Last night party

Last night tonight so we're drinking the booze we've got left before we go. There's Long Island iced tea, cider and gin; it's going well. We're currently trying to persuade Elana to show us her street dancing but she's resisting!

I've met such a great group of people this week; you really need to get along with each other when you're sharing accommodation and a communal kitchen for a week and working with a complete stranger (at least they're strangers at the beginning).

Weather was a bit rubbish today so we only had two boats, one of which was full of six-year olds!  Thankfully we got them all off and back on again without losing any!

Everyone has contributed to tonight's blog with their highlights of the week:

Rob - sitting on the septic tank by the wardens' house taking photos of puffins.

Tracie - being able to show a fulmar chick to a group of school children through a telescope.

Elana - sitting with puffins for hours on end.

Phil - someone asked directions back to the farm from the Wick and Phil said "an hour and a half" to which the person replied "from where?" Errrr, from where we are!!

Greg - sighting a corn crake. They're really rare on Skomer so this was quite and event.

Me - apart from Tracie's awesome puffin impression, my highlight was seeing common dolphins following  our boat home last night. It was the one thing I wanted to see so I'm really happy. Also Elana forgetting what we call braces (as in the ones to hold your trousers up) and almost telling the coastguard that the unwell man was wearing suspenders yesterday!

Best line of the week was heard today from one of the teachers with the kids as she got off the boat: "we're looking a bit top-heavy down the bottom, some of you need to go up". A proper Welsh-ism.

We're now onto singing songs from musicals so I'll say goodnight now. Apologies if this doesn't make a lot of sense, but we've had a great night and a fabulous week. Nos da pawb x

Action packed!

I don't even know where to start tonight;  it's been an action packed day in more ways than one.

This morning started dramatically when a gentleman was taken ill shortly after getting off the boat. I think he took the steps too quickly and keeled over at the top. He was adamant that he was ok though and wouldn't let us help him back onto the boat, but he gradually deteriorated and we had to call the coastguard for them to send the lifeboat over. The took him to Milford Haven where an ambulance was waiting for him.

It's during those situations that you realise just how much we take for granted on the mainland. Thankfully he wasn't very seriously ill as even the nearest air ambulance takes 45 minutes to reach Skomer.

The rest of the day passed without incident and I chatted to some of our lovely visitors during island patrol. I also saw a peregrine falcon on one of the cliffs and helped some children to find it too which they though was great. It's wonderful to see kids appreciating wildlife at a young age and it gives me hope that they will educate their children in turn.

The action continued this evening when we joined the other island staff on a boat trip out past Grassholm. We went out to the farthest lighthouse off the coast of Britain.  Known as the Smalls lighthouse, it sits 18 miles off shore. The island staff were hoping to see storm petrels, which are about the size of a swift, so not easy to spot. We didn't see any but we did go back past Grassholm to see the gannets. It's the third largest colony on the UK with 90, 000 individual birds. You can see Grassholm from Skomer and one side of it is white; a combination of gannets and their poo (which stinks, by the way).

We also had some common dolphin riding our bow wave on the way back and breaching right next to the boat; I was in my element! And as we returned to the coast of  Skomer we saw a harbour porpoise and her calf and they also breached (when the break the surface of the water). I didn't realise how small porpoise are; the adults are just 1.3m long.

So all in all it's been a long and tiring day so I'm off for some chocolate and a cuppa. Nos da x

P.S the big white boat below is the one the island staff went on.  No prizes for guessing who ended up on the little orange RIB!!!  It was a bumpy ride to say the least!

Wildlife galore

It's surprising what a good night's sleep can do for you. I was out on my feet last night after a whole day stood up, and I really wanted my own bed, but I was ready to go again this morning and we had another full day of visitors.

I did one of my favourite jobs this morning; island patrol. It needs no description and you get the opportunity to really look around you. Every day all of the people on the island make note of what they've seen and report it at bird log. So far I've seen nothing but sodding gulls. I was determined that today would be different and it was.

Within five minutes of leaving the farm I saw a short-eared owl swooping around the west meadow. I then counted six seals, including a massive bull seal, on the Garland Stone which is a popular place for them to haul out. There were also two cormorants/shags  (I can't tell the difference of I'm honest) next to the seals.

On towards the Wick, where the the puffins live, and I saw pheasants (adult and juveniles), a cinnabar moth (normally nocturnal) and a cinnabar caterpillar. I also saw a fulmar with a chick high up in the cliff at the Wick. All in all a productive day.

I'm currently freezing my particulars off sat on a rock trying to see a little owl that's supposed to be hanging around a gorse bush behind the farm.  It's not showing up at the moment though so I might have to put something warmer on and settle in for a while.

Pics below include puffins (again),  the cinnabar moth and the views from where I'm sat.

People and puffins

Let's try this again, shall we?  I don't know what happened to last night's blog but it had a right tantrum.

Today has been really busy as we've had the first day visitors since Friday. That's 250 people wandering the island. On visitor days we work in teams of two and our tasks are split between morning and afternoon. So this morning we cleaned the guest accommodation ready for the new overnight guests and then headed down to the Wick which is the best place to see puffins up close. I'm paired with Elana, an American who's living in the UK for three years while her husband is on a work placement.

We take a telescope with us and try to find interesting things to show the visitors when they arrive. Today I found a fulmar with a chick high up on the cliff. It got busy very quickly and you have to make sure that knees, hands and bags don't accidentally find themselves resting on the burrows as people try and take the perfect shot. We also keep an eye on the puffins as they won't cross the path if there are two many people and can get a bit stressed so we ask people to give them plenty of room.

After a quick lunch we headed down to help get people back onto their respective boats. I love that job as you get to speak to people who've had the most wonderful experience and have often waited a long time for it. A visit to Skomer is on a lot of people's to do lists.

Not many photo opportunities today but I realised that I haven't yet posted a puffin photo, so there's one below!

Snails and shearwaters

Well it all happened after I left you lot last night! Bird log was uneventful, apart from the assistant warden telling us about their dinner which had consisted of snails from the island. Yes, you heard correctly. So I'll give you one guess what happened after bird log... (photo below).

I think the snails went to my head a bit as I also agreed to go out for a late night walk to see the Manx shearwaters coming in. They usually spend most of their time at sea unless they're raising a chick, but when the weather is bad at sea they do what anyone else does and they come onto land for shelter. Yesterday's weather was pretty rubbish so we were expecting them to come in in huge numbers.

So at 11pm I found myself togged up in my wet weather gear heading out with some of the other guests and one of the other volunteers for a walk in the pitch black! 

I say pitch black, we had torches and red lights so as not to disturb the Manxies too much. It was fairly quiet at first but gradually we started to hear them calling. By the time we got back to the farm an hour later I'd had one run over my foot and had narrowly missed being hit by a few more; navigation over land isn't their strong suit! It was also really noisy on the island by then.

I also saw my first glow worms (it's the green light in the otherwise black pic attached)! The females glow to attract the males and they're quite unassuming little things apart from their glowing green bums!

Today has been tame in comparison to last night; no boats again so more scything, cleaning the RIB (inflatable boat) of algae and a reptile transect. A transect is an area that is covered with a tile or piece of wood/metal sheet and left for things to gather under it. You go back in a few weeks to see what's there. Today we found three toads and a slow worm.

No boats tomorrow as it's Monday so who knows what joys are in store...

Nos da pawb x

Sea legs at the ready

We awoke this morning to find that fog had rolled in overnight and we could barely see the other vans in the field. This could potentially mean that we wouldn't be able to cross to Skomer.

At the lodge where day visitors book to come on the island we were told that the boat would only run to take us over and bring the previous week's volunteers back. No day visitors would be going over today.

We unloaded my bag and (very heavy) box of food from the van and then had to carry them up a flight of steps and down a steep slope to the boat. Lee was a trooper; he always seems to end up carrying other people's stuff down to the boat too.

The crossing was character building,  to say the least, with the boat pitching badly on the way over. One guest who's staying tonight looked particularly green around the gills!

It's stayed foggy, windy and drizzly all day so we've got straight into the manual labour by cutting back the bracken from the paths! No visitors doesn't mean that we get a rest but I did get a chance to go for a walk to see the puffins before dinner.

So it's been a busy, tiring day. We're off to bird log at 9pm which is the nightly gathering of wardens, volunteers and overnight guests to record the day's wildlife sightings. All I've seen are gulls!

Tonight's pics are mainly of fog, but there's also one of some swallows that are roosting in the toilet!

Whooah, we're halfway the-ere

So, a "proper" blog eh? For someone as technically challenged as I am it's quite a feat for me to do this. But I do like talking so finding stuff to write about shouldn't be difficult!

We've travelled down to Marloes today as the boat to Skomer leaves at 9am tomorrow. West Hook Farm is home for the night where there is no electricity but the views are wonderful and an ice cream van visits the site!

We had a quick walk along the coast path to Martin's Haven, the cove where the boat goes from, and saw the Dale Princess ready to go. I must admit I'm not looking forward to lugging my bag and box of food up the 80 steps that lead up to the island!

So, the pressure is on me to be interesting and informative for a whole week... I'll do my best to take pictures so expect rugged scenery and maybe a puffin or two. Please feel free to comment as it will be nice to hear from people.

Tomorrow's early start means a rock 'n' roll evening of hot chocolate and people-watching (campsites are great for that) so I'll say nos da for now.

Testing, testing

Trying to figure out how this all works!