Isle of May – 28 June 2022

The Isle of May, on the Firth of Forth, is one of the best places in Scotland to photograph seabirds – there are over 200,000 seabirds on the island from April through to Aug/Sept, of which 92,000 are puffins!  This island is a special place indeed.

I visited the island last Tuesday (28 June 2022) – the boat from Anstruther in Fife (May Princess Ferry website) takes about 50 mins to reach the Isle of May.  Depending on tides & weather, you normally get between 2.5 – 3 hours on the island.  Everytime I have visited, time simply disappears & 3 hours feels more like 1 hour.

You will see seals around the island and many seabirds such as: guillemots, razorbills, a variety of terns & gulls, eiders, kittiwakes, shags & of course puffins.  Over 200+ species of migrating birds, use the Isle of May on their journey to the north or to the south.

On this visit, the weather was fairly overcast and, after an hour or so, the rain moved in but it didn’t stop me concentrating on the shots I had planned to take.

The only downside to the day was learning that the island was closing at the end of the week (Friday 1 July) to help prevent the spread of avian flu – this was a necessary step and was entirely accepted by all those involved.  I couldn’t help but feel for the crew of the May Princess, the boat that takes us all onto the Isle of May, & all the Nature Scot staff & volunteers on the island.  For this to come along so closely after the last 2 years of Covid disruptions, is heartbreaking but as everyone I spoke to said, it’s the right thing to do & the most important thing is the welfare of the seabirds.

There are no landing trips at the moment but the May Princess is continuing to sail out to the island and take people around it – you can still see lots of seabirds,  seals and plenty puffins will be flying back and forth!  You can check the Isle of May’s blog for updates here (Isle of May Blog).

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