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Skomer is a small island off the South West coast of Wales famous for its bird collonies and wildlife. Unspoiled by civilization Skomer is and will remain a protected area of outstanding natural beauty managed by the National Trust.
Having tried unsuccessfully to visit last year and again a month or so ago this year it was beginning to look like we were going to miss out again. However on Thursday last week all came good and we finally managed to make it to Martin's Haven on a day when the boat was able to cross and get a seat (seats are limited and available on a first come first served basis only).
The Boat & Skomer
For any bird enthusiast the excitement begins before you even dock on Skomer with large numbers of Puffins, Guillemots and Razorbills fishing in the waters surrounding the island. They'll also be there to greet you as you climb the steep stairway that leads you up the cliff face when you dock.
We decided to head clockwise around the island sticking pretty much to the coastal path which unfortunately meant we didn't get opportunity to check out the various lakes and hides on the island. We'll check those out next time :) and in any case there was plenty to keep us excited on our chosen route.
At this time of year the island really is Puffin paradise with them showing up pretty much everywhere! Ignoring the Puffins just for a moment one of the first treats that we had having just started out was a Short-Eared Owl!
Short-Eared Owl
OK so it wasn't a great photograph but its the first one we've ever seen and we actually got a pretty good look at him through the bins! :)
The next landmark that we arrived at was "The Knapp"; a place where you can expect to have Puffins quite literally at your feet. The path takes you straigh through their collonely with burrows on either side and you can stand and watch as the adults come back from the sea with their beaks full of Sandeels!
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Also at this point you can see a large number of Razorbills and Guillemots, Fulmars and Kittiwakes.
We moved slightly away from here and found a quieter spot to sit and eat a spot of lunch before continuing our trip around the island.
To be continued...
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( 3 / 139 )Final Day - Journey back home...
As the title says, this was our last day spent at Pagham. We spent most of the morning packing up and getting ready to head out. After we'd gotten checked out, we headed around the harbour one last time before we headed back.
The wind was absolutely brutal, with gusty winds blowing across much of the area. This made looking at anything through the binoculars or taking any photos a difficult if not impossible challenge. We saw the mergansers in the same spot as we had all weekend, though at a further distance than before. Additionally we saw the large flocks of Linnets that Mark had seen over the weekend, with plenty of goldfinches mixed in. Various waders were along the tidal line, which was right the way in, so gave us good views of anything there. Redshank, Curlew, and Oystercatchers were the most common sightings. Also along the way we saw one lone little egret hunched down out of the wind.
We made the dam wall in good time and had a decent look around. More Redshank, Curlew and Oystercatchers were about, with a lone Grey Plover. On the right of the dam wall, there were plenty of waterfowl about, including Wigeon and Teal, a few Black-tailed Godwits, Lapwings, Great-crested Grebes, Cormorant, and heard a Cetti's Warbler nearby. We also got an alright look at the male Garganey through the binoculars, though he was huddled up against the far bank. With the high winds, photos were impossible.
On our way back I got a close-up view of a Kestrel as it battled the winds directly above Mark's head - winds making photos again just too difficult. We also spotted our first Little Tortoiseshell, which gave us good views and a chance to photograph something out of the wind :) And our last spot of the day was a lone Meadow Pipit. Here's a selection of the very few photos we managed this day:
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| Meadow Pipit | Curlew |
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| Small Tortoiseshell | Grape Hyacinth |
~Jen
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( 3 / 160 )Day 3 - WWT Arundel
This was another of our 2 full days in the pagham area. Mark started off by taking the morning shift around the harbour.
I'll leave space here for him to fill in his experiences, but will again leave a selection of photos he took this morning.
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| Skylark | Redshank |
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| Redshank | Ringed Plover |
After his tour around the harbour, we set off to nearby WWT Arundel. It was a glorious day, so there were certainly more people than usual. And by far the most big lenses and fancy cameras I've ever seen in one place. This was not our first visit to Arundel, and despite it not having the larger grounds of the two WWT sites near home (WWT Slimbridge & WWT Wales), it's still a great setup.
I spent most of the time taking photos of the ducks and other waterfowl. We did see some snipe from one of the hides, but with lighting less than ideal, there aren't any photos to share of that. Here's a selection of the various birds from this visit.
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| European Wigeon | Pheasant |
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| Hooded Merganser | Hooded Merganser |
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| Scaly-sided Merganser (m) | Spectacled Eider |
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| Baer's Pochard (m) | Ring-necked Duck (m) |
After our visit to Arundel, Mark took another quick tour around the harbour, and this is another spot he'll have to fill in. But here's another selection of photos:
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| Snipe | Snipe |
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| Redshank and Snipe | Curlew in Flight |
Then I had a turn around the harbour as well. The sun had pretty much gone down by this point, but I still got a decent look around. I did see the red-breasted mergansers again, various redshank and curlew, ringed plovers and a few grey plovers as well. I heard the occasional skylark, and saw linnet, gulls, cormorant, little egret, grey heron, wigeon, brent geese and turnstones. A real treat however was seen from one of the harbour walls, a grey seal. Here's one of the only photos I caught of him:
~Jen
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( 3 / 172 )Day 2 - March 21st, 2009
When we do visit this nature reserve, we always have the kids with us, aged 3 & 4mo at this time. And as anyone who has kids know, looking for wild birds and having kids this young along don't mix, so we tend to take shifts taking a walk without the kids. Mark took the morning shifts and I got the evening shifts.
The Mudflats & Lagoon
My morning walk took me around approximately half the harbour (inc. down onto the mudflats), the dam wall and lagoon at the top of the harbour. It was a gorgeous morning with warm sunshine and only a gentle breeze which quickly took the edge off the cold morning air. The tide was relatively far out with lots of waders showing down on the flats, so that's where I headed first.
Down on the flats there was a good variety of gulls, ducks and waders including:
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Heading back up off the flats a sizable flock of Linnets circling the pastures and 2 Kestrel were a very pleasant sighting.
The Lagoon at the top of the harbour was as picturesque as ever with many of the ducks and waders already mentioned plus both Great Crested and Little Grebe and all the usual favourites (Mute Swans, Mallards, Coot, Moorhen, etc). A large number of Reed Buntings were seen darting in and out of the reeds and nearby a few Cetti's Warblers could also be heard. A Buzzard overhead gave me a few nice snaps and another much paler Buzzard was also observed in the fields beyond the Lagoon.
The highlight of the morning however was the first of several sightings over our few days away of a Snipe on the far edge of the Lagoon.
Here's a selection on photos from the morning...
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| Linnets | Pintails in Flight |
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| Turnstone | Grey Plover |
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| Dunlin | Buzzard |
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| Black-tailed Godwit | Magpie |
Then we attempted to head over to Church Norton to view some of the slavonian grebes that had been reported there. But after a disasterous attempt with bringing both the kids, we headed back. Stopping along the way back near a marshy area, I had the chance to view my very first avocets. It was only a pair of them, but it was fantastic to see, and although I improved on the photos we had, there's still plenty of room for improvement.
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| Avocet | Avocets |
After this bit of success, we headed back to the caravan, where I left Mark and the kids and headed off on my own little walk. The light was mostly fading, but I still made the most of my time. I walked over to see if the red-breasted merganser was still there, and I was in luck, he was still there and closer than ever. He was remarkably unafraid of me, so I had fun getting some great close-ups of him. I tried to photograph the female later, but she was as shy as anything I'd seen, and simply would not come within good range of my lens. So I had to settle for a record shot of her, as I never was able to get a good shot of her during our visit.
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| Red-breasted Merganser Male | Red-breasted Merganser Female |
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( 3 / 174 )We visit this site practically every year, sometimes more than once. It's our favorite place to visit as it is right next to Haven's Church Farm site, making it an easy walk to get to and an absolute delight to visit. This nature reserve never fails to disappoint, always having something new or exciting to see while we're there.
I'm going to go over the 4 days we were visiting there, spreading them over 4 entries.
Day 1 - March 20th, 2009
We spent most of this day travelling from our home here in Wales to get to the church farm site. We made it in plenty of time, seeing many birds along the way, including countless buzzards, wood pigeons, kestrels, and many many rookeries.
As soon as we got our keys to the caravan we were staying at, we headed off to the nature reserve to take a bit of a stroll. Immediately Mark spotted something new in the pool nearest the haven site - it was a red-breasted merganser, a stunning male. He wasn't very close, but we took several snaps of him (which we improved upon later).
There were plenty of other birds about, this haven site has an abundance of wildlife just on site. You could hear loads of greenfinches buzzing, a green woodpecker yaffling, house sparrows, tits, plenty of wood pigeons, rabbits, and a variety of seagulls as well.
Further off on the nature reserve, in the same pool as the merganser, there were tufted ducks, goldeneyes, coots, moorhens, great crested grebes, and mallards. Along the shoreline of this pool you'd also see the occasional redshank. To the right of this pool was the mudflats. The sun was in that direction, so little could be seen other than a few redshanks and you could hear the curlews making some noise.
By this time the light had mostly faded, so we took some sunset photos and called it a night.
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