Bore da!
The stunning weather we've had recently may not have escaped your notice and here at South Stack we've been celebrating with our Puffin Fun weekend! The Puffins have been out in force, basking in the sunshine on the rocks. We ran guided walks yesterday where we saw numerous Stonechat families, Linnets, Rock Pipits, Whitethroat and the odd Peregrine, Kestrel and Buzzard. As the walks progressed down the steps towards the lighthouse we saw plenty of Guillemots with their young and Razorbills too. We decided to make our way across on to the lighthouse island in the late afternoon where we could get up close to Kittiwakes and their little chicks as well as close up views of more Guillemot and Razorbill families. Previous visitors to the island will know that it's full of gulls and at this time of year they are nesting, needless to say it can be very noisy and smelly! Yesterday, I was lucky enough to see chicks of Herring, Lesser and Great Black-backed Gull at various stages of development. The highlight for me being the "squeeking eggs" that Gavin from the lighthouse team told me about, which by the time I walked up there had started to emerge - a tiny newly hatched Lesser Black-backed Gull :) It even tried to crawl back into it's egg before Mum came back and settled down to brood him and the rest of her clutch.
The weather is beautiful again today so Ken and Jason will be running more guided walks, but if you come up in the week just pop in to Ellins Tower or the Visitor Centre and we'll point you in the right direction x