Meet Kraken the Skomer Monster

It all began on 2nd of June. We were concrete bashing and jack hammering on the slip when the volunteers spotted a duck leading her chicks out into North Haven. Ed and the volunteers watched the little family reach Rye Rocks but they did not get any further - a gale was blowing and it was pouring with rain, the gulls had seen them too and picked them off one by one for breakfast. Two hours later Ed heard a "pip pip" through the noise of the jack hammer and suddenly a little duckling crawled out of the ivy - it had been left behind and had escaped the gulls. What do you do with a duckling which is no more than a few hours old? Well the volunteers put it in a hat and everyone went back to work.

It turned out that the duckling was still sat in the hat when the work party broke off for lunch so Ed brought Kraken up to the house. By then Leighton had named the duckling after a sea monster.

Kraken

Here is the picture story of Kraken's life on Skomer Island 

Jack hammering at North Haven on 2/6/15

Kraken no more than a few hours old in Charmaine's hat

Kraken having the first bit of food in his life. (Ducklings don't eat for the first 24h but live off the yolk from the egg)

Having a swim in our sink. One day old

So much computer work...

...is tiring (three days old)

How exciting, a larger swimming pool

Sarah chashing up whilst watching Kraken in the cold frame

Food is great...

...and so is drink (one week old)

Kraken doing Bird Log (12 days old)

15 days old - he now tucks his bill behind his wing. Only problem: the wing is still too small :-)

Kraken has grown a lot since we got him. He now does proper adult like whistling noises and exercises his wings daily: He runs through the house at great speed flapping his little stumps frantically. Have a look at this video to see him "fly".

He is so funny and interesting and has enchanted the entire island. Now that Kranken takes part in bird log we have many more participants. By the way, if you haven't already noticed, Kraken is a Shoveler. In two to three weeks Kraken will have all his adult feathers and then we will try and release him or her on North Pond. We will keep you updated on Kraken's progress.

Bee

(Skomer Warden)