One of the North Easts best-known naturalists is switching islands after a record-breaking tour of duty off the Northumberland coast.

David Steel has spent the last 14 years as a warden and then head ranger on the National Trusts Farne Islands.

His annual stay on the islands from spring to late autumn began in 2001, easily beating the previous longest spell for consecutive service of five years.

During that time David has worked with 73 different rangers and observed 249 different bird species the most by one individual in the Farne Islands history.

Now he will be leaving behind the grey seals and puffins of the Farne Islands to become reserve manager on the Scottish national nature reserve of the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth.

He should feel at home for the Isle of May, like the Farne Islands, has large populations of guillemots, puffins, eider ducks, terns and grey seals.

Farne Islands. Puffins.

He has also raised the profile of the islands. In his first year the annual visitor figure was around 30,000 last year it was 53,000.

David also had the distinction of being one of the team cut off for the longest consecutive spell of days from the mainland by bad weather 17 days in October 2002.

He said: its been a truly remarkable 14 years, each one as different as the next and it is a life experience I will never forget. Living and working on the Farne Islands has been a privilege and I have worked and lived with some fantastic people during that time.

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Farnes Island head ranger David Steel calls it a day after 14 years of Island life