“Watch out below… coming in hot!” – Skomer Island July 2024 by Gary Shinner.
Skomer is the largest of Pembrokeshire’s islands at around 730 acres. It is owned by NRW (Natural Resources Wales), and managed by The Wildlife Trust of South & West Wales.
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I have been to Skomer on two previous occasions and had some reasonable results, but as I’m not good at nature photography, jumped at the chance to join my Baglan Bay PS club members on a return to the island. The day was dry but quite a fresh gusting wind was present, while waiting near where the jetty is for the boat arrival, it was sheltered from the wind. I seem to recall our boat was just after 10am and the group of people, trooped on to the small well-appointed vessel.
(Note: You will need to pre-book your trip well in advance, especially in its high season, you get allocated a time on to the island and also a time when to leave)
The crossing doesn’t take too long, probably 15 mins, but there was a decent swell once out into the main waterway, so we took a few minutes longer crossing. On arrival, they put the bow of the vessel towards the shore, and then you time your step forward to get up onto the shore. There is a quite a steep climb up – so beware. On the path you are given a brief on the health and safety and to stick to the paths, plus they alert of recent sighting of birds / wildlife recently spotted.
About 4 of us – Gary Griffith / John Surridge / Ness Baker headed towards ‘The Wick’ This is an area on the south west of the island and the walk takes probably 40 mins, but here you will get to see the colourful puffins. The puffins, are out fishing for sand eels and bring back their food to their burrow to feed whatever is waiting.
The wind at the wick was very challenging to sort of stand up, and on top of that to hold your camera and long lens, plus jostle on the very narrow foot path to get a different viewpoint. I did notice that some puffins was circling around several times to try and land, due to the wind. So challenges for both parties I suppose. Anyway we spent probably around an hour in the area, but taking brakes in between, as the wind was quite tiring pushing us constantly.
I was fortunate to capture a decent one of a puffin trying to land and for the briefest of moments the wind kept this puffin in the air for me to capture, I was very pleased when I checked on getting home on my computer. The photo has been entered into a couple of comps, but the first one I entered it in was out in Malaysia (Bugis Photo Cup Circuit) and was accepted in all four rounds and awarded a – APU Gold medal.
Anyone out there wants to find out any more about the PSA, please contact Gart and he’ll do his best to help you.
Gary Shinner MPSA2 BPSA
PSA CMD for Wales