Well, spring came and went and winter returned with a vengeance to South Stack! Gale force winds and horizontal rain ruled last week causing wildlife and people to batten down the hatches. Despite the atrocious weather there were some creatures that positively enjoyed the elements! A pod of 6 dolphins spent one wild day entertaining visitors who were brave enough to venture out, putting on a brilliant show just outside Ellin’s tower. Gannets have been enjoying the rough weather too, have stayed around circling above porpoises off the lighthouse, and have thrilled us with their diving displays.
Thankfully the wind has abated the last few days and the sun has popped out again, much to the delight of all our smaller birds on the reserve. Stonechats and linnets have been singing their hearts out. Whitethroats have been spotted in the gorse outside Ellins tower, hopefully nesting! We still have quite a number of wheatears gracing us with their beauty and every day we see ever increasing numbers of swallows skimming the cliff edges in search of flies. The swallows have returned to the nests in the Plas Nico garage which is great news, so we look forward to watching their progress.
Large numbers of seabirds are back on the ledges too and looking ready to produce eggs. The numbers of Guillemots and Razorbills seem larger than ever this year and birds can be seen on Pen-Las rocks as well as the main cliffs. We will keep an eye on them to see if they breed there. We know that at least one bird has laid an egg, as unfortunately a raven flew past the tower yesterday with an egg in its beak! Ravens have been putting on a rather aggressive display towards the birds on the ledges the past few days causing them to fly off to the safety of the water. So far we haven’t seen any eggs, but we expect them any day now and once they do have them, they should be holding their positions a bit better!
Puffins have been spotted taking nesting material into the burrows, so its all happening! We will keep you posted with more puffin developments over the next few blogs.
Out on the Heathland we are beginning to see our reptiles coming out from the cold again and braving the wind to snatch some welcome rays of sunshine.
We are hoping now that we will have a period of settled weather so that our birds can get on with the task of nest building and producing the next generation! So watch this space!