Puffins

Today's the day ....................... to cruise

Caught the Puffin Shuttle bus to Little Haven this morning - and then walked six miles along the Pembrokeshire coastal path - to get back to the castle again. It was another beautiful day and the deep blue of sky and sea was more reminiscent of the Greek Islands than somewhere in Britain.

Then this evening, the Dale Princess took us on a Seabird Spectacular cruise round Skomer Island. It lived up to its name too - because we saw lots of spectacular seabirds including puffins, cormorants, fulmars, kittiwakes, guillemots and razorbills.

But the most special sight of all was a raft of a couple of thousand manx shearwaters, just putting in time until darkness falls. That's when they will fly on to Skomer to spend the night in their burrows. The islands off the Pembrokeshire coast are home to half the world's population of shearwaters.

A very special sighting of one of the world's rarest seabirds ...................