A new friend, Leah, spoke to me a few weeks ago about an island just off Scotland's east coast, near (ish) Edinburgh that had a population of puffins and that there was a day trip we could do to potentially go and see them. Obviously, I was keen as a puff-bean.
So yesterday we made the two hour drive to Anstruther, to have fish and chips at the highly recommended Anstruther Fish Bar (fantastic hand cut chips and really good fish), and then hopped on the May Princess which would take us to the Isle of May.
45 minutes later, after a calm boat trip with a chatty skipper who pointed out bobbing puffins, lines of garnets, and gave us the overall background of the island and the history, we arrived.
For two hours, we wandered the small island. We saw lighthouses, seagulls, puffin burrows, bushells of ragwort, stretches of daisies, crumbling stone walls, guano-streaked cliffs, a seal....and finally pufifns. Flitting overhead with fish in their beaks, wings flapping so quickly - especially compared to the gulls and garnets who coasted on updrafts not ten feet from where they zoomed.
We could not have been more thrilled - puffins tend to migrate back to the ocean early to mid August so we were a little worried that going on this tour on August 6 would potentially be a little late. We didn't have to worry. At least not about that.
We did worry about where we put our feet since if you didn't watch where you walked, you ran the risk of stepping off the path and into a puffin burrow o.O The ground was super spongy as well, so it was a pretty bizarre feeling to put your foot down and feel that little bit of give, even on the paths.
Some fun facts:
Thank you, Isle of May (and most importantly, Leah, for knowing about it and inviting me along!) for letting us see these gorgeous clowns of the sea.
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