Other Birds (and a Seal) on the Isle of May

 

Isle of May Puffins

From https://www.passportandpixels.com/isle-of-may-puffins-history-scotland/

"Scotland’s Isle of May: Puffins, Beautiful Landscapes and More

"It’s only small – less than a mile long (about 1.5 km) and 0.3 miles (0.5 km) wide – but there’s a reason the Isle of May has been nicknamed ‘The Jewel of the Forth’. The entire island is a national nature reserve, so there are no residents apart from the wardens who stay there during the summer months, and of course all the plentiful birds and animals who come to visit."

The puffins are the prize, but there are many other worthy birds, which will follow tomorrow.

Fair Isle (2)

 Fair Isle with birds. The greatest variety in the British Isles - 345 species have been identified.

Fair Isle (1)

 Fair Isle scenes - without birds

St. Kilda (2)

Along the shore, St. Kilda is reminiscent of Lunga, with rocks, seals, and sea birds. They're about 45 miles apart. A Google search reveals: "Internationally recognised for its birdlife, St Kilda is no less famous for its human history. A community existed here for at least 4,000 years, exploiting the dense colonies of gannets, fulmars and puffins for food, feathers and oil. The final 36 islanders were evacuated in 1930" at their own request.

St. Kilda (1)

Wikipedia tells us: "St Kilda is an isolated archipelago situated 64 kilometres west-northwest of North Uist in the North Atlantic Ocean. It contains the westernmost islands of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland." 

That description sounds rather uninviting, and the reality is not so different. It's remarkable that at least a few people have lived here, making a living out of rock, grass, and water, for centuries. They lived in a unique form of stone structure known as cleitean. Finally unable to sustain themselves, they requested evacuation in the 1930s.

Canna Cats

 One of the fun things to do on Canna is to search for the painted, more or less life-sized, statues of cats. See https://pethistories.wordpress.com/2019/02/28/canna-the-island-kingdom-of-cats/ for the story.

These are the ones we found in our brief time on the island.

Isle of Canna (1)

According to Wikipedia, "Canna is the westernmost of the Small Isles archipelago, in the Scottish Inner Hebrides.". And according to Google, 15 people live on it. Irregardless of these facts, it was pleasant to visit on our British Isles cruise.

Isle of Skye (2)

These are some scenes I saw from a zodiac motoring past the island. Google National Geographic photographer (and native Scotsman) Jim Richardson for much more dramatic views of Skye.