Island update - June/early July

Take a look at what our LTVs Molly and Amy have been up to during June and early July!
 

Seabird counting

We both feel extremely grateful for the opportunity to help the island team with seabird counts this year as long-term volunteers.

Counting guillemots, razorbills, fulmar and kittiwake from both land and boat takes great practise, land counts enabled us to get a good feel for counting, with the Mew Stone as our first mission. Razorbills tucked away in crevices and guillemots huddled together tight on the cliffs; it was fun to get our eye in and learn how technical, but rewarding, counting can be. Boat counts were great too, with a little more experience under my belt it allowed for the added element of sea swell! Seeing Skomer Island from the sea is extraordinary, the volcanic geology and beautiful lichen covered cliff faces really blew me away. Counts are done as systematically as possible, with the island split into sections using boundaries such as cliff cracks. Teams of two will take a species within that section and using clickers the counting begins! Teammates will compare counts completed in a section and must be within 10% of each other, an average is then taken. All counts from each section are then combined to give a total island population for each species.

Helping with manx shearwater census involved playing calls into burrows, across many plots around the island, and documenting call back response. This yearly census allows members of staff to assess the current state of the manx shearwater population on Skomer Island. Whole island counts are completed every 10 years. Helping out gave us an opportunity to see some areas of the island usually left unvisited; all covered in tall bracken and hidden burrows!

 

Amy counting the guillemots and razorbills at the Pigstone

Molly counting the seabirds at The Wick

Chough update

Chough have been a joy to monitor on Skomer Island. Locating nest sites tucked away in the cliffs, distinguishing each pairs breeding stage throughout the season and differentiating adults with fledglings has allowed me to learn so much about this member of the corvid family. Currently, 8 out of 10 pairs holding territories have fledged chicks. Completing my report will give clear evidence of breeding behaviour, location of nest sites and foraging areas. It will be interested to compare Skomer Islands 2025 productivity with other chough populations around Pembrokeshire once reports have been released.

Razorbill and Curlew updates

The razorbill monitoring has been an absolute highlight from my time here on Skomer. Getting to spend so much time at Bull Hole every day, sat on a cliff edge, scope at the ready and binoculars glued to my eyes! Looking at my 117 pairs to see what they were doing, waiting for each one to move to see if they’d reveal an egg or a chick that was hiding beneath them, an excitement like no other! Then watching the little grey fluff balls grow and then fifteen days after hatching watching them take the leap of faith as they begin to fledge. Day by day the cliffs would become quieter as more and more chicks took the plunge and now only a few remain.

A razorbill chick being closely guarded by its parents, photo by Amy Compton

The curlew on the other hand have been slightly trickier! Trying to locate nest sites of a brown bird in brown bracken at the beginning of the season to trying to locate tiny chicks as the dense foliage grew. But in the end, they finally decided to show themselves and I confirmed that two pairs were successful in fledging chicks, and although this project has been frustrating at times, I’ve learnt so much about these amazing bids and have loved every second!

 

A curlew chick running down the path, photo by Amy Compton

A curlew in a pretty pink sunset, photo by Amy Compton

Grassholm Trip

To celebrate the completion of seabird season, staff, volunteers and researchers had the opportunity to take a boat trip around Grassholm Island. I had never been before and seeing this magnificent island up close was like nothing I had ever experienced before. Grassholm is visible from Skomer but distinguishing its size and the seabird colonies that call the island home were always difficult. I can now confirm, as I have included in many Skomer welcome talks, the island’s white appearance is for certain gannets and all their guano! The island was truly covered. The array of juvenile plumage, adults soaring above the boat, groups diving, it was a spectacle. The speckled white and black of juvenile wing pattern resembled the keys of a piano, with everyone looking slightly different. As of 2024, Grassholm Island is home to 19,199 AOS (Apparent Occupied Sites) of gannets. Due to a huge hit of Avian flu in 2022, Grassholm gannet numbers dropped from 34,491 AOS in 2022 to 16,000 AOS in 2023 (Morgan and Stephens 2024). Let’s hope 2025 numbers continue to show an increase in gannet numbers as seen between 2023 and 2024.

 

Everyone looking up at the gannets in amazement

All smiles after a great boat trip to Grassholm 

A gannet gliding over the water at Grassholm, photo by Amy Compton

Skomer Pride

As a team on Skomer and as part of the wider Wildlife Trust community, representation is extremely important to us. It was great to celebrate Pride and demonstrate to others that diversity is what makes this world a wonderful place. Queerness can be seen across nature; humans are no exception! Some bird species breeding on Skomer Island are also included in Bagemihl’s (1999) list of birds displaying homosexual behaviour. Kittiwake, raven and guillemot are all included, how amazing and beautiful are our ecosystems. The evening involved a potluck and an array of party games, welly throwing, egg and spoon race and even hide and seek. Once again, I am left unsurprised at the level of competitiveness this island holds. We all got rather invested. I am however, left surprised at how hard welly throwing is I must admit! The Trig Point made for a lovely sunset watching spot, the sky was set on fire with pinks and oranges. The celebration was bought to a close with a campfire, sing song and vast quantity of Manx shearwaters darting above our heads in the night sky.

 

Island staff and volunteers celebrating Skomer pride

In action! Welly wanging fun!

Midway through the egg and spoon race

Jumpling watching

As dusk began to settle over the island, anticipation fell over the small group of us gathered at the Amos. The air was filled with the calls of the guillemot chicks as they prepared to take the plunge! Then it began.

One by one tiny fluffballs no bigger than a fist, detached themselves from the rock face. They took the leap of faith, tumbling, rolling and bouncing off the cliffs and most of them hit the water with a surprising gentle splash! Waiting patiently below, bobbing on the waves were the proud fathers, ready to guide their courageous offspring out into the vast open sea.

Watching a jumpling take its leap is not just watching a bird fledge, it’s a heart wrenching moment waiting for each one to make the plunge, gasps and cheers could be heard as each one successfully made it, it’s a privilege to be on Skomer at this time of year, to witness this extraordinary natural phenomenon.

 

A guillemot with its cute fluffy chick

Weighing chicks and gull ringing

Over the past few weeks, we have been lucky enough to get involved in hands on experience helping out Freya and Duncan with the weighing of the cutest little razorbill chicks and pufflings! Each chick had its tiny wing length meticulously measured, they were carefully weighed and if they were big enough, they would be ringed too, this is all done to measure their growth rates.

Another recent island activity we got involved in was the lesser black backed gull catching, this is done to monitor their breeding success. This involved searching through dense tall bracken for the chicks some of which would hunker down and be easily caught while others would decide to run and put up a fight! So, you’d then have to quickly follow the rustling of the bracken and sometimes run after them if they came out into a clearing, and try to avoid being bitten, scratched, and thrown up on when you eventually caught them! They would then be ringed under licence before being released.

Amy holding a razorbill chick

Molly holding a cute fluffy puffling

Amy holding a gull chick after hunting through the dense vegetation 

Goodbyes

In mid July I said my goodbyes, or rather a see you soon! Skomer Island has unsurprisingly left me feeling more connected to wildlife than ever before. I will be eternally grateful for my time on this magnificent island, and I can’t wait to return again.    -Molly

Thanks for reading

Diolch yn fawr