Coquet Island

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This Sunday morning found us in need of a few quiet hours so that we could catch up with ourselves. An enjoyable breakfast and then a few emails and to bring the blog up to date. We had booked a 1pm boat ride with Dave Grey’s Puffin Cruises from the harbour at Amble. The weather was kind, the sea calm with some cloud. The goal was to see Roseate Terns on Coquet Island (an RSPB site) which is one of the few places where they breed. We knew that we were unable to land and so all our watching was from the boat. It was not easy to view them as we had to pick them out from the other terns that also inhabit this rocky island just a short distance off the mainland. However Michelle managed to capture them digitally and we were able to identify them flying. This trip we had been very enthusiastic about as Coquet does have a good ‘facebook site with some very good photographs exhibited on it. It did not match up yesterday but at least we have seen all four types of tern that breed in Northumberland. Then we had a quick visit to the ‘Poison Garden’(with one of the worst guides ever), did a bit of the ‘Woodland Walk’ at Alnwick followed by a quick pint and then ‘home’ for dinner with Countryfile.