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What's your favourite seabird colony ? (1 Viewer)

T

treecreeper

unashamed dude
I went to Bempton Cliffs and Flamborough Head for the first time ever today and thoroughly enjoyed the day out. Saw loads of Kittiwakes, lots of Gannets, Guillemots and Razorbills, a few Fulmars and finally just 2 Puffins. I am planning to go on one of the RSPB seabird cruises later in the year.

I haven't been to a seabird colony for several years and today got me thinking about where my favourite seabird colony of all was located. I would say the Farne Islands as the location is magical and atmospheric and the views very close up. What's your personal number one seabird colony ?

Tom
 
MY favorite place is a black-legged kittiwake colony in the Seward Penninsula in Kenai Fjords National Park. All the cliffs are caked in white feces and the noise is AMAZING. when i went a juvenal bald eagle came and scared them all into the air, squaking away. I nearly went deaf
 
South Stack for me! Besides the usual guillemots, razorbills and the usual gulls you are entertained by the choughs with their calling & acrobatic displays, add to this the possibility of hunting peregrines, cronking ravens and the resident hooded crow and you have the perfect seabird colony.
(South Stack is on Anglesey, North Wales)
 
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Not telling 'cos I don't want millions there but my SECOND favourite is the Farne Islands for sure: it is unbelievable how close you are allowed to get.
 
Localy for me i think first has to be the Puffins on Copansay. lots of other stuff there to but its an uninhabited island reserve owned by the RSPB[you have to hire a boat to take you out]. Stunning place.
Next is on the island of Westray, Noup Head for the ganet collony. This has a road all the way to the colony at the light house so its pretty wheel chair acessable with a bit of pushing and shoving.
Third has to be Marwick Head for its huge and imposing splendour plus sheer numbers of birds.
 

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A little place in cornwall i go when im down there not a big colony but to me its magic especially the smell that drifts up from the cliffs lol
 
I'm a huge fan of the Farnes, have had many wonderful times on the Welsh Islands and up here in Orkney (as dafi rightly points out) we have 'one or two' decent places - BUT my favourite Seabird City simply has to be Handa Island - off Scourie, North West Scotland. Once experienced - never forgotten, and if you've never been - make it your next item on your all-time wish list. Simply fecking stunning.
 
Handa Island for me too. A wonderful place that you can't fully describe, not to do it justice anyway. Even the short boat trip over is amazing with all you can see below the water as well as above, including getting quite close to RT & BT Divers. If you haven't experienced it, then as Tim says, do try, in fact the entire area is pretty amazing with Scourie having a lot to offer at the marshes as well as the sea, Kylesku too.

Sue.
 
Iceland is endowed with many spectacular seabird colonies and the top two for me are Látrabjarg in extreme western Iceland, which is one of the world's biggest birdcliffs, a 400 metre wall extending 14 km, and Hornbjarg in the extreme NW tip of Iceland. Getting to Hornbjarg requires a rough (and expensive!) three hour boat trip from an already remote part of Iceland and then a three hour walk, so you are likely to be on your own when you get there, no crowds whatsoever. It's quite simply the most impressive sight I've ever seen birding anywhere in the world, the cliffs rising to 534 metres and populated by huge numbers of Razorbill, Common Guillemot and the commonest of all, Brünnich's Guillemot. It's also a place where you are guaranteed to see Arctic Foxes.
Another place that gets in my all-time top five birding experiences is the mixed Storm Petrel and Leach's Petrel colony on Elliðaey in the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago of southern Iceland (home to around a million pairs of Puffin). Being there at night with the air filled with petrels and the aurora borealis overhead is probably the most fun I've ever had out in the field.
Pictures and my impressions of these places can be seen here
http://www.hi.is/~yannk/diary_aug06.htm

And a couple of photos
1) Hornbjarg
2) The highest point of the cliffs, 534 metres straight down. Anyone want to ID the birds?
3) Female Arctic Fox near Hornbjarg.

E
 

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Ive only ever been to south stack in Anglesey once, and it was chucking it down!
The only other cliffy place Ive been to is Scarborough. On the way in i noticed what looked like lots of Kittiwakes and/or Fulmars up on the cliffs, but I never got a chance to have a decent look as I was the only one with an interest in birds!
 
I haven't been for more than 25 years, but days spent at Hermaness are amongst my favourite memories.
 
I havn't visited any of the realy large colonies but my favorite sea bird spot would be the coast around St Abbs Head. I have set of to go further north on a few occasions but rarely get past this streach of coastline.

I think I have must have mentioned it before but I want to "renovate" and move into Fast Castle. (Must look up squatters rights north of the border ;-)
 
Hi My favorite colony would be Bempton Cliffs the noise the smell its one of those things you either like or you dont great place as for Sea Watching in August you have to go a long way to beat Pendeen Watch in Cornwall if the winds in the right direction last year we saw at least 2 Basking Sharks not birds i know but fantastic to see
 
My fav colony would have to be South Stack on Angelsey.Love watching the Chough`s.The first time that i went to see them,i couldn`t see them,as i turned to go back up the steps,one was right behind me about 10 feet away and gave me a great veiw for a good few minutes.I would love to visit Farne islands.
 
It has to be Handa Island, simply because I did a bit of assistant wardening there some years ago. Very isolated and magical.
 
Noss in Shetland is very good - hoardes of birds on spectacular cliffs, without too many human visitors. Gannets, puffins, kittiwakes, guillemots and razorbills, with skuas about too. There's a choice of perspectives - walk along the cliff tops, or take a boat trip at their foot.

For a lesser known place, how about the Puffin colony on Mingulay (south of Barra)?

James
 
Handa was great,enjoyed south stack,Farnes were fantastic for photography but most recently Bempton sticks in my mind because of the closeness of the razorbills.
 
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