Skomer Puffins

Made it.  After heading out early in the hope of catching the first boat at 10 am, only to be thwarted by a coach load of school children, we booked a later transfer and settled down to wait.  

We were hugely entertained by the antics of other car drivers in the car park.  First, a lady reversed straight into the parked car behind her!  There was a pregnant pause and then the gentleman in the car behind got out of his car (to remonstrate?) only for his car to start rolling forward while he desperately tried to get back in to apply the hand brake before he bumped into the ladies car.  He failed!  Worse, he reversed back only for him to engage first and hit her again!  In the end they called it a score draw.

Skomer is amazing.  For those that have visited while the puffins are nesting will know the wonder of walking inches away from them while they carry on their daily business, unfazed by a human's presence.  I took many photos, failing miserable to get a shot of a puffin in flight, or with a mouth full of sand eels.  They have this amazing knack of knowing exactly where their burrow is as they come into land and dive straight underground to feed the pufflings. 

We had an amazing 4-5 hours and I've added a few extras, including showing just how close we got (one was taken with a 24mm equivalent lens and we were literally inches from the bird) and to show a couple of images of the puffins in their burrows, staring out.