Expedition Cruising

I've just returned to Somerset having spent the last 3 weeks working as an ornithologist guide and zodiac driver on 2 expedition cruises around the UK for Noble Caledonia, aboard the MV Sea Explorer

Sea Explorer off Hirta, St Kilda

The first cruise took us from Portsmouth down to Guernsey and Sark, along the channel to Tresco, up to Bantry Bay in Co.Cork, along the Cliffs of Moher and in to Inish Mor, Tory Island and then North to St Kilda and finally Mull before finishing in Oban. After a passenger changeover here we headed to Stornaway, and out again to St Kilda. We were then supposed to go to the Faroes but the tail end of tropical storm Ana would have made this seriously uncomfortable, and even downright dangerous so we berthed in Kirkwall and explored Orkney for 2 days, then returned to plan and visited Mousa, Foula and Fair Isle, ending with North Ronaldsay and Copinsay and ended in Aberdeen. As you would expect from such a list of epic places I had an incredible time and saw a load of great wildlife, here's a little taster:

Moltoni's Warbler on Fair Isle

Puffins

Crossbill on Foula

Eider

Sea Eagle

Twite

White-beaked Dolphins

Arctic Skua

Great Skua

Pomarine Skua

Red-throated Diver

Scottish Primrose

Gannet

Snow Bunting

(St Kilda) Wren

I'll be returning to action with Noble Caledonia in June for a 10 day circumnavigation of Iceland, and hopefully many more expedition cruises in the future.