Wildlife Conspiracy

Yesterday we moved off Skomer for the winter. We were looking forward to getting off, to seeing friends, having a change of scenery and generally taking a break. But of course we were also sad to leave and it seemed that the wildlife was trying its best to convince us to stay.

On Tuesday another adorable seal pup was born on South Haven beach and it really wanted to be monitored, so its sad that we won't follow its progress.

The rabbits had never been cuter…

 

…and even the voles joined in the conspiracy to entice us to stay: One came out from under a sheet of corrugated iron and was nibbling on plants in such a charming way that we nearly forgot to finish tidying up around the house.

 

And then of course there was Jack, our semi-tame Jackdaw who didn’t want us to leave. He had been absent for nearly a month but two weeks ago he turned up again, strutting around on our balcony, demanding food with a sorrowful “fud” noise. But beware, once you had fed him he would eye the food suspiciously and if it wasn’t to his liking (he did not eat pumpkin seeds for example) he would look at you in a very reproachful way.

 

Our North Haven pup together with its mum was patrolling the area around the slip to raise alarm in case we tried to sneak off in our boat…

…and two Robins had taken residence inside the hostel and tried to prevent us shutting the windows and locking up.

However when all of these attempts to ensnare us on Skomer had failed the wildlife cranked it up a notch: They sent in their bravest agent to highjack our boat.

 

None the less we made it safely to the mainland and are now going to spend some time writing reports and organising next season before we are off on “holiday” (we are joining a Wader ringing expedition) to Australia in February next year.

Bee

(Skomer Warden)