Across the Sea to The Isle of May

Friday was another day out for the East of Scotland branch of the prophotoinsights forum http://prophotoinsights.net/forum/index.php and what a corker it was too!

Blue skies, calm seas, hot rolls and coffee / tea / hot chocolate... perfect conditions for setting sail on a day of adventure. Cap'n Walter, First Mate Susan, Bos'un Sid and Bos'un's Mate Pips (er, that's me) climbed aboard the 'May Princess' at Anstruther for the 6 mile sea crossing to the Isle of May.

Home to literally millions of sea birds, this island has been reclaimed by nature from human occupation. The former monastic settlement, established in the ninth century, is still evident in the ruins of the 12th century chapel on the island, and the two lighthouses on the island were officially de-manned in 1989. It is possible to stay on the island in a bothy, and researchers and wildlife wardens obviously stay on occasions, but the vast majority of human visitors are day trippers such as ourselves.

The journey across was very much a part of the pleasures of the day. The crew of the 'May Princess' obligingly throw bread into the sea to attract gulls and gannets for the photographers on board.... which was pretty much everyone on board. There were more zoom lenses on that boat than a branch of Jessops on delivery day (probably not the best analogy in the current economic climate and the fact that Jessops doesn't seem to hold much stock these days, but you get the drift anyway!). One tourist with a compact camera was heard complaining that it was more like a day out with the paparazzi than a bird watching trip, but we weren't bothered and joined the throng in the gannet gallery.

The sea was almost dead calm, the horizon hazy but Berwick Law and Bass Rock clearly evident on the southern side. We were overtaken by a RIB, also from Anstruther and also heading out to the Isle of May, but from a photographers point of view, the 'May Princess' is definitely the way to go... though the kid in me would love to go by RIB one day as well.

As we got closer to the island, we spotted our first puffins in the water along with numerous other seabirds and seals.


No dolphins or whales unfortunately, but they are about and you may be lucky if you go on a visit one day too.

Three hours is not long enough to really see this lovely Scottish island, which just means we'll have to go back again!

The cliffs and crags are stunning. 150ft sheer drops and decked out with tufts of sea campion, pink thrift, sedges and grasses and all sorts of lichens and mosses, the island is a naturalist's paradise!!

There's so much more than puffins - we also saw fulmar, kittiwakes, shag, guillemots, terns, eider ducks, oystercatchers, even a rock pipit. I also need to go back and get some landscape shots with the lighthouses, fog horns and the chapel ruins. My dream would be to spend a few days in the bothy to get some sunrise and sunset pics and to have the island to myself for a while as well. That'd be awesome!!

So, eventually we returned to Anstruther. The day was still delightful and we spent an hour wandering around the harbour and popping into one of the local restaurants for a well earned brew and some grub.

I had to get back home to cook tea (with the obligatory trip to tesco, pah, I hate shopping... get's in the way of all that's good about a day), but Walter, Susan and Sid had a few hours still to spare so they followed me back across Fife where I showed them a little place I'd discovered in Wormit that offers views across the Tay to Dundee. Leaving them under the arches of the Tay Rail Bridge, I crossed the Tay Road Bridge leaving my day in paradise behind, but bringing home happy memories of a beautiful day on a stunning island in fantastic company.