Last night the wind was stronger than ever and we were rocked to sleep. However the wind had died down by the morning and the sea looked almost as calm as yesterday but, as we know, this doesn't mean that the boats will run. We phoned at 08:30 and were told that the ferries would be running – Skomer here we come!
We got to the ticket office at 09:20 to find that there was a unpublished sailing at 09:15 and the 10:00 and 10:30 ferries were already fully booked but we got tickets for the 11:00 sailing. We also purchased a guide book and bird recognition leaflet for £3, which was very informative and well worth the cost. Back to Henrietta for a read before getting down to the haven at 10:30. It had been overcast but as we motored across to the island, the sun came out – a good omen.
Fifteen minutes later, a walk up from the landing stage took us to the tiny shop and the briefing from one of the wardens. He gave an excellent introduction to the island, gave us details of possible walks and what to see where. He also gave us one very strict rule - “Do not stray from the marked paths”. He explained that we would damage the burrows but we didn't understand the full significance of this until we continued up to the hill to the relatively flat top of the island. Almost every available square metre of surface is absolutely covered in burrows. There are many thousands of rabbits on the island and they breed, well, like rabbits. However many of the burrows belong to birds such as Manx Shearwaters and Puffins. Despite the fact that the island population of Manx Shearwaters is over 240,000, the largest colony of the bird in the world, we wouldn't see any as they only appear after dark. The birds are very vulnerable to attack from birds of prey and need the cover of darkness to avoid being eaten.
Most visitors headed on the clockwise path as this is the quickest route to the best place to see the Puffins. We chose to take the quieter anti-clockwise path. Our first stop was the Harold Stone, a standing stone, possibly of Prehistoric date, used either as a burial marker or a navigation aid. We moved on to the visitors centre and then north to the Garland Stone. Even from the mainland we could see the flowers on Skomer with large areas of blue and purple. The blue was huge areas of Bluebells and the purple a combination of Bluebells and Red Campion. These appeared all over over the island but the densest area is in the stretch between the visitors centre and the Garland Stone. I have never seen so many bluebells in one place, even more surprising because they are in the open rather than the wooded environment where I would normally expect to see them. A diversion off the main path took us past some prehistoric hut circles almost invisible in amongst the wild flowers.
For a couple of hours either side of low tide, seals lay on the exposed rocks and there were a few conveniently in position when we arrived. Having said that, they were at some distance and they weren't doing a lot. We moved on to the west of the island and Pigstone Bay where a natural rocky outcrop shaped perfectly as a seat gave us an excellent position for a picnic. Down below us eight or nine seals were hunting for fish, diving for long periods and then surfacing, hanging vertically in the water with just their whiskered heads above the surface. It was great entertainment.
It wasn't much further on to The Wick, the main Puffin colony on the trail. On this section we passed much evidence of prehistoric field boundary walls and across the Wick Stream there was a series of seven prehistoric dams, possibly used to water their stock.
As soon as we approached The Wick, there were Puffins everywhere – taking off, flying past, landing, disappearing into burrows or just standing around. Standing around looking pretty, in fact positively posing for all of the photographers with their enormous lenses. We spent a long time watching these fascinating birds. It was easy to pick out the pairs and they would often stand together outside their burrow or change shifts on the eggs. Some were still nest making, bringing in nesting material, a very few had young and were returning with fish for them but most had eggs. And they simply didn't worry about humans, often standing just a few feet from us or even crossing the path between people.
The Puffins are obviously the biggest draw on Skomer but it is a hugely fascinating place with so much to see. There are many species of birds, 40 listed as seen on the island that day, seals, porpoises, wonderful wild flowers and fantastic views. I will always remember one other aspect of our visit to Skomer and that is dead birds. We saw literally hundreds of bird kills – intact wings with just a skeleton between. There were also quite a few rabbit skeletons but these were vastly outnumbered by the birds. Talking to a warden we understood that many of them were Manx Shearwaters that were either young and inexperienced or adults that had misjudged their return, landing when there was still light. We didn't see any birds of prey but they are certainly there and the food source seems to be endless.
After a 45 minute wait we caught a ferry back to the mainland after an unforgettable day.
We drove to Haverfordwest stopping at Morrison's for supplies and then drove on to the Gwaun Valley and the Gwaun Vale Caravan Park at Llanychaer. It proceeded to rain soon after we arrived and we considered ourselves very lucky to have had sunshine for the whole of our visit to Skomer.
Photos: An artist paints the bluebell and campion coloured scene; Posing puffin; A puffin triumvirate; Stretching the wings after emerging from the burrow.
We got to the ticket office at 09:20 to find that there was a unpublished sailing at 09:15 and the 10:00 and 10:30 ferries were already fully booked but we got tickets for the 11:00 sailing. We also purchased a guide book and bird recognition leaflet for £3, which was very informative and well worth the cost. Back to Henrietta for a read before getting down to the haven at 10:30. It had been overcast but as we motored across to the island, the sun came out – a good omen.
Fifteen minutes later, a walk up from the landing stage took us to the tiny shop and the briefing from one of the wardens. He gave an excellent introduction to the island, gave us details of possible walks and what to see where. He also gave us one very strict rule - “Do not stray from the marked paths”. He explained that we would damage the burrows but we didn't understand the full significance of this until we continued up to the hill to the relatively flat top of the island. Almost every available square metre of surface is absolutely covered in burrows. There are many thousands of rabbits on the island and they breed, well, like rabbits. However many of the burrows belong to birds such as Manx Shearwaters and Puffins. Despite the fact that the island population of Manx Shearwaters is over 240,000, the largest colony of the bird in the world, we wouldn't see any as they only appear after dark. The birds are very vulnerable to attack from birds of prey and need the cover of darkness to avoid being eaten.
Most visitors headed on the clockwise path as this is the quickest route to the best place to see the Puffins. We chose to take the quieter anti-clockwise path. Our first stop was the Harold Stone, a standing stone, possibly of Prehistoric date, used either as a burial marker or a navigation aid. We moved on to the visitors centre and then north to the Garland Stone. Even from the mainland we could see the flowers on Skomer with large areas of blue and purple. The blue was huge areas of Bluebells and the purple a combination of Bluebells and Red Campion. These appeared all over over the island but the densest area is in the stretch between the visitors centre and the Garland Stone. I have never seen so many bluebells in one place, even more surprising because they are in the open rather than the wooded environment where I would normally expect to see them. A diversion off the main path took us past some prehistoric hut circles almost invisible in amongst the wild flowers.
For a couple of hours either side of low tide, seals lay on the exposed rocks and there were a few conveniently in position when we arrived. Having said that, they were at some distance and they weren't doing a lot. We moved on to the west of the island and Pigstone Bay where a natural rocky outcrop shaped perfectly as a seat gave us an excellent position for a picnic. Down below us eight or nine seals were hunting for fish, diving for long periods and then surfacing, hanging vertically in the water with just their whiskered heads above the surface. It was great entertainment.
It wasn't much further on to The Wick, the main Puffin colony on the trail. On this section we passed much evidence of prehistoric field boundary walls and across the Wick Stream there was a series of seven prehistoric dams, possibly used to water their stock.
As soon as we approached The Wick, there were Puffins everywhere – taking off, flying past, landing, disappearing into burrows or just standing around. Standing around looking pretty, in fact positively posing for all of the photographers with their enormous lenses. We spent a long time watching these fascinating birds. It was easy to pick out the pairs and they would often stand together outside their burrow or change shifts on the eggs. Some were still nest making, bringing in nesting material, a very few had young and were returning with fish for them but most had eggs. And they simply didn't worry about humans, often standing just a few feet from us or even crossing the path between people.
The Puffins are obviously the biggest draw on Skomer but it is a hugely fascinating place with so much to see. There are many species of birds, 40 listed as seen on the island that day, seals, porpoises, wonderful wild flowers and fantastic views. I will always remember one other aspect of our visit to Skomer and that is dead birds. We saw literally hundreds of bird kills – intact wings with just a skeleton between. There were also quite a few rabbit skeletons but these were vastly outnumbered by the birds. Talking to a warden we understood that many of them were Manx Shearwaters that were either young and inexperienced or adults that had misjudged their return, landing when there was still light. We didn't see any birds of prey but they are certainly there and the food source seems to be endless.
After a 45 minute wait we caught a ferry back to the mainland after an unforgettable day.
We drove to Haverfordwest stopping at Morrison's for supplies and then drove on to the Gwaun Valley and the Gwaun Vale Caravan Park at Llanychaer. It proceeded to rain soon after we arrived and we considered ourselves very lucky to have had sunshine for the whole of our visit to Skomer.
Photos: An artist paints the bluebell and campion coloured scene; Posing puffin; A puffin triumvirate; Stretching the wings after emerging from the burrow.
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