No huffin’, just wee puffins on sea trip
Tayvallich Wildlife Club was on a puffin-sighting mission earlier this month when members travelled to some of Argyll’s islands.
The animal aficionados, some of whom had never been on a boat or camped out in the wild before, made their way to Mull before visiting surrounding islands including the Treshnish Isles.
Also on the agenda was a stop at Staffa for some puffin-spotting, near the island’s world-famous Fingal’s Cave.
But it wasn’t composer Felix Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, said to be inspired by the acoustics of its mighty basalt columns, that was music to the group’s ears - but the sound of puffin growls and the bright-beaked sea birds gathering in numbers just offshore. ‘The puffins were really cute, especially how they flew.’
The club was then treated to close encounters with the friendly birds when onshore at Lunga.
Mary-Lou Aitchison, Tayvallich Wildlife Club member and one of the trip organisers, explained: ‘It was the first time for some of the group going to the islands off our coastline, and camping out was a bit different for some, too.
‘We travelled to the magnificent Fingal’s Cave but also to Lunga in the Treshnish Isles where we saw a huge number of puffins.
‘It was a real highlight of the weekend. The birds are calm as long as you are quiet, still and lying down at their level.
‘Iain, our captain (on Turus Mara) did a brilliant job at keeping their interest and he steered us so that we all got great views.
‘This fantastic trip was very generously sponsored by a travel grant from the Natural History and Antiquarian Society of Mid Argyll, and the Argyll Bird Club, which enabled us to take our members on the trip of a lifetime.’
Eight-year-old Lena, one of the group’s budding ornithologists, was highly impressed by the nimble puffins, adding: ‘The puffins were really cute, especially how they flew. They don’t look like they’re made for flying!’