A few more puffins

Took these last week and hadn't got round to putting them up. Very few birds out on the rock, only seven or eight in view at any one time. They're all incubating eggs at the bottom of the burrows at the moment and then in a week or two will be out madly fishing to feed the pufflings (isn't that just the best name ever for something that's basically a fluffy ball of grey feathers??).







We have starlings nesting in our letterbox. Mick's fixed a latch to the back of it so it can't blow open accidentally in the wind and when we put our ear to it yesterday we could hear cheeping noises, so they've hatched out. I also went on my first ranger walk of the year yesterday, up the Armadale burn. Came back with a Sika deer antler found by the ranger and a headful of new plant names, most of which I will probably fail to remember again. I didn't take the camera because the sky was flat - big mistake as if I'd had the macro lens with me I'd be able to show you pictures of tiger beetles, dor beetles, frogs and a baby toad which has to be one of the most adorable amphibians I've ever seen. I'll try and get back up there the next time I have a free afternoon in good light.