Seabirds Galore

I had one of my best days of Photography ever, when I took a day trip to the island of Lunga. The largest of the Treshnish Isles, Lunga is accessible via a boat trip from the Ulva Ferry on Mull. The boat trip takes in spectacular photo opportunities of Fingal’s Cave on Staffa as well as wonderful landscape photos on the island itself. All around the island, we saw many dolphins which performed alongside the boat. The approach to Lunga is not for the faint hearted and care must be taken when disembarking with Photography kit. However, once you have made your way across the rocks to the island itself, the magic of this very special place comes into its own. Lunga boasts one of the most accessible seabird colonies in Scotland, with puffins, guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes, fulmars and shags galore. I took the trip on a sunny day in May and although the Puffins had no young their flight displays where marvelous. The Thrift made a wonderful foreground for the perched Puffins and their acrobatic displays were mind blowing. The numerous seabirds, give you many opportunities to capture a variety of bird behaviors and a neighboring sea stack is home to many more thousands of seabirds, including even more puffins, so take a long lens. The boat owners give you plenty of time (4 hours) on the island but take all your own food and drink because there are no facilities there.