Island Update - August On Skomer

As summer comes to a close and autumn migrations (and weather!) begin, August is a time of pivotal change on Skomer. Auks like the Puffins, Razorbills, and Guillemots are now a rare sighting, but they’ve been replaced by murmurations of Starlings and visiting migrants like Blackcaps and Robins. A lot of island attention now turns to our sheltered coves for seal pups and to events like Black 2 Nature!

A gorgeous yellow sunset seen from the Garland Stone

Sea May Weed in full bloom illuminated in the afternoon sun

Seal Season

With the first two pups spotted in Matthew's Wick on the 6^th August, seal season is officially underway on Skomer! Increasing numbers of pregnant females are spotted hauling themselves out onto their favourite low tide spots such as the Garland Stone and Rye Rocks in North Haven. The Neck and the main island are now being surveyed at low tide every 3 days to count the pups which will continue until the end of September.

A large bull Grey Seal spotted resting in Kittiwake Cove

One of this season's first seal pups seen at Matthew's Wick on the Neck

Moth Trapping

This month, Skomer has been blessed with gorgeous warm and dry late-summer evenings which have provided fruitful moth trapping! We were joined by the Perseid meteor shower and even the northern lights on the 11^th August where we caught 24 different species including a rather regal Oak Eggar moth pictured below. Weekly volunteers and hostel guests were blown away by the diversity and subtle beauty of Skomer’s moth community, all thanks to the fantastic identification skills of Assistant Warden Ceris and LTV Nick!

A female Oak Eggar moth posing on egg boxes from our moth trap

Black 2 Nature

In other exciting news, Skomer has been host to a group of extremely enthusiastic teenagers this past week as part of a Black 2 Nature residential. Black 2 Nature (B2N) is a charity dedicated to connecting visibly minority ethnic (VME)) kids with nature and improving equal access to natural spaces. As part of their stay, we involved B2N guests with as many of our favourite island activities as possible, including weighing Manx Shearwater chicks alongside OxNav students, seal watching, and even a quiz including points for best bird call impressions! 

The B2N group enjoying the sunshine on Skomer

Great Black-Backed Gull Diet Study

One of Skomer’s seabird researchers, Will, has been monitoring the Great Black-Backed Gulls (along with a handful of other species!) from nest site to fledgling. As well as this productivity research, LTVs Nick and Pete have helped Will rummage through this season’s abandoned nests in search of clues into the chick’s eating habits.

Will (left) and Nick (Right) discussing the contents of a Great Black-Backed Gull chick pellet

The diverse leftovers we found suggest that these enormous chicks have been chowing-down on everything from fish, plant matter and rabbits, to Manx Shearwaters that their parents have caught! These data give us invaluable insight into the diet of these birds whose numbers are unfortunately in decline across the British Isles.

An extremely fresh Great Black-Backed Gull pellet containing mostly vegetable matter

 With the days cooling down, autumn migrants passing through each day, and seal pups popping up in greater numbers, September is fast approaching here on Skomer.

- Pete (Skomer LTV)

Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) seen from the Harold Stone

Island Update - July on Skomer

Summer is well underway, and autumn is fast approaching, and by some measures, already here! The last of the Guillemots and Razorbills have headed out with only a handful of sightings every other day. The last few Puffins are seen busily ferrying fish to their chicks, plenty of Kittiwake fledglings are around and the fuzzy Fulmar chicks are popping up across the cliff-tops. The Grey Seals are hauling out in larger and larger numbers across the island over the last few weeks, and we’re all eagerly awaiting the first pup of the season to arrive.

We sadly had to say goodbye to our two LTVs Huia and Mike who have been with us since March, but have welcomed our new ones Pete and Nick who will be staying with us until early October.

A sunny view of the Mew Stone from The Neck

A sunny view of Moorey Mere and South Stream Valley

Gull ringing

In early July, we managed to ring over 350 juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gulls, in order to monitor their breeding success and see how many return to the island in the following years. This involved searching through the bracken (made denser and taller this year thanks to the unusually wet spring) for the juveniles which would either hunker down in the foliage, making it easy to pick them up (apart from some which had your wrists at the top of their menu), or having to follow the shaking vegetation to chase down your gull. These gulls were then handed to our licensed ringers to be fitted with their rings before being released.

Our new LTVs Nick (left) and Pete (right) helping with the gull ringing

Manx Shearwater research

The OxNav masters students, Bridget and Layla, have been working hard with their daily weighing of the Manx Shearwater chicks. Recently, they have also started night work, which involves working on the colony in the early hours weighing adults and chicks. With the help of Lewis, several adults have been fitted with GPS devices in order to learn more about foraging behaviour and their day to day movements. As this work can carry on until 3am, the researchers are virtually in a different time-zone whilst these night shifts are happening.

The quickly-growing Manx Shearwater chicks being weighed in a mug

Kittiwake fledglings

With the auks all out at sea, the sounds of the cliffs are now dominated by the Kittiwakes. On the 24th July we had our first fledgling, spotted by Will at High Cliff. Seeing the juvenile Kittiwakes getting to grips with flying is always a joy to see, and are a highlight for the visitors.

Red Campion Anther Smut Fungus

One particular highlight for me has been finding several sites across the island with Red Campion Anther Smut Fungus (Microbotryum silene-dioicae). As the name implies, this is a type of smut (from the German for “dirt”) fungus which takes over the sexual organs of the Red Campion flower. The usual bright white anthers are instead coated in a dark brown mass of spores where the fungus then utilises pollinators in order to spread from one host to another. This can often lead to a trail of infected flower heads showing the path of the fungus-carrying pollinator. These smut fungi could be seen as a type of horticultural STI. This is a heavily under-recorded species which is likely to be common all across the UK but with only a handful of records, so if you do spot a dark-anthered Red Campion, take a closer look and submit it to your favourite recording organisation!

The dark smut-covered anthers on a Red Campion flower

Ragwort

As the Red Campions are going to seed, the season of Ragworts is in full swing, with large areas of the island being carpeted by this glorious wildflower. Taking a closer look at them, the characteristic black and orange caterpillars of the cinnabar moth make themselves known, with some plants covered in over 40 of them. As I learnt from Ceris this week, the Welsh translation of the Cinnabar moth is “teigr y benfelen” which means “tiger of the golden head”, with the tiger being the black caterpillar with the orange stripes, and the golden head referring to the yellow flowers of the Ragwort. A lovely translation of a beautiful caterpillar with their foodplant.

A Red Admiral butterfly enjoying the Ragwort

A multitude of Cinnabar moth caterpillars munching on Ragwort

Skomer Voles

The annual work to monitor the Skomer Vole population has begun, with some of the early starts being rewarded with stunning sunrises and plenty of voles. Over two weeks, hundreds of traps will be monitored to calculate the population of Skomer’s only endemic mammal across the island.

The Skomer Vole - Skomer's only endemic mammal species

A glorious sunrise at the Farm

With the Ragwort in full bloom, the auks all out at sea, and the Grey Seals making their way to the caves, coves, and beaches to have their pups, Autumn has arrived here on Skomer. 

- Nick (Skomer LTV)

A beautiful sunset from North Pond