On Thursday Lizy, Jill and myself went to the Isle of May be meet with colleagues from the Centre of Ecology and Hydrology and Scottish Natural Heritage and discuss seabird monitoring. To save having to drive all the way round to Anstruther, we took the RIB from North Berwick (which meant we could meet up with other bird conservationsists from the Scottish Seabird Centre too). A beautiful day, calm and clear. Early days for the birds on the May to be on the cliffs in full numbers, but there were a fair few about; and the Bass was absolutely jawdroppingly stunning as always. We are so lucky to live on a stretch of coast that has such a diversity of wonderful seabird experiences to offer - Coquet Island, The Farnes, St Abb's Head, Bass Rock and the Isle of May. I can't think of any other bit of coast in the UK that has such an abundance and a variety of seabird spectacles in such a small area. Liza.

The birds that everyone wants to see!

Spectacular cliffs on May - and one of the two lighthouses

The white is not guano - its gannets, 150,000 pairs of them.

Our largest seabird, with a 6 ft wingspan, they are stunning creatures

Until last year - the St Kilda archipelago (which is owned by the National Trust for Scotland, don't you know) held the accolade of being the largest gannet colony in the world. A count done of the birds at the Bass last year, using aerial photography, put them a nose in front, so now they are the biggest colony.