Goodbye to Skomer

After four and a half months, yesterday it was time for me to leave Skomer.  But my final day was a special one.  Walking through the garden, I glanced over to the wall by the water tank, to see a Wryneck crawling upwards, searching for ants - the first of the year on Skomer, and a beautifully patterned little bird, related to the woodpeckers.  The sightings didn't stop there.  I joined Dave and Aaron in a walk down to North Valley crossing, where at first few birds were in evidence.  But crossing the stream we looked back to see a warbler fluttering between the branches of the willow bushes.  Dave quickly identified it as a Greenish warbler; a smart bird with bright white underparts, a dark supercillium and white wing bars.  This was only the third ever seen on Skomer, and an individual a long way off course from its migration route between Scandinavia and South East Asia. 

It was a lovely day, with an autumnal edge to the air.  Swallows gathered, chattering on the roof of the cleaning store and whitethroats and sedge warblers flitting between the dried, brown fronds of bracken in the valleys.  Around the farm robins were singing; for the rest of the year they are almost completely absent from the island, and it seems strange to see them perched on the elder bushes, calling and arguing with each other.  Canada geese have been flying over in classic 'V' formation, calling to each other, and occasionally enagaging in playful acrobatics - we saw a group flipping upside down in the air, then flicking themselves upright again as they flew, something you would not think possible for such a big and apparently cumbersome bird.

In the afternoon I headed out to Pigstone Bay with Sarah to watch for porpoise and dolphins; sheltered from the wind close to a small outcrop we could scan the waves in comfort, enjoying the late summer sunshine, and the occasional sight of the dark backs and dorsal fins of the porpoises slipping through the sun-flecked waves.  It is a good viewing spot - to the north seals often 'bottle' (bobbing vertically in the water) in the inlet, and behind them gulls rest on the dark, slanting slabs of rock.  Grassholm lies on the horizon, with the needle thin tower of the Smalls lighthouse beyond, and from there the gannets fly out, circling where they find fish and spearing down into the water to make a catch.

Later I swam for the last time at North Haven, which echoes to the strange, drawn out calls of seals at this time of year.  I paused briefly in the sunshine under the cliffs of the Neck, where the fronds of Kelp form a carpet over the barnacle-encrusted rocks.  My final day ended with a group meal in North Haven; Dave cooked chilli, and Akiko made a great marbled coffee cake.  We finished the evening with a cup of tea under a clear sky packed with stars, the ghostly path of the Milky Way above us.  It does not seem so long since I arrived in mid April, but already my time on the island has come to an end.

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If you have enjoyed this blog, you might be interested in my book of life on the island, which describes the 2011 season on Skomer, with more details, photos and thoughts about the island and its amazing wildlife.  This will be published in spring next year, and I will post on this blog closer to the time with details.  The publisher is Brambley Books, and the title is 'A Skomer Diary' (title subject to slight alteration).  I will also try and put up some more photos from this year over the coming weeks.

Many thanks to all the 2012 team for another great season!

Below is the soundtrack to go with my last post about fledging Manxies - you can hear them sqsuabbling on my shoulders, climbing up over my coat and flapping their wings.  At the end a flock of Canada Geese fly over, calling to each other.