Birdies et al.

January 31, 2014


Some time ago I wrote about our failed trip to Noss. We didn't make it to the island but some days later we took a boat trip around it.

The other side of Noss, the side that faces the open North Sea, is quite a spectacular seabird colony. I'm not so much into birds but when I saw pictures of the massive cliffs we had to book a boat trip to see them for ourselves. On our way to the colony we also met other fellows of the sea - e.g. this gull, which followed our boat until it got some cookie crumbs (I think it knew this coming...). We also passed this little holm where seals were sleeping (or rather digesting as Captain Tom told us).


















And *drumroll*: a shark. Actually a basking shark, as we were told, the second largest fish in the world. And not dangerous, I think, because it is a vegetarian and not interested in boats full of potential food. But yes, I am a media victim, I immediately had the "Jaws" melody stuck in my head. And it really was like in the film, it swam from left to right, drawing nearer and nearer. It triggers a bit of an unpleasant feeling in the stomach. But since we were in the boat and it was not very interested in us, I decided to like it.


Can you see its snout? It must be huuuuuuge... we assumed it had at least 7 metres...












And then our boat went around a corner and we could see the amazing cliffs and the thousands of birds. The cliffs rise up to more than 150 metres and we were told there are sometimes more than 150.000 birds living or rather breeding in this colony.


These below are gannets. I think they are rather unpleasant fellows especially to each other... I would keep a distance...




I cannot say that I would go there again, it is nothing for a light stomach. The smell of thousands of birds is overwhelming and together with the hopping boat... I got seasick for the first time in my life.

But I'm not sorry for going there since it was an outstanding, incredible, almost surreal experience of nature.






Thank you so much for these wonderful hours, Dunter III crew!

12 comments:

  1. Wow, in the first picture this bird is like "okay, take this photo now" :D Beautiful :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. WOW - that is beautiful. So rustic and alive!!! xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. A shark!? Whaaaaat! And of course beautiful pics as usual :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. And thanks to you for taking us along on another of your mesmerizing adventures. I so love your pictures, all of them!
    Sooner or later I'll go too to visit the Cliffs of Moher from the sea. Have you ever been there? They're more than 200 metres at their highest point.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for your comment! Oh, the Cliffs of Moher - I've never been there and just heard about them recently (they are also called "Edge of the world" - I love that). I definitely want to go there, it must be amazing! If you go there, please bring photos! :)

      Delete
  5. So barren and beautiful! I admit that the sight of the shark, harmless or not, would have freaked me out!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Du weisst ja meine Liebe: Ich bin Dein FAN!!!!!!
    Ich bin so froh von Anfang an Deine Bilder sehen und geniessen zu dürfen, und ja, ich halte Dich für TALENTIERT!
    Das musste mal geschrieben werden ^_^
    Yuna

    ReplyDelete
  7. Das ist eine faszinierende und sehr einsame Landschaft. Wunderschön, und muss ich irgendwann unbedingt sehen.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ich kann es nur empfehlen - es ist einer der schönsten Orte, die ich je besucht habe...

      Delete
  8. Lovely photos. One of the things I am dying to buy is a wide angle lens. Would love to take better landscape photos.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Sid! I used a "flexible" lens (18-105mm), I had another 2 with me, but I ended up with almost only using this one.

      Delete