Bird 4/100: Puffins

Sea Parrots and Ocean Clowns

It was on a RIB in the Firth of Forth that I first saw a puffin. Bobbing along in the water as we cut through the waves, they seemed remarkably unperturbed by this disturbance of an otherwise peaceful afternoon. Their iconic orange bills swung round to eye the boat as we approached the Isle of May - home to over 120,000 Atlantic Puffins.

We sped through the slightly chopping water, passing the iconic bass rock and speeding towards the Isle of May, uninhabited apart from the small band of Scottish Natural Heritage Staff and 300 odd tourists that ruck up daily. Our RIB gently bumped the pier as we tied up and clambered onto dry land where we were met by the SNH staff. Greeting us the explained they lie of the land and set us free to explore. The Isle of May was like something I’d never experienced. Gannets soared through the sky. Razorbills and Shags clung to every perch on the sheers cliffs and the ground was littered with puffin burrows. Gulls eagerly eyed up the incoming birds looking for an easy steal as the attempted to mug incoming puffins of their food; resulting in many puffins having to dive-bomb into their own burrows to avoid losing the fish they had spent so long catching. Despite their small statue of around 30cm they can dive to depth of up to 60 meters to catch around forty small fish a day plus enough to feed their one baby – known as a “Puffling”

To see the full puffin gallery or for more information about the RSPB100 gallery click below!

Bird 3/100: Crested Tit

Unique to the ancient Caledonian pinewoods of Inverness and Strathspey in the Scottish Highlands the Crested Tit is the most elusive of the tit family. Easily distingued by its eponymous crest and its unigue gorget and collar this is one of the most distintictive of the tit family.

In later spring through to autumn Crested Tits stay higher up, feeding on invertebrates within pinecones. Over winter they come to lower branches and descend more frequently to the ground. Generally, we found them in pairs who got quite bold at times. These curious birds would come within a couple of feet us, look inquisitively and quickly fly away before coming back and repeating the process for hours. 

Click below for the full Crested Tit Gallery

3 done. 97 to go!

Bird 2/100: Chaffinch

The chaffinch is one is the most common birds in the UK and is found commonly across most of Europe. They prefer to feed from the ground rather than feeders and often feed in flocks. They are a popular pet bird in a number of European countries.

The chaffinch was once popular as a caged song bird and large numbers of wild birds were trapped and sold. In 1882 a guide was issued by the publisher Samuel Orchart Beeton regarding the care of caged birds and included the recommendation "To parents and guardians plagued with a morose and sulky boy, my advice is, buy him a chaffinch.”

Often competitions were held with bets being placed on which caged chaffinch would repeat its song the greatest number of times. The birds were sometimes blinded with a hot needle in the belief that this encouraged them to sing. This practice is the subject of the poem The Blinded Bird by the author and poet Thomas Hardy which contrasts the cruelty involved in blinding the birds with their song.

“So zestfully canst thou sing?
And all this indignity,
With God’s consent, on thee!
Blinded ere yet a-wing
By the red-hot needle thou,
I stand and wonder how
So zestfully thou canst sing!

Resenting not such wrong,
Thy grievous pain forgot,
Eternal dark thy lot,
Groping thy whole life long;
After that stab of fire;
Enjailed in pitiless wire;
Resenting not such wrong!

Who hath charity? This bird.
Who suffereth long and is kind,
Is not provoked, though blind
And alive ensepulchred?
Who hopeth, endureth all things?
Who thinketh no evil, but sings?
Who is divine? This bird.”

— The Blinded Bird by Thomas Hardy

2 done. 98 to go!

Bird 1/100: Red Kites

I knew when I started this challenge that I wanted the first bird to tick off to be one that I had never properly seen before. With that in mind, I packed my bag and set off on the hunt for a Red Kite. 

Historically Red Kites have been regarded as a pest. King James II of Scotland decreed that they should be "killed whenever possible" in the 15thC and under Tudor vermin laws a bounty was paid for each bird's carcass. 

By the 1870s Red Kites were extinct in England, 1886 in Scotland and the Welsh population saw a steady decrease until the 1930s when only 2 pairs were left in Wales. 

As Kites became rarer and rarer their eggs become more and more valuable to illegal collectors, further increasing the decline of these birds and in the 1980s the Red Kite was one of only three globally threatened species in the UK. 

In 1986 the RSPB along with what is now Natural England and Scottish Natural Heritage began looking at re-introducing Red Kites to Scotland and England. This began in 1989 with the release of six Swedish bird in north Scotland and four Swedish and one Welsh bird released in Buckinghamshire. The 93rd and final bird was released in 1994 in England

Today there is an estimated 1800 breeding pairs in the UK - around 7% of the global population.

We headed across to Dingwall and then up to the RSPB run Tollie Red Kites where a team of volunteers feed the kites daily. A converted farm building has views across to Easter Ross and the large bay window provides a warm space to watch the Kites from also with an outdoor viewing area.

“Ah, could I see a spinney nigh,

A paddock riding in the sky,

Above the oaks, in easy sail,

On stilly wings and forked tail”

— John Clare

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1 done. 99 to go!

The Challenge...

Birds are one of my favorite things to photograph and I recently set myself the task of photographing all the birds that the RSPB produce pin badges for. This amounts to 100 different birds! Check back here to see how I'm getting on and see the list below!