Puffin

Easily the most enchanting of our seabirds, the puffin is always a popular bird. It is unmistakable, with its bright yellow, red and blue bill, and its bright orange feet.

Each summer huge breeding colonies form on remote islands and coastal cliff tops along the north and west coasts of Britain. These can comprise several thousand and sometimes tens of thousands of pairs. In winter the breeding colonies become empty as the birds return to the ocean to spend the winter. This usually happens virtually overnight, sometime in mid-August, and the birds do not return until the following spring.

It is a member of the auk family, which includes guillemots and razorbills amongst others, all of which are superbly built for swimming under the seas. These birds have relatively short, stubby wings, which give them a characteristic whirring flight. There seems to be a lot of flapping in relation to the forward progress gained, especially when compared to other ocean going birds, such as gulls and gannets! But underwater these birds become graceful swimmers, and are agile enough to catch a beak-full of small sand eels, their staple diet, on each dive.

Guillemot

The guillemot is another member of the auk family that nests in huge colonies on coastal cliffs. Indeed, they nest so close to one another that they are often touching, which means that the guillemot defends one of the smallest territories of any bird!

They occur throughout Britain, but especially in Scotland. It is interesting to note that the birds in southern Britain tend to be a dark chocolate brown colour, and the further north you go the darker they become, until in Shetland they are deep black. There is also a colour variant which has a white eye stripe, called the bridled guillemot, that is more frequent the further north one goes. The reason for this is not clear.

These birds fish at depths in excess of 150 metres in search of sand eels.

Black Guillemot

Argyll is perhaps the most southerly place in mainland Britain to see this delightful little bird. In summer this is easily distinguished from other auks by the bright white wing stripe, and bright red feet which can be seen in flight and even when the bird is underwater.

They do not breed in large colonies like other auks, and do not spend the winter as far out to sea as other auks, so can be seen along the coast and in harbours throughout the year. However, in winter they turn a pale grey colour, and can easily be overlooked.

In common with other members of this family black guillemots are vulnerable to oil pollution. They are also prone to losing their eggs and chicks to predatory mink.

Razorbill

The Razorbill is another colony nesting member of the Auk family. They tend to nest in smaller groups than guillemot, but are nonetheless quite commonly seen in and around the firth of Lorne.

Like most ledge nesting birds, the razorbills eggs are very strongly pear-shaped. This is a very effective way of preventing them from falling into the sea – if they are knocked they simply spin around on the spot! When the chick reaches around three weeks old, the male bird takes it out to sea, to wean it and to teach it how to fish. This behaviour can be watched at very close quarters from the boat.

Gannet

The gannet is the largest seabird of the North Atlantic and the north and west of Britain hold over half of the World’s breeding population.

They have a staple diet of small fish, such as herring and mackerel, which they catch in spectacular dives from a height of around 100 feet, splashing beak first into the water at around 60 M.P.H..

Unlike other birds, the gannet does not have a brood patch to keep their egg and chick warm, and so they warm the egg under their huge webbed feet, and when the chick is hatched it is sat on top of the feet to keep it warm.

Shag

The shag is a very close relative of the cormorant, and it can be very difficult to tell the two apart. In the early breeding season shags develop a small crest on top of their heads, but this is lost after only a short time.

 

The cormorant has no such crest, but as well as being a little larger has a white throat patch and white thigh flashes. Again these are lost over the summer, and so birds in winter plumage and juveniles (which are a sort of pale brown in both species) require a trained eye or a bird book and lots of patience to tell apart!

Manx Shearwater

This bird is a summer visitor to our coasts, spending the winter as far away as South America. They nest in burrows on remote islands, and only return to swap with their partner under cover of darkness, and so can be a hard bird to see. We are very fortunate because the non-nesting bird spends its day at sea, and we often see rafts of 200-500 birds resting up in the relatively sheltered coastal waters.

Fulmar

Two hundred years ago the Fulmar was a very rare bird in Britain, confined to St. Kilda, a remote island in the far north west. They have profited hugely from the increased activities of fishing around our coasts, as their main food is offal, which is nowadays in plentiful supply as a result of the by-catch thrown overboard from fishing boats. Several pairs nest each year on the Garvellachs, and we often see them flying on stiff wings, sometimes right over the boat.

Kittiwake

The kittiwake is a colony nesting gull, choosing steep cliff faces to build its nest. Their call, from which they get their name, is distinctive. Large numbers of these birds can be seen feeding with other gulls on the huge bait balls that appear just offshore in late summer.

 

Great black-backed gull

The piracy of this, the largest gull in Britain, is second only to that of the Skuas. They wait next to the burrows of ground nesting birds, such as puffin and manx shearwater, awaiting the return of the adults as they bring in fish to feed their young. They will rob them of their catch, and will sometimes even kill and eat the bird themselves.

Lesser Black-backed Gull

The lesser black-backed gull is slightly smaller than the great, and can be identified by its slightly lighter grey back and, in the adult, its bright yellow legs.Like most gulls, the red dot on the adults yellow bill acts as a stimulus to make the birds chicks beg for food.

 

Herring Gull

Everyone is familiar with this bird, as its has extended its range inland to take advantage of the refuge available in our towns and cities. Gulls are nowadys prone to botulism, as a result of scavenging food from refuge sites.

There is nothing quite like seeing the bird where it belongs, gliding over the seas, its cries being lost amongst the sound of waves breaking along the shore.

Common Gull

Despite its name, the common gull is not that common over most of Britain! In the north and west however it earns its name, and large numbers of this small, gentle-looking gull are seen throughout the year.

The bird had yellow green legs and bill, making it easily distinguishable from the herring gull.

Arctic Tern

The Arctic Tern is a ground nesting bird that visits the area each summer to breed. It is the rich bounty of sand eels and other small fish that attracts it here.

At the end of the summer the terns return to their wintering grounds near South Africa.

Common Tern

The common tern travels even further than the arctic to spend its summer here. They overwinter in Antarctic waters, and in fact this bird has the longest migration flight of all. Terns are easily identified from gulls, as their flight is much more ‘bounding’, and unlike gulls, they will dive head first into the water to catch a fish or sand eel.