Seabird Spectacular Martin's Haven, Pembrokeshire
With Shaun
This really lived up to its name - spectacular with one of the best sea trips you could wish for! I have never seen as many Manx Shearwaters or Puffins ….. and all on a day that started calmly but gradually became more frenetic by the hour and then nearly didn't produce the goods!
 |
- We set off from Martin's Haven, 10 minutes late, at 7.10 pm, in very unsettled weather on the Dale Princess for a trip around the north and west tip of Skomer Island intending to see Manx Shearwaters rafting on the water around 8.30 pm. In fact we saw thousands of them within minutes of leaving, looking for food - a most unusual occurrence so early and so close to the breeding grounds.
 |
| Manx Shearwater |
 |
Manx Shearwaters flying
Manx Shearwaters rafting
|
As we moved on the numbers just exploded until we were looking at tens of thousands of the birds - it reminded me of a Starling Murmeration! They were clearly feeding and not rafting - only later did they start rafting as expected.
Carl, our on board expert, reckoned that this was the largest number he had seen in all the years he had been here. The approaching unsettled weather, following the hot spell, had clearly caused these birds to return to the island waters much earlier than normal, much to our enjoyment.
These long distant travellers are one of my favourites, coming all the way from the south coast of South America all the way up to Skomer and the nearby islands to breed.
- Soon we caught sight of a few Puffins and then as we moved forward, their numbers grew until we had another explosion with thousands of them flying, an equal number on the sea and a good number viewable on Skomer. It's hard to believe that within a week, or certainly two weeks, there will be none of these lovely birds remaining as the breeding season reaches its climax and all of the Puffins - young and old head away from the breeding grounds.
- The Guillemots and Razorbills had left but, thankfully, we did manage to see a few lingering birds.
- Great Black-backed Gulls were waiting on the island of course, waiting to predate any careless, or unfortunate, "Manxies" later on.
- The circling Gannets pointed the way to Harbour Porpoises , the sight of which particularly caught the imagination of the children on board.
We got drenched in one particularly heavy downpour but nobody really minded, such was the quality of the entertainment provided by the wildlife. As the weather worsened however, the decision was made to call it a night and head back to Martins Haven some 20 minutes earlier than planned.
What a day - spectacular but totally different to that planned! Having picked up Shaun just before 10 am we expected to have a leisurely journey down to Pembrokeshire, stopping off for lunch on the way, calling in at our hotel in Milford Haven before heading out to Martin's Haven to see the Choughs and joining the boat. Holiday traffic chaos soon scuppered those plans and the 5 hour journey finished up taking over 9 hours causing us to miss the scheduled start time. Thankfully we contacted Carly from Pembrokeshire Island Boat Trips who alerted the boat operators to our plight and gave us their mobile number. When they realised how long we had been travelling and how close we were they and their passengers agreed to wait for us.
Saturday 28 July 2018
Martin's Haven
With Shaun
The weather today was awful with heavy showers and strong winds.
- Needless to say the boat trips to Skomer were all cancelled. Shaun and I decided to look for Choughs on the headland at Martin's Haven and it wasn't long before we saw our first pair on the eastern slopes, facing out to sea. We enjoyed superb scope views as they huddled up on a rocky outcrop on the grassy slopes, some 10 metres below the cliff top. After 10 minutes or so they took to the air before landing 50 metres east of us.
 |
| Choughs |
- As we walked west we saw Wheatears, Linnets, Meadow Pipits, a Wren and a Dunnock before catching sight of two more Choughs on the slopes down from the lighthouse. As we returned to the car we saw another Chough flying west.
By now the showers were thick and fast so we decided to head back home early. I was disappointed not to get onto Skomer with Shaun as he had never been there before, but thankfully we did get to see the Choughs.
Very enjoyable - thanks to some help from a couple of good people at the company and our fellow passengers on the boat.
