Skomer Island is the Welsh puffin capital city with 6,000 pairs of birds returning each year from late March until early August. The island is a nature reserve owned by the RSPB and is an excellent place to observe seabird colonies. I might have a biased judgement because I like bird watching, but my other friends who aren't into birds have enjoyed it too, and couldn't help not falling in love with puffins.

We arrived on the island by the boat service that operates from 1st April to 31st October (except Mondays) leaving from St. Martin's Haven near the tip of Marloes Peninsula. The boats depart between 10.00 and 12.00 every hour or more if there's demand and return back between 3.00 – 4.30 pm. After we landed on the island we were given a small brief by an RSPB guide and then were left to track along the marked footpaths on the island. It's great because you get lots of time to watch birds at your own pace and can spend as much time as you like taking photos.

  

The puffins are the main attraction on the island and during this time of the year they're feeding their young which live in burrows under the ground, so the activity is high. You can see puffins in rafts at sea, flying around the island, resting on the ground or even hastily crossing the footpath to get to their burrow. Nothing beats a puffin that's just returned to his chicks with a fresh catch of fish. We also saw herring gulls, kittiwakes, fulmars, lesser black-backed gull, some guillemots and a grey seal masterfully spotted by Y. (The seal spotting was confirmed after a long debate whether what he was seeing was a seal or a dead cow.)

On Skomer Island there are also colonies of Manx Shearwater who like puffins lay their eggs in burrows. Unfortunately the only Manx Shearwaters we saw were dead, victims of the black backed gull which preys on these birds. The shearwaters are best suited for a life at sea and to avoid the evil gull they only return on the island late at night when there's no moon. We didn't see Gannets either, which are best seen on Grassholm, 7 miles west of Skomer.