Whitewash

I've blipped my nearby sea stack Needle Rock several times from above and from afar but until today I've never had a chance to see it from below. Today I did, and got to look right through the eye of the needle, thanks to a new enterprise that provides trips out around the bay in an inflatable. First we zoomed over to the western edge of the bay to where the porpoises hunt in the swirl of the tide race and then skimmed across to my local coastline to view the seabird colonies nesting in cracks and crevices above the splash and suck of the waves.

These guillemots look like miniature penguins and, like penguins, they don't bother with even a rudimentary nest. Instead they crowd together on narrow ledges keeping their single eggs between their feet. It looks precarious but the pointed conical shape of the egg means it rolls around rather than off if dislodged. Far more risky is the moment when the young birds have to make their maiden 'flight' at the age of three weeks. With their mother's encouragement (which often takes the form of a peck and shove) each 'jumpling' must take a headlong leap in order to land on the water where father bird waits to escort the youngster to a life on the ocean wave. The procedure looks alarming as the babies bounce and roll from rock to rock at the mercy of the predatory gulls. It really is an extraordinary initiation rite - have a look here or here - you won't regret it.

Guillemots' sanitary arrangements are also dependent on the long drop.