The Skomer Island Blog
Wednesday 30 October 2024
Video Blog: Skomer Stories Ep. 1 - Seal Monitoring
Thursday 24 October 2024
Island update - October
I have just spent six incredible weeks on Skomer Island assisting with their annual grey seal monitoring as part of a collaboration with Swansea University. During those six weeks I watched the lively island bustling with visitors, volunteers and Manx Shearwaters transform into a sleepy refuge for wildlife which I miss terribly.
Sunset seen from North
Haven |
My main role on the island was to count the seals at the six busiest sites on the island, as well as recording their sex and age category. This role certainly wasn’t glamorous, I spent many hours shuffling on my belly through grass and mud so that I remained hidden from timid groups of seals, but I loved every minute of it! As well as counting the seals, I photographed the distinct scarred seals I spotted and matched them up with photos from the island’s records. This was incredibly interesting work as I was able to identify seals by their scars or markings and see where they had been in previous years.
Top: a cow with distinct
scars at Driftwood Bay in 2023. Bottom: The same cow at the Slabs in 2024. |
Hard at Work
With no visitors on the island, autumn is the season for
repairs and construction. When I wasn’t counting seals, I got stuck into some
tasks around the island and with so few people around an extra pair of hands was
greatly appreciated. I assisted Visitor Officer Rob and Assistant Warden
Ceris to prepare the Wick for the Winter. This involved removing the surprisingly
heavy metal fenceposts, rope and benches from the Wick and taking them to the
farm. During this task, I did go head-to-head with Rob in a wheelbarrow race,
which I unfairly lost!
Ceris slaying as she carries fenceposts away from the Wick |
Gull Roost Count
Initially, Bird Log sounded like another language, and I would desperately try to understand the meanings of “chiffchaff at Moorey Mere” and “Dunnock at Captain Kites”. OxNav students Layla and Bridget and long-term volunteers Nick and Pete were all admirably patient with me and helped identify the birds I had seen that day from my puzzling descriptions. It didn’t take long for me to get hooked and I began spending hours wandering around the island searching for birds.
Great Black-backed gull at Driftwood Bay |
My favourite birdwatching experiences on Skomer had to be watching the owls at dusk. After nights of listening to Rob and Ceris discussing the pellets they’d seen and sounds they’d heard; I finally spotted a stunning barn owl flying above North Valley Willows. I was also exceedingly envious of Nick and Amy who watched four short-eared owls as they flew near the farm, but I was eventually lucky enough to see some myself!
A gorgeous
short-eared owl photographed on Skomer by Amy Compton |
My Last Seal Round
My final seal round was an unforgettable farewell. After
almost ten days of dwindling pup numbers at South Haven, I was delighted to see
two exceedingly tiny yellow pups laying besides their enormous mothers. The
sunny afternoon got even better when I arrived at Castle Bay to see my largest
haul out yet, 110 seals on a single beach!
Some of the 110 seals
at Castle Bay on the 10th October |
This was the perfect finish to the six extraordinary weeks I spent on Skomer. It was an honour and a privilege to work alongside some of the most devoted, knowledgeable and kind people I’ve ever met. I cannot wait to come back!
- Emma Whatley
Wednesday 9 October 2024
Skomer in September - Seabird Spectacular!
Ted and I are once again truly honoured to be asked to write a blog about our most recent visit to the most beautiful place on the planet.
For
weeks we had been talking about the weather, hoping for a week of easterlies
before we went, then switching to a west or northwest when we arrived as we
really wanted to spend lots of time sea-watching. Little did we realise just
how much of the latter we would do!
But the
weather did exactly what we wanted.
Pretty
early in the morning on Sat 7th September we received a message from
the very wonderful Ceris to say that there were no boats for at least five
days, except for this afternoon at 3.30. Ted and I had to move so fast, nothing
was ready, we hadn’t packed and we hadn’t shopped. We flew around the house
(and loft) and an hour and a half later, we were off. We dived into the local
supermarket where I’m sure the shoppers thought we were doing ‘Supermarket
sweep’. No-one got hurt (we don’t think) as we flew around the aisles filling
the trolley, we threw it in the car and drove.
With
half an hour to spare we were on the beach at Martins Haven at 3pm having
hastily packed the rucksacks at Marloes.
We met
one of the young birders and then Beth came over the steps to meet us – amazing
! Soon we were on the Dale Queen with Carl + Co and our stunning destination
came into view – emotional? Oh yes!
Onto the
island, meeting the rest of the team – Ceris, Pete, Nick, Lisa, Will and more
friendly and welcoming faces, it was so good to be back, in paradise with
wonderful, warm, human beings 😊
Both
Leighton and Rob were off island, with Rob doing the amazing thing of running a
marathon for charity – well done Rob. And Leighton was off being Best Man- what
a great person to be your best man!
There
had apparently been a bit of a ‘fall’ of birds, so very quickly we were up to
the Farm and we were birding. Indeed there were lots of birds, the bushes were
positively jumping with small birds - warblers and flycatchers in particular.
It
didn’t take Ted long to find the Wryneck that Ceris kept on seeing, perched in
a bush in North Valley – how we love our Wrynecks.
There were lots and lots of Spotted Flycatchers and a few of the Pied variety too, one at North Valley crossing actually allowed for a pic or two to be taken.
Pied Flycatcher at North Valley Crossing, by Ted. |
Spotted Flycatcher at the farm, by Mike |
We
really didn’t have anywhere near long enough on this day to cover in depth what
we wanted, but the Island already had us encapsulated once more 😊
We slept
well !
Sunday 8th was wet, very wet, for much of the day, so we camped out in the hide at North pond for a long while enjoying the 2 Dunlin and some White Wagtails, before helping out with some conservation work in the afternoon. As it dried up the birds popped out once more, with Whinchats being really evident, in fact they were throughout our stay.
Dunlin at North Pond, by Ted |
We were
also watching a pod of Common Dolphin around the Mew Stone, hunting and jumping
out of the water – what a truly special place Skomer is 😊
Whinchat in Wick Valley, by Mike |
Monday 9th saw us casually walking past Green Pond in the day where we both glanced at a dark bird on the water, we looked a bit harder as we both realized it was a Coot, another great bird, Coots are unusual out here and neither of us had ever seen one here.
There
were also 6 Teal on North Pond from dawn which were great to see up close.
Coot on
Green Pond, by Ted. |
Teal on North Pond, by Mike |
Things
really started to kick off here, and were the start of the next few days of
magical sea watching, making memories and brilliant life experiences!
There
were terns going past, including Common, Sandwich and Arctic – more unusual
birds, Arctic Skua and Scoters. Then a ghostly white tern came along, close in
near the Garland Stone, surely not? Surely yes - a Roseate Tern. It even
did the decent thing and flew alongside Common Terns, what a beauty.
This spurred us on for the next morning, the wind was increasing and so surely was our chances of decent seabirds.
The wind
was due west and seriously strong, we knew we couldn’t sea watch at Skomer Head,
way too exposed, so with Pete and Nick we tried at the Garland Stone, it was
pretty bad here.
It was
obvious pretty quickly that birds were passing to our west and there was little
in the bay, so we moved further west between Pigstone Bay and Bull Hole and
tried to hide behind some rocks, it was so difficult to get out of the wind.
But birds were moving south and soon Ted picked up a lovely pale phase Pomarine
Skua. Pete and Nick had to go, but despite being hammered by the wind we knew
we had to stick it out.
It
wasn’t too long before Ted pulled another rabbit out of the hat, well a
Shearwater out of the sea to be more accurate, and one of the Balearic
variety at that, a fantastic bird.
Not long
after, I picked up a bird sitting on the sea, initially my brain just couldn’t
work it out, then it finally clicked it was a Shearwater, but it looked massive,
then a Manxie flew over it, the bird was huge, indeed it was - Boom !!! – A Great Shearwater, and it was
sitting on the sea, not too far out. Total adrenalin rush at this point.
Between us we made sure that one of us was always locked on it, as the other
tried to get photos. I then somehow managed to ring Ceris whilst keeping my eye
in my scope eyepiece, it was a brief conversation! I didn’t hear what happened
at Ceris’s end, but Ceris told us later - Ceris was briefing the volunteers
when she took my call, then she said something like – CHANGE OF PLAN – Run !
It
didn’t take long until the first footsteps were running up behind us and soon
nearly everyone on the island was looking at the Great Shearwater. We later
found out that this was the first Skomer record for 30 years.
The Great Shearwater, by Ted |
The Great Shearwater twitch, by Mike |
The morning of the 11th was going to be our extended seawatch day, and with Ceris, Will, Beth and Lisa we camped out at Skomer Head – it was exciting. Skuas, ducks, auks, waders, all going past in spectacular seas. Then Ted ………. did it again !!!!!!
Somehow
Ted found and then stayed locked onto a juvenile Sabines Gull – Wow, just wow, but
none of us could get on it. Then it settled on the sea, we still couldn’t get
on it. I simply can’t describe the pain
and frustration as 5 good birders tried and tried and tried - it just shows how
difficult sea watching is. But in the end we managed it with Ted's considerable
help, and it flew around with it’s Kittiwake chums, somehow Ted even got some
photos – I simply don’t know how.
The
young birders arrived, they were happy, everyone was happy.
The Sabines Gull, by Ted. |
We
enjoyed lots more seabird passage including more Skuas, some really close, lots
and lots of terns, significant numbers for Skomer. Also divers going south and
a Bar-tailed Godwit going north-west.
We
watched as a huge passage of Kittiwakes came past us out of Broad Sound, with
an estimated 4000 in only 90 minutes.
Other
exciting news - Rob returned 😊It was great to see him!
Fri 13th dawned clear, bright and beautiful, the wind had dropped to virtually nothing, we had less than 2 hours to the boat.
Sunrise, by Mike |
We bashed around as quickly as we could, watching a Water Rail run down the length of North Pond and a Grasshopper Warbler pop up in the vegetation there, this was our parting gift.
Water Rail at North Pond, by Ted. |
All too soon (it’s always too soon) we were saying our goodbyes with heavy hearts, to our little bit of paradise on Planet Earth, and to the most amazing, wonderful people 😊
It’ll
soon be May …………😊😊😊
Mike + Ted Wallen
Sept
2024
A Marsh Harrier, by Ted. |
Tuesday 1 October 2024
Island Update - Late September
As we pass the equinox, it’s officially autumn. The nights are drawing in and the temperatures are dropping. Skomer is transitioning in to end of season jobs and warm sunny days are now a mere memory.
|
September jobs
Autumn on Skomer is the time to do repairs and construction. Benches,
fences, signs, dams, and more which have survived the previous year are in need
of some touching up before the winter.
With there only being one boat per day, if there are any at all with the
weather, the weekly volunteers are giving helping hands around the island
fixing up paths, clearing vegetation, and other general DIY. Wooden doors,
signs, walls, fences, and benches have all been treated with preserver, along
with the sales point and landing. Paths at the Wick have been widened as the
grass had grown over, rotting benches have been replaced, and brambles around the farm have been
cleared, to name just a few tasks.
The newly widened path at the wick |
The volunteers aren’t the only people learning new skills this month; our assistant warden Ceris has been hard at work getting street savvy with some gen-z lingo. She described the application of wood preserver at the sales point as “That fence is giving, you guys ate and left no crumbs. Slay” (translating to “That fence looks amazing, you guys did an amazing job, well done”).
Ceris and some weekly volunteers inspecting Nick and Pete’s painting work. It’s definitely slay. |
Sunrise barge day
In preparation for all the construction and repair work going on in the last
few weeks, we had our second barge day of the season. With the early high tide,
this meant being ready at 6am for a long day of hauling and organising the
components of a new kitchen, two new bathrooms, a dam repair, and so much more.
The rest of the barge load comprised of several tonnes of sand, aggregate,
concrete, large stacks of wood, and over a dozen full gas bottles. There was
also plenty of old construction waste, empty gas bottles and more to leave the
island.
The laden barge at sunrise |
The barge moving full gas canisters onto the island |
A dumper shed full of materials |
Work party and building work
All this material was brought on for several construction and repair jobs,
with the refitting of the hostel kitchen and bathrooms being the main project.
Six volunteers have come to the week as a work party to prepare the hostel for
builders to come, amongst other jobs across the island. For the last week, the
farm has been a bustling construction site.
Concrete being chiseled out of the research block hall |
The work party removing the hostel kitchen |
Gone in a matter of hours! |
The progress with the new dam at Moorey Mere |
North Valley Willows Improvements
On the topic of construction projects, our LTVs Nick and Pete have recently
finished a project putting in two new sections of boardwalk at North Valley Willows near Green Pond. Along with the boardwalks, paths were cleared and a
falling branch was propped back up.
Nick and Pete working on the boardwalk |
Pete cutting one of the supports for the boardwalk |
The ground was so clay-like whilst digging the supports in, we were able to make “Clayton” the warden in mud form. |
The finished boardwalk |
The propped-up Willow branch |
Sunrise Spoonbills
Autumn migrants are still passing through, with conspiracies of Ravens and
charms of Goldfinch gracing Skomer with their presence. We were delighted to
have Dave Astins of West Coast Birdwatching lead a bird watching group for three
days. Plenty of birding highlights were enjoyed with the regular array of
Spotted Flycatchers, Chiffchaff, Willow Warblers, Greenland Wheatear, Snipe,
Dunlin, Whinchat, Blackcaps, and plenty more. Some of the special sightings
were Hobby, Common Rosefinch, and an amazing display of seven Spoonbill which
flew over the island and circled back four times.
Spoonbills photographed by Dave Astins |
The Spoonbills over the farm - photo by Dave Astins |
More Skomer yoga!
As our events season comes to a close, we finished the programme with our
final yoga retreat, lead by Ady. With moonrise sessions at the garland stone,
and sunrise at the trig point, the group enjoyed a wide range of breathing and
mindfulness exercises across the island. Booking for events next year will soon be advertised on our website.
The yogis having a morning session in the courtyard |
Colossal cumulonimbi and Stunning sun dogs
Clouds have been something I have always loved, and here on Skomer, we’ve
had some beautiful skies. My brother has a good quote “clouds are
the most under appreciated form of natural beauty in my opinion”
which I completely agree with. You can always look up at the sky and know
something about what’s going on up there. Even a grey featureless blanket, or
an empty blue sky, tells you so much about the weather and how the atmosphere
is acting, which is fascinating.
Autumn is a great time for cloud and weather watching. With storms mixed in
with fair weather, you can see a great variety of cloud types and have a
wonderful array of sunrises and sunsets.
Cumulonimbus cloud at gorse hill. One of the tallest and most iconic storm clouds we can get, sometimes reaching 16km high. These impressive clouds can bring heavy precipitation and lightning. |
Stratocumulus radiatus (Stratocumulus - low puffy clouds all connected. Radiatus - long ‘cloud streets’ forming rows of clouds) over North Haven |
Cumulus (The classic fair weather cloud which is the iconic ‘cloud’ shape) at sunrise. |
Cumulus fractus (fractus - a broken or fractured version of the cumulus cloud) over north pond. |
Light hairy cirrus clouds (cirrus - from Latin of curl, wispy high-altitude cloud) above the farm |
The sun (left) and a sun dog (right). Sun dog’s form when light refracts through ice crystals bending the light from the sun towards the viewer. |
Crepuscular Rays over Grassholm. Sun’s rays shining around the edges of the cloud |
Harvest time at the farm!
Rob’s veg patch at the farm has had a magnificent crop this year. Thanks to
his hard work and the fertile soils of Skomer, several collections of
courgettes, beetroots, and salads have been made over the last few months. Last
week, Rob had his largest single harvest with 10kg of rhubarb, salad, potatoes,
carrots, courgettes, beetroots and parsnips. However, the crowning glory and
winner of “Largest Skomer vegetable of the season (and probably all seasons
prior and to come)” was his 2kg marrow. This is a particularly impressive
vegetable as it has been a bumper year for slugs, with the mild and moist
season forming a perfect slug-fest with one pumpkin and several potatoes
already succumbed to the hordes of gastropods. When Rob noticed a particularly
large courgette one morning, he decided to see how large it could grow. Either,
it would grow large and act as a decoy veggie so all the slugs and snails would
target one individual instead of lightly grazing upon the entire garden, or
the courgette would evolve into a giant prize-winning marrow and Rob would have
a delicious dinner, win-win!
A sneaky Rabbit that got into the veg patch but didn’t cause any damage |
Rob with his huge marrow! |
The full harvest! |
Investigating the strength of Nettles
Many of Skomer’s visitors and residents have commented on the high strength
of the Common Nettles (Urtica dioica) found on Skomer, with
some people still in pain days after being stung. In 2022, when Sir David
Attenborough visited for the filming of Wild Isles, he sat at the sales point
and got stung, saying “You have very strong nettles here”. To
try and answer the question of how much stronger they are, Nick carried out
a short and highly simplified investigation in their free time.
The stinging needles of the Nettle |
The literature doesn’t have much on the varying strengths of Nettles, but Kato et al. (2008) from Nara Women’s University in Japan published a paper on “The evolution of nettle resistance to heavy deer browsing”. In the paper, it was found that the nettles in Nara Park had a much higher needle density as they were being subjected to high intensity grazing by the Sika Deer. This could also be the reason why the nettles on Skomer might be stronger than the ‘average’ nettle due to the high grazing Rabbit population. This paper was used as a rough guide to form a small study on how needle density varies on Skomer, compared to other locations.
Three locations had samples taken; Martin’s Haven on the mainland (as a rough off-island comparison), the farm at the centre of Skomer (one of the highest grazing densities on the island), and the sales point in North Haven (more specifically, the very bush which stung Sir David to get the quote mentioned above). The results were far from significant, but had a measurable difference
Average needle density shown at the three different sites with both the upper side (a) and under side (b) counts shown. |
It showed that Skomer’s nettles had a slightly higher needle density
compared to the mainland, but not by a considerable margin. A reliably sourced
figure for the average needle density of U. dioica was not found, so a
comparison to needle density further afield than the far West of Pembrokeshire
could not be calculated. A more reliable figure and distribution of needle
density on Skomer could be carried through a much more thorough investigation, but
it’s interesting to see what could be found through a little looking!
Autumn tides
As we passed the equinox, doubled with a full supermoon, the tides have been
extra strong recently. On the 20th September, the tidal range on Skomer was an
amazing 7m. On particularly low tides, when you’ve finished swimming the water
will sometimes be considerably below the bottom step.
A time lapse of the full changing tide
Emma arrives on Skomer
We’re excited to welcome Emma to the island until mid October. She will be
helping with the seal research that’s taking place, mainly on the Neck. She
will be helping with the regular counts of hauled out pups and adults, along
with looking at individual Seal’s scars and patterns to match up with database
images. This information will allow us to know where these seals have been seen
in previous years to look at site fidelity (the tendency for an animal to
return to previously visited locations).
Emma photographing seals from the Isthmus |
At around 100 or so Seal pups already, the pupping season is well underway. The Seals haunting sounds of “AwooOOooOoooo” and “WfuuuguaaaahhHHH” amongst a wide variety of others can be heard from across the entire island. On still mornings you can often hear them from the farm drifting across the fields. Extra atmospheric if it’s a heavy mist or low cloud! The Seal pups make a much more toddler-like sounds which can be very disconcerting when you hear it echoing amongst the sea caves. Haul outs across the island are continuing to rise in numbers with Castle Bay regularly having over 30 Seals.
Departing LTVs
As we come to end of September, this sadly means the departure of our two
long-term volunteers Nick and Pete, who have been with us since the start of
July. As a thank you, Rob our Visitor Officer, and Ceris our Assistant Warden,
took both of them, along with Emma our Seal Researcher, out for a boat trip
around the island. It was amazing to see the island from a completely different
perspective and gave a whole new appreciation for the island. Wildlife
highlights included great views of Razorbills and a Guillemot in winter
plumage, and plenty of Gannets passing right past us, with some going overhead.
A Gannet flying right over the boat |
A Guillemot in winter plumage |
Skomer Head and the Amos as seen from the boat |
Our departing LTVs Nick (right) and Pete (left) sitting on the boat |
As we say goodbye to our long-term volunteers, weekly volunteers, and day visitors until next spring, Skomer is wrapping up the season and preparing for the winter.
- Nick (and Pete, Skomer LTVs)
Sunset seen from North Valley |