New Reay

Here's another from my visit to Wester Clett, sometimes called Puffin Cove. It is the largest Puffin colony on the UK mainland by far, with 3,500 pairs of puffins nesting there in 2019 apparently - so it sounded like as good a place to go as any. Wester Clett is actually a dumpy 50 metre high sea stack with sheers cliffs that provide the birds with a high level of protection from predators, The top of the stack is soil covered so it is pockmarked with burrows. You can watch the puffins from the top of the cliffs across a sheer sided ravine from the sea stack. I got myself to a 'viewpoint' (don't try that at home, kids - BIG drop!), and I spent hours just watching the antics of literally hundreds of Puffins doing their stuff. This little chap dropped in on a ledge a few feet away, and proved to be an excellent little model for me to try to photograph. I have to say the experience of watching the puffins exceeded my wildest expectations, it was such good fun.

By way of a change, here's another from my visit to Wester Clett, sometimes called Puffin Cove, on the far north coast of Scotland. It is the largest Puffin colony on the UK mainland by far, with 3,500 pairs of puffins nesting there in 2019 apparently. Wester Clett is actually a dumpy 50 metre high sea stack with sheers cliffs that provide the birds with a high level of protection from predators, The top of the stack is soil covered so it is pockmarked with burrows. I spent a happy few hours just watching these delightful little birds like this fine chap doing their stuff.

There were a few things on my Bucket List that I wanted to tick off during my recent trip to the far north of Scotland. The first was to see a Puffin, as I have never knowingly seen one, and certainly not close up. So, after three mountain days my knees needed a rest and also the weather had closed in, so I set off for Wester Clett, sometimes called Puffin Cove. It is the largest Puffin colony on the UK mainland by far, with 3,500 pairs of puffins nesting there in 2019 apparently - so it sounded like as good a place to go as any. Wester Clett is actually a dumpy 50 metre high sea stack with sheers cliffs that provide the birds with a high level of protection from predators, The top of the stack is soil covered so it is pockmarked with burrows. You can watch the puffins from the top of the cliffs across a sheer sided ravine from the sea stack. I got myself to a 'viewpoint' (don't try that at home, kids - BIG drop!), and I spent hours just watching the antics of literally hundreds of Puffins doing their stuff. This little chap dropped in on a ledge a few feet away, and proved to be an excellent little model for me to try to photograph. I have to say the experience of watching the puffins exceeded my wildest expectations, it was such good fun. Whether I succeeded in ticking off the second item on my bucket list - namely to successfully photograph a bird - I will leave for you to decide. Incidentally, Wester Clett (also known as Stac Geodh' Eisgiadh) is categorised as a 'Tump' and is the 20061st highest peak in the British Isles and the 11639th tallest in Scotland! Quite how a lump or rock 167 feet high can be included in the same list of mountains as Ben Nevis is beyond me, and it just goes to show what can happen when you give 'list makers' a computer!