Isle of May Landing 2016

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In 2015 we took our first trip out to the Isle of May and what a wonderful experience that was, to be surrounded by so much life in the North Sea was amazing - CLICK HERE to view the 2015 blog.   The Isle of May is one of two islands we can see from our home in Dunbar, the other being Bass Rock and its colony of Northern Gannets. 

 So in 2016 we decided to book another Scottish Seabird Centre boat trip out to the island that is home to over 200,000 seabirds including the Atlantic Puffin, Arctic Tern and many others.  We also chose the right day as we sped across the Firth of Forth in the Seafari RIB towards the island on a flat, calm sea.  The weather was a very balmy 27 degrees Celsius, Summer had definitely arrived in our part of Scotland.

The trip had two purposes.  The primary one was a family day out to the island and the secondary reason was to conduct some tests on the newly launched Fujifilm X-T2.  I posted a test of the Autofocus system on the X-T2 a couple of days ago, capturing Puffins in flight on the island.

 This blog is about the three hours we spent on the island in the sunshine, sitting and being part of this wonderful natural spectacle that is literally on our doorstep here in East Lothian.

On the way back to North Berwick we passed under the overhanging cliffs of Bass Rock to admire the Gannet colony on this lump of rock that sticks out of the Firth of Forth.  I have a landing trip booked in two days time and this will be my 5th attempt in 2016.  So fingers crossed that it will be 5th time lucky.



Also on the way back our guide James had the pleasure of releasing a Puffling off the coast of the Isle of May, the first he had ringed and released on the island. The reason the Puffling was released off shore was to make sure it was well away from the gulls that prey on small Puffins.

 The trip was once again a wonderful day out and this is something we plan on doing once a year while we are living in Dunbar.  For more information on the Scottish Seabird Centre visit www.seabird.org

 All of the images were shot on a Fujifilm X-T2 with a  XF100-400mm + 1.4x converter or a Fujifilm X-Pro2 with either a XF10-24mm f4 or XF16-55mm f2.8 lens.








































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MacLean Photographic run Tours and Workshops in East Lothian and the Borders of Scotland.  CLICK HERE for more details and availability

In June 2015 Jeff Carter was named as a Fujifilm brand ambassador and you can view his profile and gallery on the Fujifilm website HERE



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