Two Islands - Handa, Scotland & The Farnes, Northumberland - Graham Lenton
Handa a beautiful island off the north-west coast of the Highlands of Scotland boasts up to 150,000 seabirds. Its location seems to have its own weather pattern and the island is uninhabited apart from a seasonal warden and reserve volunteers. It is accessed by a ten-minute ferry from the hamlet of Tarbet and its white sandy shores and clear blue waters make it appear almost tropical. The seabird colonies of puffin, guillemot, razorbill, kittiwake and fulmar are easily viewed from the top of the island where sea cliffs of the Torridonian Sandstone reach over 300ft (100metres). Other notable birds that breed on the island are great and arctic skua, stonechat, wheatear, cuckoo, twite, oystercatcher, arctic tern, common, herring and great black-backed gulls, shag, eider, red grouse, ringed plover, snipe, rock dove, meadow and rock pipit and reed bunting. Most of the divers can be seen flying or on the sea around the island and black guillemots are often seen in the bay.
Grey seals, sea otters and basking sharks plus minke whales are also seen, plus an abundance of rabbits. On the wooden boardwalks around the island toads can be observed and common lizards scuttle away as you approach and the range of interesting plants that can be viewed from the four-mile walk adds to the attraction of this fascinating and remote island.
Graham Lenton, who has been a volunteer on a number of occasions, spends a week at the height of the season each year and photographs from these visits illustrate this talk. The island was inhabited by eight families until 1847, when many of the crofters set sail for Canada when their potato crop failed due to blight. The remains of their crofts are still visible today. The geology is also of interest and this will be discussed in the talk, together with conservation measures and bird population trends.
The Farne Islands are, of course, not one island but a group of up to 28 islands at low tide and 15 at high. In Graham’s opinion these islands are probably the best wildlife site for birds in the United Kingdom. Island visitors are greeted by diving Arctic terns which are quite painful on your head if you allow them to hit you. On Inner Farne other sea birds are quite spectacular – puffin bring in bills full of sand eels, guillemots and razorbills nest on the cliffs a few feet away from you, while kittiwake and shag hug the ledges with their chicks. Sandwich and common terns, eider duck, lesser black-backed and herring gull, gannet and fulmar can all be seen around the islands and a colony of grey seals completes the picture. The history too is fascinating from the story of Grace Darling and her heroic sea rescue in 1838 to the chapel of St Cuthbert on Inner Farne that all make a day’s trip to the island so worthwhile.