Skomer Puffins

I made a trip to the island of Skomer, off the Pembrokeshire coast in south Wales last week. It was getting a little late in the season but I knew there were still plenty of Puffins there. They are a couple of weeks later than usual with breeding and are still feeding young in the burrows.

Arriving on the island before lunchtime, it wasn't going to be the best time for photography in the scorching overhead sun. I tried a few flight shots but the heat distortion didn't help in trying to get sharp images,  so close-ups would be the order of the day.

Ringed Plovers

More images from the Outer Hebrides. I spent a considerable part of my trip photographing waders. I was keen to get a good number of shots of them in breeding plumage, a complete contrast to the overwintering birds we have here locally on the Wirral. The other reason is that they are very approachable. Once you have settled down they will literally run around within a couple of meters, oblivious to your presence.

Ringed Plovers do breed locally to the Wirral, so I wasn't intending to take many shots of these. The white sandy beaches made for some nice low level shots though.

Lapwings

With such a prolonged cold winter, everything is very late this year by several weeks. So, I was surprised to see that this hadn't affected the Lapwings on The Outer Hebrides. Most of them had bred and had numbers of chicks running around. It's amazing how independent these chicks are as they wander well away from their parents, who do a great job of guarding them. Any potential predator is quickly spotted and relentlessly chased away. The iridescent colours on the adults are stunning at this time of year.