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| This 13cm skink was outside our cabin. |
The weather was not promising as we set forth to try at least 2 of the walks on National Park leaflets, both in a large estuarine area between Haverfordwest and Pembroke.
We nearly gave up trying to find Little Milford circular walk, especially as the clouds gathered, until David asked a postman for advice. It is only a few miles from the major town nearby but takes you into a different world of lovely quiet woods and mudflats which were supposed to be rich in wildlife – I did see a male pheasant, flock of Canada geese, 2 shelducks and some rooks. No rain!
Lawrenny Circular Walk, including some extra meandering, was about 5km, starting at a 12th C church. We walked through one of the most well-preserved sections of the ancient woodland that once covered this area –oak, holly, lichens, mosses, ferns, blackberries (though only small bushes).
Saw the usual robins and my first wrens – dear little brown birds. No native flowers in bloom –unlike the fields and hedgerows where you see buttercups, clover, cow parsley, dog roses. Part of the meandering took us to the shoreline edged with sycamore, oak, robinia.
Lawrenny was once a ship-building centre being near the confluence of 2 rivers and the (estuary) and is now a pleasure boat centre with several caravan parks, boatyards and moorings. The day was very windy and cool; the boatyards very noisy as halyards slapped masts; few people were out walking. |
| Taken from web - 12th C St Caradoc's Church, Lawrenny. Caradoc died in 1124. |
SKOMER
Wednesday was rainy and windy we set forth for Martin's Haven, a one hour drive to catch the Skomer boat. Fortunately the rain stopped before we got there though it was windy all day. We had booked a guided tour with National Parks. Costs kept mounting - for parking, boat, landing fee and guides - but we had a wonderful, unforgettable once-in-a-lifetime experience.
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| There is a limit of 250 people on the island at any time. For research purposes it may be closed. |
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| 50 sardines on the 9:30 boat - ours went at 10 |
I already knew that now was prime time for visiting as puffins start nesting in March (and all the other sea birds there were also nesting). We saw plenty of birds but the numbers are still staggering - 12,000 puffins, 250,000 Manx shearwaters, thousands of guillemots.
Skomer is about 1 mile square, has a resident warden and people can stay there in comfortable rooms if they bring their own sleeping bag and food.
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| Some areas such as The Neck are never open to the public. |
Puffins are about 30cm long. They walk in quite an upright manner but land with webbed feet splayed and look very awkward. Gulls are always harassing them so they need to dive into their burrows quickly. On this day they were bringing sand eels (small silvery fish) to the pufflings and looked most comical with 6 or more eels, 10cm long, draped in their beaks. The record for one beakful is an incredible 61 eels! We didn't manage to photo one clearly doing this. At The Wick, puffins walk across the people path and volunteer wardens are on duty to ensure the birds' safety and comfort.
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| It's easy to get close to a puffin. |
Shearwaters stay in their burrows or out at sea during the day, so you can only see them at night. There were many carcasses, evidence of gull attacks on unwary birds. |
| These tussocks have shearwater nests. |
We walked to an incredible cliff which was really a multi-storey nesting/roosting site. Kittiwakes, the smallest gulls on Skomer, occupy the ground floor. Higher are the guillemots, which huddle together on narrow ledges to protect eggs or young from gull attack.
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| Guillemots resting from duties or after fishing |
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| Fulmars nesting in the top crack on a cliff Great Black-backed Gulls (saw 2 chicks), Lesser Black-backed Gulls and Herring Gulls nest on rocks or the meadows of bracken. The Great Black-backed Gulls are bigger than Buzzards and the top predators on Skomer.   Razorbills are plentiful but hard to photograph, being on rock ledges or bobbing around in the water with hundreds of guillemots and puffins. Gannets were often seen high in the air and plunging vertically down to fish. No chance of a photo without a better camera. The island has a large population of rabbits which are essential to the seabirds. Puffins and shearwaters need grass tussocks to burrow in, not tough shrubs such as heather. Great Black-headed Gulls eat rabbits. The photo below features an experimental plot showing what happens if rabbits are excluded.  Birds seen on Skomer: Canada Goose (3 adults, 7 goslings) Fulmar Gannet Great Black-backed Gull Guillemot Herring Gull Jackdaw Kittiwake Lesser Black-backed Gull Magpie Manx Shearwater - dead Oystercatcher Pied Wagtail Puffin Razorbill Shag Other animals: Rabbit, toad, snail, slow worm Animals guides hoped to show us but no luck: Short-eared Owl, Little Owl, Chough, Peregrine, Grey Seal, Porpoise, Skomer vole |
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