Island of birds

Our first visit to Inner Farne spoiled us for birdwatching - and in particular for puffin-watching. Last year at midsummer we took the boat to the Farnes, but chose to visit Longstone instead, reasoning that we would shortly be seeing lots of puffins in Iceland. Which is not how it turned out: we saw some puffins, certainly, but nothing like as many or as close as we had on Inner Farne. Even at Sumburgh Head, the southern tip of Shetland, where you look over a dry stone wall at the puffins on the cliff top on the other side, you are - oh, several feet away. So yesterday we repeated the boat trip back to Inner Farne, where this elegant fellow peered out of his burrow at us from very nearly underfoot, just the other side of a knee high rope fence.

( More bird pictures under the cut )