This post is about my trip to see Puffins in Wales, but the story starts a couple of years earlier...
We had travelled up to Northumberland to explore the wildlife in the North East of England. One part we were greatly looking forward to was a boat trip to go visit the Farne Islands. This is a great place to see lots of nesting seabirds such as Guillemots, Razorbills and Arctic Terns but the one we really wanted to see was the charismatic Puffin.
As it is a very popular destination we had to book our boat ticket months in advance. On the day of the trip, the weather looked ominous, but we were not going to be deterred by a little bit of rain surely?
We got on the small and very cramped boat (more people on the boat meant more money for the boat operators) and went for a guided tour round the islands. There was some light drizzle, but nothing to worry about. The driver started pointing out various birds as we went, and we even spotted a lone Puffin stood on the edge of the cliffs! Exciting stuff, but the clouds about us were getting darker and darker. And then the rain started.
The only vaguely decent shot from the ill-fated Farne Islands trip
We carried on travelling around the islands, with the rain getting increasingly harder, increasingly persistent. The first warning sign came when we stopped moving for quite awhile. The driver was obviously waiting for something. And then an Annoucement: "They are closing the islands"
The islands are actually owned and managed by the local Wildlife Trust, the Boat Operators are a separate business working with them, but the Wildlife Trust is in control. And with the now quite obvious incoming storm, they decided that for the welfare of the animals, no people would be allowed on the islands. So with that 12 small boats crammed with people all returned to port, and as they all returned at the same time, and there was only 1 place to dock, there was a queue. We spent over an hour waiting to get of the boat. It was at this point the heavens truly opened, and there was an almighty torrential downpour. Packed like sardines on a cramped boat with no roof, we got completely soaked. There was nothing we coukd do but stand there and get wet.
Having finally disembarked and the day ruined, we squelched back to the hotel thoroughly disheartened...
Fast forward to a couple of years later, we were down in Wales on another nature exploring trip. Once again we picked out a place to try again to see Puffins, this time at Skomer Island which just a few miles off the coast of Wales.
Like the Farne Islands, it is another great place to see seabirds, but we had only one bird on our mind...
And this time, the weather was on our side... mostly at least. It had gone the complete opposite of Northumberland. Not only was the Skomer trip the best day of the week, it was probably the hottest day of that month. Add to that the fact that the Island is wide open with no cover or shade and we got very, very sunburnt.
We were very red, and very sore, but we grinning from ear to ear. We had finally got our Puffins!
