Psilos Bird Journal
Monday May 22-23rd 2006
     
"Sea houses - Home of the eider"
 
Sea houses is a small town on the north east coast of Northumberland with a once flourishing fishing industry. The only boats leaving the harbour these days however are the ones going out to the Farne Islands taking people to see the sea birds and seals. This was my first port of call whilst on holiday to check out the details for visiting the Farnes later in the week.
 
 

The most prominent birds there were the Eiders. At the time the tide was out and many birds were sat up on the boat ramp and also on the rocks around the harbour. These birds were very tame and would come running up when they saw you as if they were expecting to be fed. The photo above shows two females coming to see if I had anything to offer them.
     
Male eider
 
The photo above shows an adult male sitting on the rocks at low tide and a female below. Sadly I was too early to see any ducklings. These are creched together in large groups and looked after by the females in the shelter of the harbour.
     
     

 
The photo above shows a juvenile male that was born last year. It takes two years for the male eiders to get their breeding plumage and there were several juveniles around.
 
 
Did hope whilst there to get some flight shots of the eiders but alas they always seemed to be flying away from me.
 

This poor female eider brought mans influence upon nature very much into reality. Fishing line was wrapped tightly around the top of her bill though I dont know if it stopped her from feeding. Either way it couldnt have been very comfortable.
Didnt really see any other birds around the harbour though shags were visible flying offshore quite far out. Got quite excited at one point when I saw some pipits collecting grubs on the beach. Thought they may have been rock or water pipits (birds I have never seen before) but I was to be disappointed as I think they were just meadown pipits.
House sparrows were also fairly common here and could readily be seen on the beach, Some of the males looked very handsome indeed. Didnt stay here all that long but we would be back and I couldnt wait....