Spring on the Pembrokeshire Coast
I largely ignored the Skomer Puffins this year, but I couldn’t resist this little fella on the North Cliff, framed by the yellow lichen on an off-shore rockface.
Last week my on-going quest for the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker took another break. I have just returned from my annual trip to Pembrokeshire and Skomer Island. In early May this part of the world is an utterly beautiful place with flowers in full bloom. On Skomer, parts of the Island are covered in vast carpets of bluebells and campion creating impressive vivid displays of blues and pink.
On this trip I mostly ignored the main attraction of Skomer, namely the 40,000 Puffins, and focused on other subjects. A goal this year (again) was to try to catch an image of one of the pair of resident Short-eared Owls. Not as easy as photographing seabirds which reside on the island in their thousands. Spotting and tracking one out of two owls is tricky … I have spent many hours trying over the past 3 years without success. Scroll to the photos below to see if I succeeded this year …
This is a short blog entry as I posted last year about Skomer Island and Pembrokeshire (link: /blog/skomer-island). So, this time I will just let a few select photos do the talking … and I’m already looking forward to next year’s trip to this wonderful place.
Sedge Warbler - the abundance of blue and pink flowers on Skomer Island in May creates wonderful hues for the background
The setting sun casts a warm glow on the sandstone cliffs at St. Brides
A Meadow Pipit enjoying the colours of the bluebells and campion on Skomer Island
A Stonechat with nesting material
Pentre Ifan - an ancient burial chamber (3,500 BC). The ‘floating’ capstone weighs in at 15 tonnes
Skomer Island in May - endless carpets of bluebells and campion
After years of trying I managed to capture the Short-eared Owl on Skomer. These images were taken with the Nikon Z 800mm lens in the middle of the day in quite strong light (heat haze was a challenge) at a distance of approximately 150m. Plenty of tender care was required in post processing to extract adequate images. The pursuit of better images starts next year :-)