Clowns of the sea

 I first went to Skomer off the Pembrokeshire coast about 15 years ago with two work colleagues. It has now become an annual pilgrimage. The attraction is the breeding colony of around 40,000 puffins on a small island only a short trip off the Welsh coast. From mid-May through to late July you are surrounded by them as they walk between your feet.

This year we stayed locally so had a very relaxed morning before going down to Martin's Haven to meet our boat. It was a bit choppy on the way across but despite an overnight weather advisory we completed the short trip and were greeted by hundreds of puffins, guillemots and razorbills in the small harbour.

You have about 4 hours on the island to walk around which is ample to cover most of the areas of interest. It is a pretty flat island with small cliffs bordering the coast and an internal area covered in grass, wildflowers and a small swampy area.

What you do notice are the puffins, absolutely everywhere. There are two or three hotspot areas for them where you can stand and study them. They nest in burrows but a lot of the adults when not out fishing are seen mooching around on the grass or apparently having meetings!

They are quite vocal birds as well, with a strange mewing, moaning call. You also get to see their incredible throats and beaks, more of which later.

Of course, with hungry "pufflings" to feed they can't rest for too long so they fly out to sea to catch sandeels. At places like the Nook the air is filled with them. Its one of those sights you can't capture in a photo unfortunately.

Their flight is a bit bee-like with rapid flapping wings on a body which doesn't really look very aerodynamic 

and their landings are more like a controlled crash.

What everyone is looking out for are the returning birds with their beaks draped with sandeels.

Amazingly they catch multiple fish and bring them back in their beaks. This is where their beaks, tongues and mouth comes in. They have backward facing spikes to hold each one in as they catch others. Apparently the record is over 30 but 6-10 seemed quite common. This year is apparently good for them. In the North sea the puffins are suffering from a lack of sandeels partly due to overfishing for fertiliser and animal feed and also with warming waters driving them further north.

As they fly in they have to evade the many gulls trying to steal their fish 

weaving around and frequently going round again

before landing and scuttling into their burrows.

Puffins aren't the only iconic species of the island. Choughs are found on the seaward coast, probing the cliff tops for bugs.

There are also large numbers of guillemots and razorbills but they tend to be on there rockier coasts. Some come close enough for a photograph though!

Finally we had to drag ourselves away from this magical place. It so good to see a success story where nature is thriving and you can share to with them. The wardens work very hard to keep the island as pristine as possible and it really shows. I'm sure that next June we will be back!!