Skomer Island Wales July 7th 2007
This past weekend Vicki, Redington, and I visited Skomer Island on the Pembrokeshore coast in Wales. This was a memorable place Vicki visited in childhood and especially so because of the Puffins there.
We got out on a late start on Saturday after several weekends of lousy weather. After spending a frustrating few hours lost around Milford Haven we finally showed up minutes before the final sailing at noon. We were told there was a coach load of Spanish tourists ahead of us but they may not go. Discouraged we queued up and gratefully boarded the last boat. The day was spectacular.
Skomer Island is maintained as a preserve with a small lodge for overnight visits. It is a favorite of twitchers (birdwatchers). In the summer months it is home to hundreds of thousands of nesting seabirds. Guilamots, Puffins, Manx Shearwaters, Oystercatchers and others. They nest on cliffs and in holes dug in the ground that peforate the island.
The dark story about the island is the Manx Shearwater; a bird that spends most of its life at sea fishing and sleeping on the waves, it is ill adapted to land but must come ashore once a year to nest. The Gulls know this and sit about the rocks all day waiting for dusk. As the sun sets the Shearwaters must fly out to sea to catch food for their young and the Gulls attack and eat them. The trail around the island is littered with freshly eaten corspes from the day before. Pairs of wings, legs, heads and other bird parts are scattered on the trails. We must have seen hundreds; evidence of the diurnal slaughter of the innocents. Roughly 1/3 of all manx Shearwaters nest on Skomer.
Here are some pictures from the visit. Click the photo below to view more.
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| Skomer Island 2007 |
Comments
Hope this finds you and yours happy and healthy!
I don't have your new address now that you're way over in the Old World (feeling old??)! Kathy and I want to send you a belated Christmas newsletter. Send me your e-mail/mailing address to Walter@(fill in my last name here - you know what it is).net
Things are fine back here in Flag, just WAY too expensive. We got a good snowstorm at the end of the year such that the kids actually had the first TWO days of the new semester off as snow days! It's been rather cold here recently because the snow's still here even though it hasn't snowed since that snowstorm at the end of the year. Normally it would be all melted away by now.
Still programming away here at Machine Solutions. We're up to about 80 employees now, so many I don't know everyone's name anymore.
I probably told you before but remember Joy Motsenbocker? Well her little brother Tom broke away from Gore with another guy and started this company. You never would have thunk it, huh!
Hannah's just getting out of braces this year and it's time to get Leah into them. Leah just won the Cromer School (out on Silver Saddle Road - there's a traffic light on Silver Saddle and 89A can you believe it!!) Spelling Bee as a 5th grader. Her older sister won the Thomas School Bee back when we still lived in my parents house, which is where we were the last time you visited.
Well, gotta go. Let me know how to contact you and I'll send that newsletter along.
Have a great day!
Your friend,
Walt