Over the past few weeks, there have been a few new faces
slowly familiarising themselves with the winding footpaths around Skomer
Island. On the 1st of April, the island’s resident (human) population boomed
from two to five (!), with our new Visitor Officer and Long Term Volunteers Becca
and Samanta making the crossing from Martin’s Haven. The team were also joined
by our Head of Islands and Marine, Lisa, and her partner Dave, for some much appreciated voluntary support at this early point in the
season. Eleven days later, in what very much seemed like the blink of an eye,
the resident population saw yet another jump! This time the team were joined by
our new fieldworker Freya, and researchers Jules and Josie from Herriot Watt
and Gloucester universities respectively.
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| Learning the winding footpaths of Skomer © Ceris Aston |
You will hear more from the rest of the team over the next
few weeks. But for now, it is probably best that I introduce myself! So, hello (su'mae!)
– my name is Beth, and I’ll be the new Skomer Island Visitor Officer for 2021!
Crossing over to the island was a somewhat surreal
experience. Having never visited Skomer before, and indeed having only seen
some of the island’s most well-known inhabitants, puffins, once on a somewhat
wet and grey day in Scotland; I was not quite sure what to expect! For those of
you who have made the journey across yourselves, you will be familiar with
rounding the corner out of Martin’s Haven to a canvas of blue and green (or
perhaps, knowing the Welsh weather, grey!). We were greeted on our arrival by
Leighton and Ceris, our Warden and Assistant Warden, as well as a number
of rather curious seals, an array of auks – razors, guillies and, of
course, puffins - and more fulmars than I have ever seen in my entire life!
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| Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) at The Wick © Beth Thompson |
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Northern fulmar at Garland Stone (Fulmarus glacialis) © Beth Thompson
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| Short-eared owl (Asio flammeus) over North Pond © Beth Thompson |
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| Red-billed chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) at Skomer Head © Beth Thompson |
I had been warned in advance of the infamous ninety steps that
must be scaled from the landing stage – now feeling rather familiar with these
steps, I find myself wondering if there are actually more than ninety?! Having narrowly
avoided throwing any of our luggage or food unceremoniously into a rockpool, we
made our way up to our new home.
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Sunset over the Farm © Beth Thompson
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Sunset at North Pond © Beth Thompson
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Time seems to have run away with us since then. I find it
incredibly difficult to believe that, upon writing this, we’ve been settling in
to our new island home for over two weeks! In that time we’ve carried out our
first breeding bird surveys of the year, cleared the remainder of the landslide
at North Haven, repaired several boardwalks around the island, scrubbed and
painted hostel rooms, and baked (with varying degrees of success!) more loaves
of bread than I’m willing to admit! It’s been an absolute whirlwind – filled
mostly with sunshine, blue skies, incredible wildlife, and a whole lot of
laughter!
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| Beth delivering 'as much flour as you can carry!' © Ceris Aston |
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Clearing the landslide at North Haven © Ceris Aston
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| Gator chat © Ceris Aston |
We really cannot wait to be able to share Skomer with you
all once again, hopefully very soon.
Until next time. Wela i di wedyn!
Beth, Visitor Officer
