Friday 24 June 2016

30 Days Wild: Day 23 - Day On Puffin Central

                                                               
                                                         
  After rechecking the weather numerous times during the week we finally decided that Day 23 would be the best bet to get on the boat over to Skomer Island.We set off early, arriving just before 7am and so had a 90 minute queue for the lodge to open, then another 90 minute wait after purchasing our tickets til our boat left Martin's Haven for the short trip over to Skomer.
  Before you even land you have Guillemots , Razorbills and of course Puffins whizzing past the boat or scurrying on the Sea surface to escape the boat's path.After the long walk up the steps and a talk about the Island from the Warden we set off down the trail.
 View out from Skomer.

  Like the majority of people , we headed over to The Wick, probably the best place to see Puffins(as well as at the top of the landing steps).
  It is an amazing experience to be within a few yards of these stunning little Auks.

















  Sorry about that I got carried away with Puffin photos, but you still did get away a bit on the light side as I could've posted twice as many ;)

  After spending time with the Puffins we headed for the nearest benches for a bit of lunch and then unfortunately my Arthritic pain in my feet started working overtime and became very painful.This prevented us from walking further around the island so we had a very slow walk back to the farm stopping along the way at the Mere hide to watch Oystercatchers battle with Gulls.
Gull chick


  Lesser Black-backed Gulls getting too close to the juvenile Oystercatchers so needed a quick chase off.





  The Gulls also fought each other with this Herring Gull trying its best to tear the wing off the Lesser Black-backed gull.It actually dragged it by the wing about 5 feet before letting go.


  With my feet burning we started back to the boat far earlier than planned but spent the time photographing Razorbills, Guillemots and a Skomer Rabbit.
Razorbills


Guillemots "Ooooh yes, that's the spot!"

 Skomer Rabbit

  The boat left back for the Pembrokeshire mainland at 3pm and we were seen off by diving Gannets and then spent a few minutes watching these young Swallows in their nest in the Skomer information centre before heading back home.

I hope you enjoyed browsing the photos as much as I did taking them ;)
Thanks again for reading my blogs.


2 comments:

  1. Lovely reading your blog - it was just like our visit to Skomer 2 years ago,even the Swallows nesting in the information centre (and toilets) last time too. Can't wait to try and get to Skomer again.

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  2. Thank you Theresa :) We usually try and do alternate years, 1 year at Skomer , the next at Farne Isles. :)

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