Hello, I’m Ellie, one of the two Long-Term volunteers (LTVs).
I arrived on Skomer nearly four weeks ago and am here till the end of
September. I’m absolutely loving it – each day I can’t believe I’m lucky enough
to call this amazing island home for the summer. There have been so many
highlights and new experiences just in these few short weeks it’s hard to know
where to begin…
As well as welcoming day visitors and introducing them to
the island’s wildlife in the morning and co-ordinating boat departures in the
afternoon, early activities included learning to drive the tractor to transport
the luggage of overnight guests up to the hostel, and manning the telescope at
the Wick to show visitors close-up views of breeding kittiwakes, fulmars,
razorbills and guillemots, and, of course, the ever-popular puffin (no
telescopes required for them).
Ellie enjoying the Skomer puffins
While on Skomer, each LTV has their own project to complete,
and while I am here I will be looking at plastic ingestion by Manx shearwaters.
I am collecting the carcasses of dead Manxies from around the island, and
dissecting them to see whether they contain any macro-plastic (pieces large
enough to see). I am also collecting samples of prey items, stomach contents
and pre-faeces for micro-plastics analysis at the University of Gloucestershire.
Dissection and plastic ingestion are new areas of study for me so I am learning
a lot.
I have also been lucky enough to get involved with a variety
of other fieldwork projects. A number of studies are being carried out on the
Manx shearwater population on Skomer, and I have assisted with catching adults at
their burrows during the night to fit and retrieve GPS trackers, chick weighing
(which is done every day at selected study burrows), and chick ringing to allow
future monitoring of the population. I have helped to monitor kittiwake nests
to record the numbers and sizes of chicks, and have helped to catch and ring
juvenile lesser black-backed gulls and carry out re-sighting surveys to
determine their productivity this year. I have assisted with gull diet surveys
around great black-backed gull nests to see what they have been eating and
feeding to their chicks, and with night-time catching and ringing of
storm-petrels to monitor their population. I have been learning my butterflies
and helping out on the weekly butterfly transect survey, and also helped with
the moth trap, rock-pooling, vole trapping, and reptile transects which has
involved encounters with beautiful moths, anemones, sucker-fish, eels, Skomer
voles and slow-worms. I am in wildlife heaven!
Ellie helping researchers weigh
manx shearwater chicks
Learning to walk carefully around the burrows to carry out
the monitoring work has been one of my most nerve-wracking experiences – the
island is so fragile, like a honeycomb with all the puffin and rabbit burrows
as well as those of the Manxies – and it is a real skill to do this with
confidence.
Other activities so far have included a trip to the mainland
to collect new gas bottles for North Haven and the farm – all our cooking is
done on gas and this is an important and physically demanding task (the full
gas bottles are very heavy). Getting to drive the RIB across Jack Sound was a
big highlight! We had another trip out on the RIB in the evening to see the
rafts of Manx shearwaters out on the water, and went fishing - I caught my first
ever fish, a mackerel, which I duly gutted and cooked… very tasty!
My favourite wildlife encounters since I’ve been here have
included:
·
Seeing my first ever porpoise – off Skomer Head
– and then some more when I was coming back across on the Dale Princess with my
food shopping.
·
Hearing the Manx shearwaters come in to the
island about 11pm with their wonderful haunting, eerie cries, and seeing the
sky full of flying shapes, and watching them scurry across the ground in the
red light of my torch. I can even hear them from my bed at night, and it’s the
most amazing sound, one I will never forget.
·
Seeing the grey seals starting to come in, and
the first pup in Castle Bay on the Neck, and hearing their wailing calls
while standing on the cliffs at North Haven.
Ellie Ames
Skomer Island Long term Volunteer
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