CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

The Oxcars lighthouse in the Firth of Forth is situated in the shipping channel between the islands of Inchcolm  and Inchmickery to guide ships safely up the Forth river towards Rosyth, Grangemouth and the oil and gas terminals closer to the islands. The lighthouse was built in 1886 by Thomas and David Stevenson and became the first automated lighthouse in Scotland when the two lighthouse keepers were withdrawn in 1894.   The light was operated using gas delivered weekly from Granton Gasworks on the mainland and controlled by a clockwork timer to turn the light as required. An attending boatman delivered the gas and wound up the timer each week. The images here were taken from the Maid of the Forth during the trip to Inchcolm last Saturday.  The shot at the top of the page was taken during the trip to the island and is looking east down the coast towards East Lothian. The second shot was taken on the trip back and shows the Port of Leith in the background...

On Saturday we headed to Inchcolm island to visit the Abbey and the WWII ruins. However the trip on the Maid of the Forth started from  Hawes Pier in South Queensferry, which is in the shadow of the magnificent Forth Rail Bridge, which towers 110 metres (361ft) over the mooring.  The route of the Maid of the Forth out to Inchcolm is under the bridge so you can get some unrivalled views of the 126 year old structure. The Forth Rail Bridge is a cantilever bridge spanning the Firth of Forth from South and North Queensferry to the east of Edinburgh.  The bridge is considered an iconic structure and a symbol of Scotland, and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2015.  Designed by the English engineers Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker construction of the bridge began in 1882 and it was opened on 4 March 1890 by the Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VII on the death of his mother Queen Victoria in 1901. The bridge has a tota...

This is Day 4 of my 7 Day Nature Photo Challenge which I was nominated for by Tom Hodgetts of Skye Walks and Photography. A visit to the Isle of Mull is not complete without seeing a White Tailed Sea Eagle soaring above the island.  Normally you only see them from a distance and sometimes you may see them perched at the top of a tree, but on our last visit to the Island in May 2013 we saw a pair of Sea Eagles really up close and it was one of the memorable encounters that will be imprinted in my memory. A Sea Eagle is a big bird with a wingspan approximately 8 feet wide.  We went out on a Mull Charters boat trip  and we were treated to a fantastic display by a pair of wild birds as they circled the boat hoping for some easy pickings for lunch from the crew. This shot was taken on a Nikon D800 and Sigma 50-500 f4/f6.3 lens as the bird swooped in low across the top of the boat. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

This image was taken on last weekend's trip out to the Isle of May and shows thousands of Gannets circling Bass Rock.  This was taken from below them on the RIB and I love this shot for the sheer power of nature.  Bass Rock is one of the natural wonders of the world and I feel quite privileged to be able to see it everyday from the end of the road here in Dunbar. Image taken on a Fujifilm X-Pro1 + XF18mm f2R lens

Well worth the wait! That was the thought when we got off the RIB on the Isle of May.  We'd originally booked the Scottish Seabird Centre's Isle of May landing trip in May but it was cancelled the morning of the trip due to bad weather, so we had rebooked for the 28 June.  The weather forecast was looking decidedly 'iffy' but we arrived at the SSC's North Berwick Harbour office to find that the trip was on - phew. The skies were grey and overcast as we headed out into the Firth of Forth and our first stop was Bass Rock.   I'd done a landing trip on The Bass in June 2014 and this time we sailed slowly around the base of this monolith with 150000 Gannets covering every nook and cranny.  It is a spectacular sight and the smell of fish was quite pungent.    Our skipper Colin then gunned the engines and we off skipping across the waves towards the Isle of May. As we approached the island the weather had improved and blue skies wer...