Depending on the weather

Tuesday 16th June
My day off, and its sunny-quite a novelty at the minute as normally it decides to be the one day of the week that rains!I had a couple of friends come over to stay for the evening, but because it was such gorgeous weather, half the UK population had decided to come for a day trip as well. They got to Martins Haven at 9:35am to get the 10am boat to Skomer only to discover all the mornings boats had sold out already. So be warned if your planning a trip to Skomer on a beautiful British summers day, get here early or be prepared to spend a day on Marloes sands instead!

Anyway they managed to get over in the afternoon, so I enjoyed showing them the puffins bringing in sand eels for their chicks at the wick. Even though I spend every working day on the cliffs, its still enjoyable to just watch the birds antics in a more relaxed manner, and the puffins can never fail to produce a smile with their funny mannerisms. The chicks or pufflings as they're known won't appear out of their burrows until at least the middle of July, but hopefully they'll be growing well as we haven't seen any signs of pipe fish yet. These are a indicator of low sand eel populations, and can lead to the chicks starving as the pipe fish choke them.

Photo: Jill Knight

Carl was everyone's hero when he caught a buzzard that was drowning in North Haven after being forced under the surface by mobbing gulls. The poor thing was rather in shock, and soaked right through. After a session drying out in the sun, it spent the next 2 hours hiding in a bush in North valley, getting mobbed by the gulls again before escaping for some peace and quiet.

Just had the delights of Jerry's banoffee pie, but have run out of vegetables, still I suppose there's still the multi vitamins or the chocolate.......or maybe even something from the garden-once its recovered from the rabbit proof fence failing a couple of weeks ago!

Tessa Cole
Field Assistant