Firth of Forth? (yes).

Puffins doing a ‘duck’ fly pass

Despite the dull conditions, managed a few nice ‘in flight’ shots at ISO 800

giving a shutter speed of 1/2000s at f5.6 at a focal length of 500mm.

Angel of the north.

Looking mighty fine

in a typical spring shower.

After a testing but blissful few hours, it was finally a a tour of the island and a short trip back the five miles to Anstruther harbour with its famous fish and chip shops. Great performance from the weather sealing and metering from my Fujifilm XH 2, the only hiccup was this drop of rain that landed on the sensor during a lens change….

Thank you for looking.

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