Copeland Island Visited in June (1)

The last time I visited Copeland Island was in May and these photograph  were taken 1 month exactly from that visit this June.   If you are a regular viewer of my blog you will be able to see the great changes in the wildlife and for those who didn’t manage to see the 6 posts published in June, CLICK HERE for the start of them.  These photographs are mainly of the journey out to the island and what we saw when we first landed.

As you can see from this shot, there were 4 of us.  Wesley who was the Duty Officier and the 2 younger people, Richard and Nina from Glasgow University who were doing research on Herring Gulls. (Lots more about that in future posts)

As we neared the island, I was very excited to see a raft of at least 250 Manx Shearwater.  I had never seen a raft of them before and they were gathering so that when it was dark they could land on the island and go to their burrows.  I have a short video at the end. 

Please remember a lot of photographs where taken on a moving boat!

This is a Common Seal however we also have Grey Seals breeding around the island.

The Arctic Terns had arrived now and we were going to have to be extremely careful not to walk on any of their eggs in the nests when we landed. The noise was ‘something else’ and we were prepared to be attacked.   Once again, in later posts I will be showing you more shots of the Terns but the second clip on the video below is of them and Gulls lifting when the boat approached the jetty.

There were both adult (solid black on head) and 
1^st year Arctic Terns (white above the bill). Sorry it is a out of focus but I wanted you to see the difference!

  

It would have been a very tranquil scene except 

for the screaming birds everywhere.

Oystercatcher and Common Gulls on the rocks.  Both breed on the island and last time I was here, these birds were incubating their eggs and this time I will be showing you their chicks in later posts.

These next few shots were taken as I was walking up to the house with a very heavy rucksack and another bag plus camera round my neck! Mr and Mrs Mallard were out for their evening walk. 

Rabbits are very important on the island because they keep a lot of the grass paths short but also as they dig burrows, these are essential for the Shearwaters to breed in.

There are quite a number of Wrens breed on the island however they are very difficult to photograph but you hear them singing all the time.

After we left our bags in the house, Wesley and I took Richard and Nina to show them round the island.  Richard was amazed at the beauty of the masses of Pink Campion.

Herring Gull behind in front and Lesser Black backed Gull in front.

This is the first of many chicks of a Lesser Black backed Gull

While we were standing on the cliff top we saw these Shags.  Notice the one with its wings out.  I thought it was about to fly but it kept its wings like that for quite a while obviously drying them but I had only even seen them drying their wings on a rock before.

I hope you found this post interesting.  There are LOTS more I have to show you and I am very excited at what discovered the next morning on my way down to the 'loo with the view'.  You will not be disappointed!

On the video of the Manx Shearwaters, Arctic Terns and Gulls I have cut the noise of the boat out and inserted (I hope) suitable music which can be access at

http://youtu.be/rJyL1NKJc78

If there is a black space below, click it and the video will appear.

Thank you for visiting and also to those who leave comments on any of my posts.