The Adventures of Puffin Island - June 4th 2011

Here goes- - my first blog post!

Last Friday I made my way up to North Wales from Llanelli. On my way I saw my first ever Honey Buzzard which was gliding over the car! I spent the night at Steve and Rachel's and in the morning we set out for Puffin Island off Anglesey. We arrived on puffin island at around 9am and spent the next 8 hours clambering up cliffs, wrestling shags and getting crapped upon!


Puffin Island

I had a fantastic day ringing Shag pulli, both Razorbill pulli and adults, Guillemot and an adult Kittiwake. We also caught a beautiful adult Fulmar which was a retrap. I also got to ring my favourite sea bird - a Puffin, there were only two caught, one being ringed by myself and the other by Zac Hinchcliffe http://zacswildlifeblog.blogspot.com/.

Me holding a Puffin

It was great to see the different types of nests and eggs on the island. I especially loved seeing gull chicks hatching out of their eggs and newly hatched Shag chicks. You had to be careful where you walked as not only were there nests everywhere but also tiny gull chicks running about your feet!



Shag chicks, just hatched



I have counted 88 battle scars on me! These birds do pack a punch. The Razorbills especially enjoy drawing blood, hence the reason why whenever I was ringing one I put on my thick hoody for protection - even though it was an extremely hot day.



Adult Razorbill

The special triangular shaped rings that you put on Razorbills were new to me and took some getting used to. Amazingly I found it harder to put them on the squirming pulli than I did on the angry snapping adults!


Razorbill Pulli

In all I had a fantastic day and want to say a big thanks to everyone there and especially to Steve and Rachel for both inviting me and their kind hospitality.