Seahouses 2025 Part 3
24th to 25th July 2025
A good day in Seahouses starts with a trip to Trotters.
To select some items for the day.
Back on the balcony, chasing swifts, caught this one feeding young - poor picture, and they were in and out so quickly
Then a quick walk round the harbour, caught up with a collared dove.
And the goosanders
The teenage eiders
A redshank
A herring gull
The goosanders again
Another turnstone
A 180 degree image from the balcony
Then we were off to Amble, but stopped at Alnmouth for a beach BBQ
Tom took some pictures from the south, of Alnmouth.
And then to Amble, for a walk round the harbour, and where we'd booked a trip to Coquet Island.
View up the river Coquet to Warkworth Castle
We've done the trip once before, that time we went out to the Island, went to and fro several times on the east side, and then back to the harbour - enjoyable, saw the birds, especially the roseate terns which are so rare in the UK but with quite a colony on Coquet, but wasn't so impressed. This time, a lovely day, and the boat took us further out, right round the island, again, a few passes by the terns, and then back to the harbour. A really great trip, good views of the seals, birds, the whole island and a good commentary. The boat is one that was used until recently by Billy Shiels for Farne Islands trips, but now has a new owner. The sea was very choppy, but overall really nice. The boat trip was 5 miles in total, the route is shown thanks to Strava.
The boat we went on, Glad Tidings III.
A jellyfish on the way out
Grey seal
Quite a few gannets flying by
Rather unusual lighthouse on the island - the Duke, who owned the island, wanted it to look like a castle!
There were still a lot of kittiwakes on the cliffs in contrast to the Farne Islands.
The roseate nest together in one area, close to the sea, which is handy as no landing is allowed on the island.
There were also quite a lot of young sandwich terns, different from the Farnes where there'd all left. And the larger size compared to the roseate was very obvious
Roseate tern
Grey seal
There were a few turnstones on the rocks
Sandwich terns
Young black headed gulls were quite distinctive.
Grey seal
Kittiwake
Also a distinctive feral pigeon in the harbour when we returned.
That was Thursday, was up early Friday, packed, and set off for the Scottish part of the trip. The harbour still looked nice, in the early morning light.
Had really enjoyed Lobster lodge and Northumberland; set off for Scotland at around 6:15am, account continued at Uists 2025 Part 1
Overall, saw 77 bird species during the holiday, listed below.