14 May 2012

Disturbing the wildlife

I have not had chance to fill in the gaps for the Firth of Forth crossing, but here is a tale of something a little unusual.
On the way to Fife Ness I stopped for my lunch, I was tucking into my sarnies quite nicely when there was a tapping sound at the back of the boat. I figured it was a piece of driftwood knocking against the rudder, no drama.
But it continued so I pulled forward with a couple of strokes and went back to my lunch. It stopped, but then started again. A couple more strokes and it stopped.
And then started again, deliberate and persistent - something was definitely tapping away at my rudder.
Now I was 2-3 miles offshore, so nothing should really be tapping away at my boat - it was one of those head under the duvet and hope it will go away moments.
Still the tapping persisted so eventually I plucked up the courage to take a look and there I found a pair of Razor Bills (one may have been a juvenile Guilliemot) pecking away at my rudder - not sure why.
We are so accustomed to being told to keep 156.53m (or whatever) away from the cliffs to prevent disturbance to the birdies but how about someone telling the birdies not to disturb my lunch?
I'm sure the one on the left is nonchalantly whistling while trying not to look guilty!
Sent from my phone

1 comment:

barry shaw said...

The razorbills were chewing through your rudder cable.
Barry