What are they up to?

I am sure some of you might wonder what we get up to when the island is shut to visitors. Well we have cleaned all the buildings, scrubbed all the ovens, moved all benches and anything that can be blown off by a storm under cover, taken all the bedding to North Haven to store in our dry library and...

... done lots of footpath maintenance and widening and...

...painted our brand new bird hides which the Friends of Skokholm and Skomer built for us and...

...at the moment we are working on replacing the ply wood on our sales point with recycled plastic to  make it last the next 100 years.

And we have got more planned for next year: We are going to paint our boat shed, which should also last for a very long time!

Celtic Sustainables have very kindly donated high quality, environmentally friendly paint for our boat shed. To be honest before looking into this I never new that there are such big differences in paint but the one we were given sounds absolutely amazing.

This is what Celtic Sustainables says about the paint:

Silicate mineral paints are a fantastic alternative to conventional masonry paints; they are tough, long lasting and highly breathable whilst being environmentally friendly. There are a few manufacturers of these paints such as Earthborn and Keim.

These paints are especially suited for use over mineral based substrates; they become chemically bonded to the substrate when applied which makes them especially tough and long lasting. The high breathability of these paints makes them especially suited for use on older properties making them a great alternative to conventional methods such as limewash.

Extreme climactic conditions such as the exposed coastal conditions that Skomer endures year round are a challenging proposition for any exterior masonry paint, which is why Keim Royalan was a suggested solution for the boathouse on Skomer Island as it is specifically formulated for use where climates are particularly extreme, this paint should last well over a decade even with the harsh conditions whilst being an environmentally friendly product.

I was amazed to hear that the restaurant Weißer Adler in Stein am Rhein (Schwitzerland), close to were I grew up, received its coat of mineral paint in 1891 and hasn't been painted since. I do admit that our boat shed isn't quite as grand but none the less we will give you an update once we have painted the shed next spring. And do look at our blog again in spring 2117 to hear how the paint has done over time.

Bee
(Skomer Warden)

PS: A massive thank you goes out to Celtic Sustainables for their support!

What will week 41 bring?

So far this season 156 seal pups have been born on Skomer, which is four less than the same time last year. The final number of course will depend on how the end of the season turns out. Maybe we have already reached the peak?

 
Week 39 (26/9-3/10) was very productive this year with 34 births. In 2013 we had 37 births in week 39 but in the following two years we found no more than 19 new born pups during the same period.

Seal pup births per week in 2015

If the pattern of the last two years continues we will reach our maximum number of births this week (week 41). We were lucky enough to witness a seal pup getting born this morning: after noticing a large, pregnant female on North Haven beach last night. We were expecting to see a new pup on the beach this morning. However at 07.00h the cow was still in the same spot and no new born pup in sight.

Then at 08.30h Alice, our Long-term Volunteer, came down to the office and she noticed this female lifting her lower body up and straining. So we all rushed outside to brace the cold northerly winds to watch with bated breath the female give birth to a soggy looking pup. Luckily (for her and for us watching with cold fingers) it only took her 15 minutes to give birth.
 

 

At 10.30h when Alice and I came back from checking the caves for seals the female was still with her pup and she was encouraging it to drink, she was stroking its head with her flipper and finally it managed to find the teat and suckle- probably its first drink

Bee
(Skomer Warden)

Cold-blooded inhabitants of Skomer

From April-September we have short term volunteers on the island, as well as helping out with the day to day running of the island and visitor engagement, they also carry out some important surveys while on the island, including our reptile surveys.

We have two reptile transects on the island: the Farm and the coast transect. They both consist of around 20 refugia which heat up during the day and attract the cold blooded inhabitants of the island. The normally illusive Slow Worms Anguis fragilis are the most common visitors to these refugia. Common Toad, Skomer Vole and Common Lizards are also often seen.

The numbers of Slow Worms found can depend on weather conditions and time of year, our peak numbers were found in July and August with a peak total of 144 individuals in our farm transect (11/08/2016), and a peak of 25 individuals in our outer island transect (24/08/2016). All of the data collected is collated and then sent off to the Reptile and Amphibian Conservation Trust.

Slow Worms are neither worms nor snakes but belong to the lizard family, through evolution they have lost their legs, making them look surprisingly like snakes. They also have a very interesting evolutionary trait, similar to our common lizards, the Slow Worm can drop its tail when threatened to create a diversion in the hope that the predator will go for its tail and not the body, they then regrow their tail which happens slowly. Like all other reptiles, Slow Worms are ectotherm and need to find warm places to bask (warm their blood) to be able to get the energy to hunt, this is where our refugia come in. They provide the perfect basking habitat.. Slow worms mainly eat slugs, worms and other insects, which are plentiful on Skomer!

Slow Worms (photo by Pia Reufsteck)

Toads are much more frequently seen on Skomer than frogs, if you have stayed the night here you will know that when night descends the toads come out hunting for worms and slugs. There are often counts of over 100 individual toads between the Farm and North Haven, while frog numbers on the island are much smaller and harder to count, only a handful are seen along the same route.

Toad (photo by Pia Reufsteck)

Thanks to all of our lovely volunteers who took part in this year’s reptile surveys!

Alice Brooke (Long Term Volunteer)