Puffins on Inner Farne - 17th June 2026

Having paid our respects to the American Black Tern at Long Nanny, a fifteen minute drive further up the coast brought us to the busy little seaside town of Seahouses with an hour and a half to spare before we were due to sail to Inner Farne. We went first to check in at Billy Shiels colourful kiosk to collect our pre paid tickets and then, as Inner Farne is owned by the National Trust, parted with an eye watering £17 each for the privilege of being allowed onto the island for an hour. 

The harbour area was busy as people collected in front of the relevant kiosks to await being called for their particular boat trip. Ours was leaving at 3pm on The Glad Tidings and would take us to Inner Farne where we would land and have one hour exactly to wander around on the boardwalks and paths that encircle the small island. 

The boat takes twenty minutes to get to Inner Farne and today it was packed with fellow visitors. All of us wearing some form of headgear to provide protection from the unwelcome attentions of the feisty Arctic Terns breeding on the island.

To be honest virtually everyone had only one thing in mind and that was to see and photograph the Puffins that are present on the island in large numbers. Before getting to the main Puffin area you had to run the gauntlet of the nesting Arctic Terns from almost the minute you set foot on the  island, One of each pair would be incubating eggs on a nest often just feet from the boardwalk whilst its mate did its best to drive you off by viciously stabbing your head with its appropriately blood red and very sharp bill.

The antagonistic birds can even land on your head and attempt to drill into your skull or fly right in your face emitting harsh calls and a strange clicking sound as they give vent to their outrage at your perceived intrusion.

Once past the terns I settled to photograph the Puffins, either standing around outside their burrows with that permanent look of bemusement on their face or flying in from or out to sea. 

Capturing the Puffins in flight was not easy although there was plenty of opportunity as a continual stream of Puffins arrived from the sea, flying high or low, heading for their burrows. Some come so close you feel certain they will collide with you, but they swerve away at the last moment to pass just feet above your head. They move surprisingly fast and are past you before you know it  but by dint of taking thousands of images, some came out reasonably well.

Puffins were arriving constantly from the sea during my viist. A non stop flypast, their bulky bodies held in the air by fast whirring wings. At times with a beak full of sand eels they look none too aerodynamic as their short wings, more suited to acting as paddles to 'row' the bird underwater in pursuit of fish, struggle to hold their heavy bodies aloft.

Again, as with the Gannets at Bempton one has to try and zone out your fellow humans on an island that is constantly busy receiving and despatching boatloads of visitors.If you like a solitary communing with nature then this is not the place.

I spent most of my time attempting to photograph the flying Puffins and frankly quite enjoyed the challenge and with about fifteen minutes to go felt I had mastered to some extent how to capture them in flight with my camera and lens.The secret was to try and pick one up as it approached, not too distant or too near, that allowed the camera time to lock onto its subect but I have to add that with a multitude of Puffins constantly flying towards you it was no easy task to select the right one.

Nevertheless I was reasonably content after our hour was up and such was our enthusiasm and commitment to the task, Mark found he had filled his memory card and could take no more images whilst I came perilously close to doing the same. 

Other groups of Puffins stood on rocks as if  in a club, like portly gentlemen in black and white evening dress waiting for dinner to be called and I assumed these were non breeding birds or off duty birds taking a break until it was their turn to relieve their mate that was underground in a short burrow incubating a single egg or guarding a chick. .

The last time I was here, pre covid, incoming Puffins with  beakfulls  of sandeels had to run the gauntlet of gangs of Black headed Gulls hanging around to intercept them as they made for their burrows.The Puffin would fly in at great speed and scuttle underground as fast as its legs would carry it before the gulls had an opportunity to snatch some or all of the hard won sandeels. .This  year there was little sign of any Black headed Gulls only one Lesser Black backed Gull, standing in the area of the burrows pretending to show no interest but forever watchful for a chance to snatch a meal from a careless Puffin

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In what seemed no time at all it was our turn to leave and we assembled at the stone jetty to board The Glad Tidings which then took us around other islands to view vast numbers of Guillemots  and Kittiwakes and lesser numbers of Razorbills. swimming around the boat or peering at us from their rocky ledges.

With one last look at an inquisitive Puffin bobbing on the sea we headed back to the mainland.