Seal-sational Skomer

Seal pup on Skomer Island having a snooze

#SKOMER ISLAND voted Britain’s Favorite Nature Reserve 2016, is well known for its Puffins, but what people don’t realise is that once the puffins have left around August time, the Atlantic Grey Seals start to have their pups on Skomer’s beaches. 

The Wildlife Trust Skomer Team monitor their progress each year and so far this autumn 7 seal pups have been born. Since 1983 contributions by The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales’ members and seal friends, together with funding by NRW, have enabled the staff of Skomer Island to conduct a detailed seal study.

Seal Pup with Skomer Assistant Warden; Jason Moss

“Nowadays the seals around Skomer are doing well and are protected by law from persecution and disturbance but there was a time when this wasn’t the case.” says Birgitta Bueche, one of the two Head Wardens for Skomer Island.

For further information on visiting and staying on Skomer Island, please visit www.welshwildlife.org

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Picture Credit: The Wildlife trust of South and West Wales

Kent top spot for family holidays

KENT is Europe's top spot for a family holiday, according to the compilers of Lonely Planet's Best in Europe 2015, with County Kerry in Ireland in second place. Two other UK destinations – the island of Skomer off the Pembrokeshire coast and nearby Marloes Sands – were combined by the compilers and took ninth place in the top ten list.

Singled out in #Kent was Broadstairs, the White Cliffs of Dover, and #Margate which has become 'gentrified without losing its personality'.

Lonely Planet also drew up a list of the ten best beaches in Europe, with two UK beaches in it. In sixth place was Bantham Beach near Kingsbridge in Devon, and in seventh place was Sandwood Bay, in Sutherland, Scotland.

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Picture Credit: Leeds Castle -Kent -England by Martin Pettitt - originally posted to Flickr as Leeds Castel Kent 3 July 2007-102. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons 

Skomer … my Go To island

Wherever else you go this year, says Angela Suter, go to Skomer Island ...

‘AMAZING, incredible, wow! – all words we would use to describe our two-night stay on Skomer Island, off the Pembokeshire coast in South-West Wales.

We stayed in renovated barns on Skomer Island, where the accommodation was excellent; it was very clean, and everything we needed was there.

Our seven-year-old old daughter was enthralled with Skomer and the wildlife we found there, enjoying especially the nightly bird log meeting where we talked about the sightings we’d made that day. 

We were concerned that we – wildlife lovers as opposed to learned bird watchers – might feel like the odd ones out; how wrong we were .......... 

The staff on the island are knowledgeable and friendly, answering our daughter’s many questions and involving her in small things such as identifying the moths and letting her help to release a Manx Shearwater.

We saw Puffins, which were so close they walked over our daughter’s foot on their way to their burrows. 

The eerie sound of the Manx Shearwaters after dark was an experience never to be forgotten, and spotting the first Hoopoe to be seen on the island in three years caused quite a stir. 

We wished we had booked a longer stay, but we will definitely be going back, probably at the same time next year. It was the beginning of the migration; we saw the first of many species of birds which, as the days go on, will increase in numbers.

One of the most enjoyable things was to sit and listen to the quiet that descends on the island after the last boat of day visitors has left . . . bliss!’

Skomer is a national nature reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and a Special Protection Area. Much of the island has also been designated an ancient monument. It is surrounded by a marine nature reserve and is managed by the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales.

Where we stayed: The Barn on Skomer Island. For full details, go to http://www.welshwildlife.org/overnight-accommodation-on-skomer/

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Picture Credit: Angela Suter and family