Seabirds are Love
Jun. 26th, 2006 06:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorous_ettI gave myself Saturday off on mental health grounds, and bunked off to North Berwick to see the seabirds.
Of course, I'd have been a lot quicker off the mark if my computer hadn't chosen that morning to go all weird on me (all sorted, thankfully). But by running I just managed to catch the last tourist boat to the Bass Rock - and I do mean just - the last rope was being coiled as I came pounding down the road at an ungainly run. Think the It's Man at the start of Monty Python's Flying Circus, and you'll get the general idea.
For those of you who don't know the Bass Rock, it is this dirty great lump of rock sticking out of the sea just off the coast - and at this time of year it is literally covered in seabirds, mostly gannets. You think "Oh, what a big white rock" and then you get a bit closer and realise that it's white from all the birds nesting on it - not the guano either, the actual creatures, who nest a beak's length apart, being territorial, rather bad-tempered and endowed with long, pointy beaks. The air above the Rock is thick with gannets, which are odd-looking things even in sillhouette - long tails, long necks, long wings, like a big X shape, only very pointy at one end. Have you read the scene in the Dragons' Run from the Ursula Le Guin Wizard of Earthsea books? Because it's the nearest thing you'll ever get to seeing flocks of dragons in real life.
Some gannets nest down closer to the water, and you can get a good look at them doing gannet things: sky-pointing (crouched with beak pointing skywards to warn its mate prior to takeoff), beak-fencing (the charming thing gannet pairs do to reinforce the pair-bond. If you're close enough there's an audible clonking noise), pecking at a bird that landed by the wrong nest and making a curious honking noise that is surprisingly pleasant. You wouldn't want to cuddle a gannet, but they really are a bit special.
Though there are other seabirds that could give them a run for their money: puffins, bobbing on the waves or fluttering through the air like clockwork toys, paddle feet dangling; cormorants with their snaky necks drying their wings; shags with their tufts and funny green eyes; neat little guillemots standing upright like brown and white penguins only more pointy about the beak... so many birds and you're probably bored already. But seabirds are love. Really they are.
A tip for any of you who are passing through North Berwick. There is a fantastic Seabird Centre - you can watch the gannets and the puffins through remote cameras and see films. But if you're prone to seasickness, do not watch the Too Much Information video on gannets before you take a boat trip - last time I visited the Bass Rock I couldn't stop thinking of images of the parent bird feeding its chick regurgitated fish as the boat bobbed up and down in an alarming manner...
For those of you who don't know the Bass Rock, it is this dirty great lump of rock sticking out of the sea just off the coast - and at this time of year it is literally covered in seabirds, mostly gannets. You think "Oh, what a big white rock" and then you get a bit closer and realise that it's white from all the birds nesting on it - not the guano either, the actual creatures, who nest a beak's length apart, being territorial, rather bad-tempered and endowed with long, pointy beaks. The air above the Rock is thick with gannets, which are odd-looking things even in sillhouette - long tails, long necks, long wings, like a big X shape, only very pointy at one end. Have you read the scene in the Dragons' Run from the Ursula Le Guin Wizard of Earthsea books? Because it's the nearest thing you'll ever get to seeing flocks of dragons in real life.
Some gannets nest down closer to the water, and you can get a good look at them doing gannet things: sky-pointing (crouched with beak pointing skywards to warn its mate prior to takeoff), beak-fencing (the charming thing gannet pairs do to reinforce the pair-bond. If you're close enough there's an audible clonking noise), pecking at a bird that landed by the wrong nest and making a curious honking noise that is surprisingly pleasant. You wouldn't want to cuddle a gannet, but they really are a bit special.
Though there are other seabirds that could give them a run for their money: puffins, bobbing on the waves or fluttering through the air like clockwork toys, paddle feet dangling; cormorants with their snaky necks drying their wings; shags with their tufts and funny green eyes; neat little guillemots standing upright like brown and white penguins only more pointy about the beak... so many birds and you're probably bored already. But seabirds are love. Really they are.
A tip for any of you who are passing through North Berwick. There is a fantastic Seabird Centre - you can watch the gannets and the puffins through remote cameras and see films. But if you're prone to seasickness, do not watch the Too Much Information video on gannets before you take a boat trip - last time I visited the Bass Rock I couldn't stop thinking of images of the parent bird feeding its chick regurgitated fish as the boat bobbed up and down in an alarming manner...
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Date: 2006-06-26 06:18 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2006-06-27 05:56 pm (UTC)