Friday 23 August 2013

Close to nature

One of the joys of living on the island is that you are right in the middle of a huge numbers of creatures. This can mean very close encounters with some of the island residents. These are just 3 of the close encounters that we have had over the last 24 hours.
Firstly a late puffling turned up outside the cottage. This one had left its burrow a bit early and though under all its fluff is had a full set of plumage and was also very tubby it still should have spent a few more days in its burrow.


At the moment you leave the door of the cottage open at your peril. The flies that come in are bad enough but this young gull (below) came in looking for food and after a quick tour ended up resting up on the ghetto blaster. It was ejected despite a very loud protest. I just hope that the sound quality of the CD player will be undiminished despite the copious deposits left by the little chap.

And just before the visitor boats left a young grey seal, a yearling decided to lounge around on the beach in front of all the visitors giving them a bonus wildlife experience.


3 comments:

  1. May I ask what happened to the puffling, if you know?

    Bea

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  2. Hi, to give it the best chance of survival the puffling was released onto the sea away from the gulls (main predators). If it survives then it will come back to the island in 4-5 years time.

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  3. Great to hear, thanks a lot for answering!

    ReplyDelete