Sunday 15 September 2024

Island Update – First Half of September

Robins calling in the crisp morning light and the Ragwort maturing with pom-poms full of seeds tell us that Autumn is truly upon us on Skomer. We’re nearing peak seal pup season, and Autumn migration is ramping up in glorious fashion.

A small brown rodent sits eating circular green leaves centre frame, surrounded by tall green and brown plant stems
A Skomer Vole enjoying some Ground Ivy for breakfast just after dawn


White sea foam drains down black rocks as large waves hit the rocky shore
Stormy weather at The Garland Stone


Migration Season

Autumn is a little different and a rather special time on the island compared to the mainland. Instead of pumpkin spice lattes and Christmas music being played in the shops, Skomer’s bracken turns a beautiful rusty shade of gold, the trees become packed with unusual migrating birds, and the night skies harbour lovely seasonal moths! 

Two fern-like fronds stand above a carpet of grass, one is dark green and the other is rusty gold in colour
Bracken fronds turning golden brown

Skomer is an important pit-stop on the southward migration of many species as there are plenty of invertebrates and seeds for visiting birds to feed on, as well as shelter from rough weather out at sea. At the beginning of this month, hundreds of Swallows lined the farm rooftops, and the first Wryneck of the season was spotted by Assistant Warden, Ceris, on 1st September. In fact, the first three sightings of this gorgeous bird were enjoyed by only Ceris, she is now Skomer’s very own Wryneck Whisperer!

A brown bird sits on top of a plant stem in centre frame, it has seeds in its beak and the plant stem has pale spherical seed heads on top
A Linnet feasting on seeds atop a Ragwort stem that has gone to seed (photo by weekly volunteer)

A small brown bird with a long tail sits on a thin outstretched branch, the background is a blurred green shrub
A Spotted Flycatcher uses a branch of North Valley's Willows as its hunting perch (photo by LTV Nick)

A rather warm and still evening early this month proved to be the most fruitful moth trap record so far this season! LTV, Nick, identified and recorded 111 individual moths comprising an amazing 36 species. This included the first migratory-giant Convolvulus Hawk Moths of the year as well as an astounding 73 Common Sexton Beetles. There must have been plenty of delicious carcases dotted around the island that night!

A large moth faces the camera and sits on the bark of a tree stump. It has large, dark eyes and fine comb-like antennae. The moth is covered in tiny grey and drown 'hairs''.
Close-up photo of a beautiful Convolvulus Hawk Moth taken by a weekly volunteer


Golden Hair Lichen Survey

One of Skomer’s rarest inhabitants, Golden Hair Lichen, is a striking lichenised-fungus that only colonises north-facing, sheltered crags that have exceptional air quality. LTVs Nick & Pete have been tasked with remapping its distribution based on pointers from the last survey over a decade ago in 2013. After a handful of still afternoons scrambling on the clifftops, we are thrilled to have found a new colony on the rocks inland from Pigstone Bay, and at Bull Hole where the lichen was thought to have disappeared! It is refreshing to survey and shed light on such a beautiful species in an under recorded and underappreciated taxonomic group.

A vertical line of golden-yellow clumps sits in the centre of the image. The clumps of sponge-like lichen are attached to pale grey slabs of rock that make up the rest of the image.
Golden Hair Lichen (Teloschistes flavicans) thriving in a crag looking towards The Garland Stone


Skomer Yoga!

Led by ex-Skomer Visitor Officer, Catrin Norris, two groups of ‘Yogis’ ventured to Skomer to enjoy a retreat filled with meditation and focused exercise. The wild and earthy qualities of the island proved the perfect setting to align the chakras and get a (mental and physical) breath of fresh air – this was especially true during the dawn yoga session overlooking the Garland Stone!

A group of people are sat in a circle in the centre of the image on a dark green grassy plateau. Behind them is the sea and a pale-grey sky.

Yoga and meditation session at the Garland Stone


Biosecurity Checks

Skomer is extremely fortunate and proud to be the breeding site for 41,605 Puffins and over 750,000 Manx Shearwaters (according to 2024 seabird counts!), but none of these birds would be able to breed here if ground predators made it ashore. For context, if a single pregnant rat managed to get onto the island, there would be over 800 rats in just 6 months! This is why the whole island team is dedicated to monitoring the island for rodent activity with frequent biosecurity checks.

A person in a red coat crouches in front of a grey box. The foreground is a carpet of bright green plants, and the background is the sea with a cliff rising out of it.
LTV Pete setting up a biosecurity box at The Wick

A shallow cylinder sits in the middle of the image on top of a grey box. The cylinder is dark brown with a lighter brown skirt, and scratch marks can clearly be seen along the top of the cylinder. The background is a grey boulder which stands out of focus
A chocolate & wax block with small mammal toothmarks from either Skomer Vole or Wood Mouse

Although the chocolate wax blocks may look and smell delicious when you’re marching around the island to check the biosecurity boxes, the bait is key to identifying small mammal activity by picking up tooth marks left by furry visitors. Ink pads also give another piece of the puzzle by leaving footprints, providing resident slugs and snails haven’t eaten their fair share of course!

Young Birders Week

It’s the time of year when two groups of enthusiastic young birders also migrate to the island ! To kick the trip off, a walk around the island gave way to a bird race, this being a race between groups to spot as many bird species as possible within the allotted time. The competition was fierce, but in the first week the “Swagtails” came out on top, and the “Chough’ed to be here” group won bonus points for best team name in the latter half of the week!

A line of people sit in chairs or stand around a table in the centre of the photo. In the foreground, a person is holding a sheet of paper and all other individuals are watching this person intently
Young Birders and island staff eagerly awaiting the results of the bird race in the library


Visiting birdwatchers also took part in Skomer Vole handling, moth trapping, Manx Shearwater chick weighing, and even a bird knowledge quiz! We’re very lucky to share the island and its wildlife with such knowledgeable and keen youngsters.

Four people stand in the foreground, two of the people are holding small, fuzzy, grey chicks with both hands. All are smiling and facing the camera. The background is made up of dark seacliffs and green clifftops
Young Birders helping weigh the fast-growing Manx Shearwater chicks


A line of people runs vertically through the image. The people are sat, facing to the left with scopes and binoculars looking out to sea from a clifftop. The background is made up of grey rocks, green grass, and a pale grey sky above.
A mass seawatch on the lookout for the Great Shearwater


Even More Fungi?!

A cluster of bright orange mushrooms sprout from a mossy tree branch in the centre of the image. An individual in a navy blue coat and hat peers at the underside of the mushrooms in the right half of the image. The background is green moss-covered branches and brown leaf litter
LTV Nick inspecting some Spectacular Rustgills (Gymnopilus junoniusin North Valley Crossing



Manx Shearwater Fledging

On dark and blustery evenings as of late, we’re giving many sad but exciting farewells to the Manx Shearwater chicks that are fledging! At night, they come out in their thousands to stretch their wings and show off their elaborate hair-dos as they shed their down and prepare to fly to the rich waters off the coast of Argentina and Brazil. 

A left-facing bird with pale-grey fluffy feathers comprises moat of the image. The bird has a long black beak with a downward hook at the end, and a smooth, dark face and eye can be seen emerging from the fluffy feathers. The background is a pale-grey sky.
A Manx Shearwater chick beginning to lose its down in style


Unfortunately, we have also said goodbye to OxNav’s Masters students, Layla and Bridget. These two have been working tirelessly to weigh the Shearwater chicks in the study burrows every day since the end of June, as well as carrying out their own research projects investigating Manxie foraging habits at different life stages and parental dual foraging strategies. Layla and Bridget have been a great part of the island team and community - they will be sorely missed!

Two people sit in the centre of the image wearing waterproofs. Both people are holding a single black and white bird and looking at the camera smiling. The background is dark green vegetation and a pale-grey sky.
OxNav Masters students Layla (left) and Bridget (right) hold a Manx Shearwater chick that is ready to fledge!

The nights are getting colder, the flocks of Raven are closing in, and migration season is nearing its peak…

Pete (LTV) 

The foreground is a grey rocky outcrop, with a dark blue sea behind it stretching to the horizon. A yellow glow and beams of light emerge from a large pale-grey cloud in the centre of the image. There is some pale-blue sky in the top half of the image behind the central cloud.
Crepuscular rays seen shining on Grassholm Island from the Garland Stone


Tuesday 3 September 2024

Island Update - Late August

Autumn is in full swing here on Skomer. With strong winds becoming the norm, the Ragwort and bracken are beginning to die off, and Grey Seal pups are popping up all round the island beaches.


A sunrise with a few clouds in the sky. A few patches of dead grass are visible. In the background to the right, the sea, and to the left, ragged cliffs.
Sunrise over the Neck during Seal monitoring

Arts Week

With our events season well underway, we followed on from Black2Nature with Skomer’s first ever arts week. The week was split into two; an art retreat with Linda Norris followed by a folk music retreat with Filkin’s Drift.

Led by Linda Norris, a local Welsh artist, the group got creative with a wide variety of forms, from charcoal to cyanotype paper. With guided walks, Skomer Vole handling and more, the group were able to draw inspiration from the multitude of colours, patterns, and textures found across the island. To end the retreat, a ‘private viewing’ was held in the farmhouse to celebrate and appreciate all the amazing artwork produced over the few days.

A group of a dozen people all looking at a person holding a Skomer Vole in their hands.
The arts group handling Skomer Voles


A small rusty-brown Skomer Vole being held in a hand
A Skomer Vole



Several pictures including watercolours, light-sensitive paper, and charcoals are displayed on a table.
A selection of the artwork produced on Skomer during the arts retreat



A selection of artwork including watercolours, light-sensitive paper, and charcoals are displayed on a table and also hung up on a line
More of the art!


As the art group left, the folk musicians arrived. The usual changeover luggage consisting of camera equipment and hiking poles now consisted of paint brushes, sketchpads, and instrument cases. For the next several days, the farm transitioned from an art gallery to a concert venue with folk tunes drifting across the courtyard all day, much to the pleasure of its residents. The musicians learnt and developed compositional and playing techniques and used Skomer’s landscape and wildlife as inspiration to create their own melodies and tunes. The music retreat was led by Filkin’s Drift, a contemporary folk duo who have recently walked 870 miles along the entirety of the Welsh coast path on a sustainable music tour.

This was the first record of musicians performing on Skomer, and it fit the island atmosphere perfectly. Each evening, the group would have a jam session, where everyone on the island could come together and play, whatever their musical ability. Though the acoustics in the visitor centre were amazing, the only room big enough to fit everyone in was the hostel lounge. Somehow, 28 chairs were squeezed into the room and everyone on the island came together to enjoy a night of music. With the wind and rain outside, a moody French tune was the perfect match and as Rob began playing everyone joined in one-by-one, slowly building up a rich blend of tones and harmonies. From bouzoukis and Shruti boxes, sitars to five-string fiddles, the mix of sounds was enthralling.

A group of a dozen musicians sitting in a semicircle on benches inside the old farmhouse with the brick walls behind them. There is a selection of instruments being played including cellos, fiddles, and guitars.
The folk group playing in the old farmhouse

 Some of the great music played over the three days.

The whole of the island all squeezed into the hostel lounge for the final jam session
18 folk musicians crammed in the lounge to play tunes
Folk musicians crammed in the lounge!

Shearwater Week

The next instalment of this event season was Shearwater Week, with several groups coming to enjoy the magnificent Manx Shearwaters that call Skomer their home. The schedule included helping with chick weighing, watching rafts at the Garland Stone, night walks amongst the colony, and an evening of talks from the OxNav research group. Several fascinating talks highlighting their research and knowledge were given by Sarah, Bridget, Layla, and Patricia.

A group of eight people looking at a person holding a small grey fluffy chick.
A Shearwater Week group being shown Manx Shearwater chicks.

A group of a dozen people looking through binoculars and spotter scopes.
 A group watching rafts from the Garland Stone


OxNav Finishes Regular Nightwork

As the end of the Manx Shearwater season approaches, the OxNav group have finished their regular nightwork. This work involved being up until 3/4am to monitor and work on the Manx Shearwater colony at night; checking burrows for adults with GPS or GLS attachments, weighing the birds post-feeding, and more.

Sadly, we have said goodbye to Lewis, our Oxford PhD student who had been working hard with nightwork and data analysis on Manx Shearwater navigation. We also sadly said goodbye to Patricia, who had been with us for a couple of weeks helping the rest of the OxNav team and collecting data for her own PhD research. Regular night work might be over, but the OxNav group are still hard at work with daily chick weighing, data analysis, conference preparation and more. The chicks are getting big now with some having lost almost all their down who now look like chunky adult birds, but still weighing one and a half times the weight of an adult. These chicks will need to lose some of that weight, transferring a lot of it into muscle to power their wings to get themselves all the way to Argentina. Other chicks are in the phase of having the adult feathers coming through, but still having patches of down here and there, giving some individuals large mutton chop sideburns, a big afro, or fluffy ruffs.

A small black and white Manx Shearwater chick with lots of patches of grey fluffy down still covering them. They are placed into a tuppaware box with a yellow background.
A patchy Manx Shearwater chick


Seal Pups!

Pupping season is gaining traction and at the time of writing, there are already over twenty pups across the island. More and more Grey Seals are hauling out onto beaches and bays, especially at North and South Haven and their haunting calls and songs are drifting across the island. Here is a quick guide on how to tell your bulls from your cows, and your pups from your weaners:

Cows: These are the females and tend to be lighter coloured and spottier. You can easily identify the cows when they’re pregnant as they’re especially round. Looking at their face, it tends to be flatter, with the head not being as large as the males.

A grey seal with light and dark patches
A cow at North Haven

Bulls: These are the males and are considerably larger than the cows (females) being up to 2.5m long and weighing up to 300kg (compared to 200kg for the cows). They appear darker and less patterned, their head looks larger, and their face looks slightly curved/concave with a “Roman nose” look to them.

A grey seal head sticking out the water. Its face is concave with a large nose
The distinctive "Roman nose" of the bull


A cow (lower left) and a bull (upper right)

Pups: These are the cream/white fluffy young and could be stained yellow if they’re only a few days old. They start by looking quite thin and lean but quickly grow and seem to inflate as they quickly gain weight. This is because the milk they get from their mum is 60% fat which causes them to gain around 2kg every single day. They are fed for around three weeks until they moult their white fluffy coat (lanugo) and become a weaner.


A young grey seal pup lying on the beach. They are slightly yellow
A young pup only a few days old. The fresh umbilical is still visible 

A white pup lying on a rocky beach
An older pup, probably a week or so old

Weaners: These are the pups which have moulted their white coat and now have the patterning they’ll keep for the rest of their life, even after moulting each year. They are the size of a large pup, but have the patterning of an adult, and usually paler colouring.

Immature: These are the seals which haven’t reached sexual maturity and are a few years old. They look similar to the adults in colour and patterning but are noticeably smaller.

Happy seal watching!

Bladder Campion Anther Smut Fungus

After my blog post last month talking about the Red Campion Anther Smut Fungus (Microbotryum silene-dioicae) I thought that would be all the smut fungi I would talk about here on the blog. However, after an exciting find last week, I can’t help but talk about another one. When learning about the species associated with Red Campion, I saw that there are other campions that get affected by their own smut fungi, notably the Bladder Campion Anther Smut Fungus (M. silenes-inflatae). This species affects the anthers of the Sea Campion flower in a similar way to M. silene-dioicae, where the infected anthers are coated in a dark mass of spores. Bladder Campion Anther Smut is also likely to be a common fungus, like the Red Campion Anther Smut, however it is under-recorded to an even greater extent with only a sprinkle of records across the UK and Europe. This was really exciting to find and even more so as we are late in the flowering season for the Sea Campion, with few flowers still out across the island.

A pair of hands holding the flower of the sea campion plant. The petals are white but smudged with patches of dark brown. The inside of the flower is heavily covered in the dark-brown looking dust.
The Bladder Campion Anther Smut Fungus!

Mushroom Season

On the topic of mushrooms, after a reasonably wet summer, the fungi season is off to a great start. Meadow Puffballs are popping up all across the island, with quite a few even coming up in the courtyard. The giant Parasols at around 20cm tall are appearing almost overnight and Brittlestems are dotted along the sides of the path.

A large pale-brown mushroom cap is visible through the dense green foliage.
 A large Parasol mushroom

Another recent fungal highlight (two in a single blog post?! Must be your lucky day!) was Entomophthora muscae, sometimes called the Fly Death Fungus. This is a fairly frequent fungus which infects different species of fly and after several days, the fly tends to crawl to a high point, extend their legs, and open their wings, ensuring the fungal spores are dispersed as widely as possible. You can tell a fly has been infected by the unusual resting position of stretched legs and open wings, and the hyphae have burst out of the fly’s body. This fungus seems like something out of a zombie apocalypse film as it takes control of the fly’s brain in order to effectively spread to more hosts. This is a fairly common fungus, so keep an eye out for any dead flies at the tops of plants. Spooky, but amazing!

A ragwort flower with a dead fly on the side. A pale brown coating is seen on its abdomen.
A fly that has been infected by E. muscae.

Autumn Migration

Although the influx of autumn migrants hasn’t properly ramped up yet, the noticeable difference is the departure of some of the Skomer residents, notably the gulls. Only a few weeks ago the ponds across Skomer were covered in them, with North Pond regularly accommodating well over a hundred of them. Though most gulls are seen as pesky chip-stealing birds which terrorise the seaside, they are amazingly smart and underrated. With my welcome talks to the visitors, I always try to convert them to gull-lovers by the end of the day with help from a story which Ceris told me:

Two pictures side by side showing a pond. On the left, around 70 gulls are present, and on the right, none are present.
North Pond: Left - 22nd July with over 150 gulls present. Right - 27th August with no gulls present. 


Some French ornithologists were having lunch in a Parisian park and saw someone feeding the birds with bread. A Herring Gull came along and took a chunk, but instead of eating the bread, decided to use it elsewhere. Taking the large chunk to the fish pond, the gull began breaking it into smaller pieces and dropping them into the water. Now the gull simply waited for the fish to eat the bread and caught them. Amazing!

The gulls are smart, but sadly their populations are also in decline, which takes most people by surprise as you hardly think their numbers are struggling in coastal towns. The rural population however is in decline, which makes Skomer an important breeding ground for the gulls. Plenty of research is taking place here to monitor their populations and long term trends.

Our resident Kittiwakes are the next bird to leave Skomer for this season and we’ve seen their numbers slowly dwindle, with South Stream and High Cliff becoming eerily quiet with only the sounds of seals drifting across the bays. The colony at the Wick is still bustling with activity most days as the last of the juveniles ready themselves to head out to sea for the winter.

Kittiwake and Fulmar Monitoring

With the seabird season coming to a close, this meant we sadly said goodbye to Freya, one of our seabird field workers, who had been hard at work all season collecting data from gulls, Puffins, and more. Will, another one of our field workers has been finishing off the Fulmar and Kittiwake monitoring with regular checks on plots including both North and South Haven, the Neck, the Wick, and the Amos. Each seabird has their own monitoring methodology and involve checking nest sites for the presence and age of the chick(s).

Two people, one looking through a pair of binoculars, and another looking through a spotter scope. They are both standing on a rocky outcrop.
Pete (left, Skomer LTV) and Will (right, seabird field worker) looking at the Fulmars in South Haven from Captain Kites

An interesting thing we’ve noticed around Skomer are some fulmar chicks have taken residence in what looks like small caves at the tops of the cliffs. These appear to be old burrows which have been partially eroded away to leave an opening on the cliffside. A handy place to live if it’s raining or particularly hot!

A view through a pair of binoculars of a small fulmar chick with patches of down still covering them. The chick is inside a hollow opening on the side of a cliff which looks like the opening of a cave.
A Fulmar chick with the penthouse suite

Ragwort Mapping

The Ragwort has put on an amazing show this year with carpets of this wonderful plant covering almost every corner of the island. Our long-term volunteers Pete and Nick have mapped the Ragwort this season to find out just how much it covers Skomer - it turns out it was quite a lot!

A paper map of Skomer with areas of high and low density, and isolated individuals marked on it. Large sections of the central area of the island is covered in ragwort with smaller sections around the outside also having high coverage of ragwort.
The distribution of the ragwort this season

A person sitting on a rocky outcrop whilst writing on a clipboard. His view is of the meadows containing bracken and ragwort.
Pete (Skomer LTV) mapping the Ragwort from the trig point

There’s a nice relationship between the Cinnabar Moth and their foodplant, the Ragwort. As the Ragwort flowers for the second or third year, the population of Cinnabar moths increase on a massive scale, and the caterpillars eat through huge amounts of the plants. Some years, this causes the Ragwort to take several years to recover again, and the cycle starts over.

a sunrise with a few patchy clouds in the sky. In the foreground, several ragwort flowers are in full bloom being illuminated by the sunrise.
Golden skies with the golden flowers

The nights are drawing in and and flocks of migratory birds are beginning to pass through. The autumn season is upon us as we head into September here on Skomer.

-Nick (Skomer LTV)



A golden sunrise with a few wispy clouds in the sky catching the light. In the foreground, a meadow of dried grasses and in the background, the sea to the right, and the hills and cliffs of the neck to the left.
Sunrise looking towards the neck from South Plateau