Skomer Island

                                                                   6^th April 2017

 

Skomer and Ramsey are islands either side of a huge bay made up of Newgale sands and St Brides Bay. We thought Skomer would be fairly near to St. Davids but it took best part of an hour to motor even the large roads via Haverfordwest to reach St.Martin’s Haven near Marloes, where the boat would be leaving. This boat cannot be booked in advance and it operates on a first come first served rule so the earlier one arrives, the better.

We had managed to leave our B and B before 9 with time to get sandwiches from the delicatessen in St. Davids- loads of choice and delicious.

The car park at St. Martin’s is run by the National Trust and would have been £5 but we are members luckily, so it was free. There was a short walk down to a cabin, Locksley Lodge, a tiny visitors centre where you need to pay the Landing fee before you buy the ticket from the boatman himself. It is £10 to land unless you belong to the Wildlife Trust, who manage the island and then £11 for the return boat trip. Notices said you need to pay the boatman cash but we saw him use a hand- held card reader for some people with credit cards.

There are steps and slippery slopes leading to where you get on the boat which varies with the tides. Our boat left at 11am. The sea was flat and calm. After a safety demonstration (like on an aircraft) where a boat hand showed us how to operate a lifejacket- the boat can take up to fifty but only in the 30s today the vessel seemed full enough! The life jackets stayed in their hold and we gently cruised to Skomer.

We could see puffins landing on the water, beginning to gather in groups. They hadn’t landed on the island yet but we were told it could happen today.  There were playful pockets of seals as the boat drew near Skomer.

 

 We were helped out of the boat one by one and it was an arduous climb up 87 steep steps to listen to a talk by a warden. Bob just wanted to get going as it was drawing ever nearer to midday. I hired binoculars for £5 but it turned out these slowed us down quite a lot too.

It was stressed that we should stick to the paths as everywhere there are tunnels. Rabbits, puffins and manx shearwaters have excavated miles and miles of the 720 acres over time. Shearwaters only come ashore to their burrows when its dark, possibly around half a million(Gasp!) Rabbits, large, plentiful and of many colours ( there was a rabbit farm here for fur at one time) seem used to the visitors. Puffins still haven’t officially arrived.

There are several no-go areas set aside for research purposes. The first area is near the boats and it is used to compare the wildlife in the people free zone with that where up to 250 visitors a day tread. Quite a good way of measuring our impact on the ecology though even 250 people a day seems a lot!

Manx shearwaters aren’t adapted to travel on land but they are fantastic fliers being a relative of the albatross. On land they run the gauntlet of the great black backed gulls into their burrows, except running is what they can’t do. Evidence of the voracity of the gulls is all over the island- pairs of black wings attached to a skeletal backbone and legs. There are evening walks to see the shearwaters, if you are staying on the island.

Birds dot the rock cliffs edging the island. They seem to nest in impossibly small places, cracks and narrow ledges. In a square crevice a raucous raven, as large as a buzzard flew towards its nest. Its sound was deep and echoed around.

A sheer cliff of kittiwakes sounded like a playground of small children squealing and laughing.

We had to climb a lot and there were good views over to Ramsey. We had our picnic on the rocks not staying too long as we wanted to catch the 3pm boat. We got to the spot where if we were patient we would almost be certain to see porpoises. People just leaving had seen several but despite us staying the suggested 15 minutes we didn’t see any.

There were tiny blue flowers growing close to the ground and thrift. You could imagine what the island would be like in a few weeks as bluebells were emerging. A male warden waxed lyrical about Skomer’s beauty to us when I asked the identity of a bird. Bob was getting fed up of me with binoculars! The picture shows violets.

 

There are enclosures showing what the island would be like without the rabbits. They control the vegetation by eating it. One enclosure was completely full of long tangled grass swamping any flowers and the other was full of heather and shrubs with little variety. The cropped grass is better for ground nesting birds. We like the little ramp that enabled any rabbits, good at breaking in, an escape route.

 

Almost back at the boat are the toilets and what looks like the wardens’ quarters- buildings that are private anyway. Near here is a stretch of rough grass and we were lucky enough to see a short eared owl with its long wings hunting in the day. We’d seen pellets with bones and fur but didn’t think we would see the bird itself.

As we descended the steps the puffins gathering below started to fly onto the rocks around us. They were coming onto the island at last. Some were collecting nesting material. Some flew over our heads with their red feet ready to land. It was a sight to make everyone smile and cameras ( some very large and expensive) were clicking.

 

The sea was less calm going back but not enough to make me nauseous. People were collecting for another trip- round the island, not landing. Our boat would go back for the remaining visitors straight away and that would be it for the island for another day.