Now is the month of Maying

Hello!

We went on another Geology expedition yesterday. This involved a trip in a small boat on quite high seas to the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth.

This island is a volcanic sill, of the same age and type of Dolerite rock as Salisbury Crag in Edinburgh. It is also a splendid haven for all sorts of birds - Puffin, Razorbill, Guillemot, Kittiwake, Gannet, Arctic Tern, Eider, Cormorant, Shag, Fulmar and of course Herring Gulls who do their best to eat the eggs of all the afore-mentioned.

The sea looks calm in this picture - that's because we were in the lee of the island - the crossing from Anstruther to here involved a lot of large waves, the boat rocking to and fro and up and down and my Lovely Husband being Very Unhappy Indeed. (He is not a good sailor.) Nevermind, floating gently among huge flocks  of seabirds (and seals) made up for it.

We were hoping to land on the island, but the seas were so rough that we couldn't go round the point of the island (on the right in the first picture) to where the landing stage is. So we just looked at the birds and the cliffs and the interesting columnar jointing and horizontal shearing of the rock while drifting gently to and fro on the sheltered side.

 

There were however some Twitchers on the boat with us. They were distinguishable by the ENORMOUS telephoto lenses on their cameras (at least 6" in diameter and 18" long) and their camouflage clothing (even the cameras were green and brown splotched). They were Not Happy. Apparently a rare migrant bird had been reported on the island (a Black-winged Stilt) and they were desperate to land in order to spot it and 'tick it off'. They moaned and complained throughout the return journey. As one of them said, 'A bunch of Guillemot floating about beside the boat just doesn't do it for me.'  Hmmm. In that case, my dear, I'm very sorry for you.