Boots, bluebells and puffins

Just a quick post, with a couple of photos to keep you going. Kristen commented on the transition back to everyday life after such tranquillity can be difficult. My quiet time on Iona was certainly needed. It been the busiest and potentially stressful time at work that I can remember!

So just a few photos, without captions, of our lovely day visit to Lunga, a tiny deserted island in the Treshnish Islands. It took an hour to get there by small boat, and the wilflowers were unexpected. There was a huge colony of seabirds (guillemots, razorbills etc) but I was there to see puffins - smallish birds who spend most of their lives at sea, only coming ashore to breed. The chicks first flight is at night, from the cliffs and out to sea, not to return to land till next spring apparently. You can see their size compared to a human in the boot photo.

They nest in rabbit holes, and were still nest making.You can see one below disappearing down a hole with a beakful of nest material. The only noise they ever make is a gutteral, very unmusical call at this time of year. They sounded like floorboards creaking.



The way they fly in to land is very comical - they reminded me of flying squirrels, with a foot at each corner! I think you can see one in a "boot" photo. The puffins here were mostly totally unafraid of humans, and we spent a happy few hours just lounging on the grass, eating a picnic and watching, until the boat returned for us.

It was a magical day.