Country Diary: Northumberland

Amble, once the largest exporter of coal on the north-east coast, is now a fishing port and also has a marina with sailing and canoeing clubs. The saltmarsh and sand dune on the Coquet estuary here host a wide range of wildlife and are a feeding area for redshank, curlew and wigeon, and, during early summer, a nursery for eider ducklings which migrate from the nesting sites on Coquet Island. Dave Gray takes visitors on trips around this island which is now a nature reserve.

A thousand years ago, the peace of the island offered refuge to monks and hermits in search of solitude.The lighthouse was designed to complement Warkworth Castle. Now the wildlife is watched over by Dave and the RSPB. A puffin cruise is a delight for ornithologists and this week when I visited with Dave, the rocky shore of the island was crowded with nesting birds. Four species of terns visit, as well as eider duck, puffins, redshank, curlew and wigeon. The terns nest close together in noisy groups, the eggs are large and brown and speckly, like the fluffy chicks which emerge from them, and are laid in the rough grass above the rocky shoreline. Puffins strutted about in their hundreds, their bobbing heads adorned with rainbow beaks, they have yellow clowns' feet and are known on this coast as sea parrots. The puffins arrived late here this spring, due to poor weather in April.

Seals were not lolling on the rocks as they do on the Farnes, but come to fish at the mouth of the Coquet river. This week we saw several rounded sleek heads bobbing around our boat. Seals catch small plaice or sand dabs to eat. Back at Amble, crab and lobster baskets were piled high on the harbour wall, and fishermen were cleaning their boats after three days at sea as we disembarked from our trip.