Manxie hangover

So, after saying I wasn't going out looking for Manxies (Manx shearwaters) ladt night, that's exactly what I did! 

I say "looking", you don't have to look very far, once they start coming in, and you hear them well before you see anything. They have this eerie call (Google it), and years ago sailors wouldn't land on the island, thinking that the calls were the cries of lost souls. 

So, at 12pm last night we were four ladies of a certain age, wandering around the island, with a red light torch (doesn't disturb wildlife as much as white light), in a mixture of pyjamas, hoodies, hats and buffs, shouting "toad!" and "glow worm!" (77 last night) whilst dodging low flying Manxies. Hence the "Manxie hangover" this morning where we were all a bit tired from the night before. 

Today started amazingly well whem Miriam spotted a fin popping out of the water as we were at the Garland stone. There were 5 or 6 porpoise out there, feeding, and there was at least one calf. The gannets soon cottoned on and appeared, so we saw them diving, too, which was amazing to see. 

Shortly after the porpoise left, the mist rolled in and you could barely see anything from the cliffs. The mist hung around most of the day, but it cleared for a couple of hours later. It's back, now. 

A quick visit to a hide gave us a glimpse of a moorhen chick, but it's been a difficult day for spotting stuff. 

Nos da xxx

Porpoise and peregrines

To illustrate how much we walk during "Skomer week", my lowest step count so far this week has been 15,000 steps. I normally do about 10,000(ish) on a good day at home. I normally only get up to these numbers when I run. 

Stuff wot has happened today:

I spotted some harbour porpoise off North Haven while I was on morning boats. They're tricky to spot as they're only small (adults are about 1.8m in length) and they don't breach fully out of the water, like dolphins and whales. They just sort of half-breach and it looks like half a tyre with a little trianglular dorsal fin. 

I was on island patrol this afternoon, and saw lots of lovely things - a peregrine falcon, some raven fledglings, a buzzard, and 19 seals. No short eared owl yet, though.

Also, the porpoise we saw last night were actually common dolphins. Some researchers with better binoculars than us had seen them too. 

I think some people are going out to look for/listen for manx shearwaters tonight, but I'm getting to my last reserves of energy, now, and I need whatever's left for another full day of visitors tomorrow. I'm going to be horizontal for a day when I get home! 

Nos da xxx

Mermaids and porpoise

Ok, so this has definitely turned into a daily blog again. 

It's been an absolutely glorious day on the island today. Very hot (my Skomer tan is progressing nicely) and lots of happy visitors, which is always nice to hear. 

It's been a mostly quiet day, and a few of the volunteers showed off their synchronised swimming skills in the harbour, after the last boat had gone. They also did an excellent impression of three guillemots, standing on the edge before getting in. 

We went down to the Garland stone to watch yet another beautiful sunset. All of the overnight guests were there, too; it was a lovely atmosphere. 

I got some lovely photos of puffins in the sun, and, just before we left, we saw some harbour porpoise, heading into the sun as it set 😊 They're quite tricky to spot, as the only have a very small triangular dorsal fin and they barely break the surface of the water. I love seeing a fin, so that was lovely

Photos include puffins at sunset, and meJulie, the racing pigeon. 

Nos da xxx 

Don't blame it on the moonlight

Back to having day visitors today.  

Boats this morning and island wandering this afternoon. It's been a glorious day and everyone I spoke to was thoroughly enjoying themselves. 

I showed a few people some seals (17, in fact) on the Garland stone so they were really pleased. It's lovely to be able to show things to people, as not everyone knows what they're looking for or where to start looking. 

Some of my fellow volunteers went for a swim after the last boat today. The water looked gorgeous, but I've been in there before and it's bloody cold! So I was the designated lifeguard. 

Spots today include the seals, chough, buzzard, painted lady and meadow brown butterflies, cinnabar moth, and.....a Skomer vole! It was from a distance, a few metres away, but it was definitely a vole. It's the only mammal which runs along the ground as there are no mice, rats, shrews or anything else here. 

There are lots of chicks of all kinds showing up on the island now. The Pembrokeshire islands are hugely important in terms of breeding sea bird populations - Skomer and her sister island, Skokholm, have over half of the world's breeding population of Manx shearwaters alone. For that reason the island staff are closely monitoring the avian flu situation. There's nothing to suggest that it's on the island, and we're all hoping it stays that way.  Something like avian flu would be utterly devastating here, so, please keep everything crossed for a few weeks! 

On a happier note, I keep forgetting to tell you about meJulie, the racing pigeon which is currently wandering around the farm courtyard. She's been here for a couple of weeks and doesn't seem that keen to leave. You daren't leave a door open or she's in like a shot. We had to chase her around the visitor accommodation twice this morning! She's ringed, so the island staff will have rung her owners, if they've managed to catch her. I'll post a photo of her later in the week. She's very sweet, but they're not really suited to island life, so we're all hoping she decides to head home soon. 

We're off to watch the moon rise over the mainland. The light reflecting on the sea is utterly stunning. I can't do it justice with my camera, though, do you'll have to take my word for it. 

If you're in any doubt, go for a "shag"

Well, that got your attention! 

That was the conclusion we came to after a chat about the difficulty in telling the difference between a cormorant and a shsg, from a distance. Cormorants are seen on rivers as much as at the coast, but shags are almost exclusively coastal birds so we agreed that if you're at the coast and you're not sure, "go for a shag" 😉

There are no visitors to the island on Mondays, so it usually means island maintenance, but it can also be an opportunity to get involved in monitoring the various fauna of the island. 

Today's jobs were scything bracken in the morning, and cetacean monitoring and checking reptile refugia in the afternoon. 

Cetaceans are dolphins, whales and porpoise and we had to monitor two different points on the island. So we split into two groups and basically sat in the sun for two hours, watching the sea! We didn't see anything in those two hours. However, there were some Risso's dolphins seen off North Haven. They normally prefer to be out in deeper water, so everyone's very excited about them. 

The reptile refugia are sheets of tin or rubber that are left off the beaten track and every so often you lift them up and see what's gathered underneath. Today we found loads of slow worms and a couple of toads. I also learned that the Welsh for slow worm is "neidr ddefaid" or "sheep snake". 

We're on for a good sunset tonight so I'm hoping to get some nice photos. I say it every time, but Skomer sunsets are spectacular. 

Busy day tomorrow -  there's an overnight guests changeover, so we'll be up early to clean the visitor hostel and some of us will have to go down and help get stuff on and off the boat.  

xxx

WTF?!

I was going to do a blog every other day this week, but it's been quite the day, today, so you've got a bonus edition today. 

I was on island patrol this morning. We normally work in pairs, so we split patrol between us and went off in opposite directions around the island, to get more coverage. 

Lots of wildlife spots today, including seals, chough, a peregrine falcon, several gull chicks, shelduck, oystercatcher chicks and some curlew. 

The visitors also kept us busy today - one person passed out at the top of the steps, on arrival, and another man had already fallen on the mainland and was sporting a black eye when he arrived. They were both adamant that they were fine to stay on the island, but we kept an eye out for them, all the same.

Sadly some people think the island rules don't apply to them and were spotted off the path, taking photos. The Assistant Warden later found a collapsed burrow in that area, with a crushed egg inside. Puffins only lay one egg a year, so it's too late for them to try again this year ☹️

I know people think we're just being awkward when we ask them to move their stuff off banks, especially when it looks quite flat and sturdy, but it's about what's underneath; what you can't see. 

No visitor boats tomorrow, so we'll see what other jobs have been lined up for us instead. 

Off to bird log soon, to update the assistant warden on our sightings. Bird log happens every evening so that the island staff can build a picture of what's on the island and where it is. Time for a homemade brownie and a cuppa first, though! 

 

Back to the Skomer Arms

First day on Skomer and we've been really lucky with the weather. 

This morning was a choppy trip over on the new boat, the Dale Queen. We were joined by several photographers who were shocked to discover they had to help load and unload the boat.

We got straight into the jobs and I went down to the Wick, before the first visitors arrived. Lots of puffins coming in with sand eels, which kept the photographers happy. 

After lunch it was boat duty. Uneventful to the point where the visitor officer left us to it and went to do some nest monitoring! 

I've barely seen any wildlife today - it's always a rush when you do Wick then boats. I'm on island patrol tomorrow morning so I'll be keeping my eyes peeled!

We're just off to watch the sunset at the Garland stone, also known as the Skomer Arms.

We're baaaaack!

After three years, it's time to head back to Skomer for another week of volunteering. 

Although, I seem to have forgotten how to plan for it, and am feeling very disorganised about it all. I almost took us to the wrong guest house (who knew there would be two with the same name within 30 minutes of each other?!), but we got there eventually. 

I had an idea of how the B&B would be when I rang and spoke to the owner. She sounded like Audrey Forbes-Hamilton  (Penelope Keith's character) in To the Manor Born. Sure enough, she's very posh, but she's lovely, and the house is indeed like miniature version of Downton. It's basically their own home, and they just let out a couple of the rooms. 

We're currently sat in  Coco's - a lovely little Bistro overlooking Dale harbour. 

The boat is due to go tomorrow, but probably no day visitors, as apparently the swell is considerable (although it looks pretty calm from here). So, if all goes to plan, I'll be heading over on the 9am boat. 

Updates will be signal-dependent, as usual, but I'll post on Facebook when there are updates. Photos might have to live on Facebook - we'll see!