My second and final trip for the year to Skomer Island, Pembrokeshire yesterday, having seen a spare slot for a 10am sailing. The plan was to make the visit before the Puffin leave in August, and hopefully have another chance at tracking down one of the Short Eared Owl that had been nesting on the island.
The forecast looked good, so I headed off at 7am to head West, and be there in plenty of time to `check in` at Lockley Lodge by 9am.
With checking in done, it was good just to spend the next hour at Martins Haven, listening to the lapping of the water, and absorbing the atmosphere ready for the day ahead. Of course, I was the only person that looked as though I lived in the woods, and just about everyone else in the summer clothes, bright colours and clothes.
A `lumpy` crossing across Jack Sound to the island followed, and then of course the challenge (to me at least) of climbing up those 84 or whatever steps from the boat landing place up to the Warden talk area. A quick word with warden (" are the Short Eared Owls showing well?"), and I then knew the day might not go to plan - the Shorties had gone, bar one sighting since he previous Saturday. 😞
Deflated that the main purpose for my trip had slipped away (yet again), I headed to the Farmhouse & North Valley area anyway just in case, this being where you can have increased chances of possibly seeing them. A good place to have an initial cuppa, cheese roll or two, and look around feeling it`s so good to be back. As it happened, I did actually see one so far in the distance the moment I took my eyes from binoculars to camera, I lost sight of it. Couldn`t locate it again with my bins, so it might have been leaving the island.
Part 2 of the plan, and knowing that all the Puffin would be gone by the first week or two of August, I headed to the Wick in the hope of catching some final "sand eel" shots. The place was empty, all but the gulls and, so I was told along the far edge of the Wick, a family of Peregrine. I knew the Guillemots and Razorbills would have gone, but with no Puffin the whole area was eerily quiet and a bit surreal.
With the plan then to return close to the area above the landing place, where Puffin were when I got to the island, I took the track to North Haven. There, a still-good contingent of Puffin seemed to be hanging around, no sand eels being brought in, and (after spending some time there) not a glimpse of a Puffling. At least finally some photography!
The rest of my stay on the island was best used at North Haven and back closer to the cliff above the Warden talk area. There was, to me anyway, a real atmosphere of wondering what lies ahead for these birds, all of which will split up for a solitary life in the stormy seas of the Atlantic and possibly Arctic Circle for the following eight months. Lovely birds, photogenic but fragile.
It was a great day on the island, despite the disappointment with the owls.
Looking forward to 2026.