Storm Ophelia struck west Wales on 16th October last year

The consequences were devastating…

Starting as the easternmost Atlantic major hurricane on record, Ophelia was extratropical (and thus downgraded to a ‘storm’) by the time it reached the UK, but it was still regarded as the worst to affect Ireland in 50 years. In Wales, roads were closed, and hundreds of houses were left without power. Five boats were sunk in Porthclais near St Davids, and 92 mile an hour winds hit Milford Haven marina.

For the Trust, it is the Pembrokeshire Islands of Skomer and Skokholm that are always our first concern; lying just off the south west coast of Pembrokeshire they always bear the brunt of autumn storms, and their exposed location leaves them vulnerable to the impacts of Atlantic weather.

Storm Ophelia certainly lived up to the dire warnings issued by the Met Office. Waves reaching 16 metres were recorded at nearby St Ann’s Head. High winds- but even stronger seas- battered both islands. The Skokholm Wardens Richard Brown and Giselle Eagle describe their experience as they returned to their lighthouse base at the end of the day:

“The Lighthouse compound was deep with sea water, and seaweed and spray continued to fly around. We knew we had to get inside quickly but we weren’t greeted by the dry and cosy Lighthouse that we had imagined. It soon became apparent something was wrong. The old generator room door was rattling and all of the equipment and furniture within the room were sodden, covered in glass fragments and pushed up against the wall. The windows were smashed, the wind was howling and as we watched seawater pouring through the ceiling it became apparent that something was seriously wrong. We rushed up to the first floor and saw a huge hole in our living room wall. It was a hole normally plugged by a window, which was now lying flat on the floor. Another wave came splashing through, peppering the walls with seaweed and sand. A wild night followed. Fortuitously a flat calm day followed and we were able to properly assess the damage and carry out make shift repairs for the winter. There had been a huge amount of water damage to the Lighthouse. The door to the generator shed had been blown in and wrapped around the generator. Equipment and personal belongings were laden with glass fragments and debris.”

On Skomer, the damage to our buildings was less, although roof tiles were ripped off both in North Haven and at the Farm accommodation, some left sticking dagger-like into the courtyard turf. On Skomer though, the impacts were more immediately apparent on the wildlife: October is the height of Grey Seal pupping time, with large numbers of pups lying on the island’s beaches. Although seal pups can swim from birth, even large pups are unable to withstand the battering of prolonged and extreme weather. Skomer Wardens Bee Büche and Ed Stubbings monitor the pups daily at this time of year, and by the time the storm abated, two thirds of the pups they had been individually monitoring before the storm had disappeared from the beaches.

On the back of this devastation, WTSWW decided to launch an appeal, to raise funds to repair the substantial damage to the island’s infrastructure, and to help us underwrite the future of the critical seal monitoring and to protect the programme from any future funding pressures.

Many of you responded to this appeal, and incredibly generously- a big thank you to every single person who wrote, phoned or got in touch to support this important cause.

Thanks to your generosity, we actually exceeded our target of £25,000 – and some donations are still coming in.

So, what has happened since?

On Skokholm, after the storm passed, the wardens were left with a relatively short time before the island had to be closed down for the season, to make temporary repairs that would withstand the winter. Doors and windows were boarded up and made good as best as could be achieved. On Skomer, roofs were repaired and as soon as the storm cleared, and seal monitoring resumed, though it would be some months before the true impact of the storm on the final breeding figures could be calculated.

This spring, both sets of wardens have returned to the island and fortunately found that their late season repairs had held strong. On Skokholm, considering it had parts missing from it, the Lighthouse had overwintered extremely well. The walls were damp and even dripping in places where saltwater had driven in. The walls and woodwork were mouldy and the metal work had dribbled rusty stains down the paint work. Still, no further damage had occurred and the unaffected rooms remained as the wardens had left them.

The clean-up job was huge!

The first week of work party volunteers came out armed with cleaning sprays, buckets, scrapers and sponges and, starting in the lantern, cleaned every single bit of every single wall, cabinet, glass, door, window and floor removing the salt, mould and soggy plaster work. The work was grubby and monotonous but the team remained enthusiastic and worked incredibly hard to get the building back to a decent condition.

A dehumidifier, bought with monies raised during the Storm appeal, is currently removing 4 litres of moisture a day from the Lighthouse and whilst it is far from its pre-Ophelia splendour, it is in a good place from which to continue the repair and redecoration in the future. The Lighthouse generator, which had been affected by saltwater after the storm damaged the door, was coaxed back into life with an engineer’s support- but funding from the appeal has now also been set aside to replace this when it reaches the end of its life.

Counting the cost to the seal population

On Skomer, the results of the autumn and winter’s seal monitoring was being tallied up. As well as Storm Ophelia, which had washed roughly two-thirds of the white coated pups off the beaches, the island had been subject to Storm Brian, only five days later, which was less severe but no less devastating, sweeping some of the remaining pups away. Fortunately, 2017 was a good year overall for our seals, and so some pups had already weaned and moulted before the storm hit, and others were not born until after the storms had passed.

In the final analysis, in the worst-case scenario (assuming the pups that disappeared during the storm had died, even the larger ones that we would normally assume had survived), pup survival was 62%. Whilst significantly lower than average, this is much higher than we could have hoped or imagined in those first hours after the storm. The fact that survival was as high as it was can be explained by the very good start of the seal pupping season (of the first 52 pups born only four died). It shows how populations are in fact able to deal with some of these natural disasters, and that bad years can be accommodated without too much long-term impact on the population

We remain concerned

If over time climate change causes us to have more storms of this severity, with greater frequencies earlier in the autumn, then we may start to see bigger and longer term impacts on the Grey Seal population. This is where the immense value of the long-term monitoring data really becomes apparent; with Grey Seal data stretching back decades, we are able to work with Natural Resources Wales to establish long term trends and work to understand the effects of changes in the environment in a way we never could if we only collected data reactively.

We were fortunate that the date of this storm meant that we did not record any impact on the seabirds, whose breeding season was over, but the same concerns apply to what seems to be a trend towards bigger and more frequent summer storms in the future.

The Trust would like to extend a huge ‘thank you’ to everyone who has donated to the storm appeal- your generosity has made a massive difference at a difficult time. Even now, we are still in the process of replacing equipment that was damaged or destroyed in the storm six months ago. You have helped us to put right what was damaged, replace what was destroyed, and have confidence that we can continue the essential work to impact the effect of such events on the islands’ wildlife into the future.

What’s been spotted on Skomer last month?

Two Red Kites came over the island on the 21^st. At least one Hen Harrier remained until the 15^th. A Sparrowhawk was present on three dates.

Water Rails were present throughout and started singing towards the end of the month.

Oystercatcher numbers peaked at 141 on the 4^th. There were two Golden Plover on the 2^nd and five Ringed Plover on the 29^th. Whimbrels began passing through from the 13^th with a high count of 35 on the 22^nd. A Black-tailed Godwit was on North pond on the 18^th. Turnstone numbers dwindled towards the end of the month with a high count of 13 on the 4^th.

There were two great counts of Purple Sandpipers in the month with 40 on the 4^th and 27 on the 6^th. The first Common Sandpiper arrived on the 11^th and there was just one further record in North Haven on the 23^rd. Snipe were present throughout most of the month with counts of up to four.

Another record was set with our spring count of Puffins when 30,895 individuals were counted on the 8^th. Three Black-headed Gulls in Jack Sound on the 19^th were the only records of the month.

A Collared Dove at the Farm on the 6^th was the only record of the month. The first Swift was seen on the 28^th over the Farm. A female Kestrel was present on several dates at the start of the month and a male was seen on the 30^th. Merlins were present throughout with two on the 14^th.

A Woodchat Shrike arrived in North Valley on the 18^th and remained until the 21^st. Goldcrests passed through in small numbers with a peak of six on the 9^th. There were single Blue Tits on the 5^th and 7^th and Great Tits on the 1^st (one), 3^rd (two) and 4^th (one).

There were nine Sand Martins on the 3^rd, 33 on the 20^th and smaller numbers throughout. Swallow numbers peaked at 97 on the 22^nd. The first House Martin was seen on the 6^th and there were 15 on the 19^th.

Warbler numbers peaked with 28 Chiffchaff on the 3^rd, 47 Willow Warbler on the 21^st, 27 Blackcap on the 8^th, four Common Whitethroat on the 29^th and ten Sedge Warbler on the 29th. There was also a Lesser Whitethroat present in North Haven on the 22^nd and 23^rd and Reed Warblers on four dates.

A Ring Ouzel was present near the Garland Stone between the 14^th and 16^th and there was a second bird on the 16^th. A Fieldfare with a broken wing remained from ‘the beast from the east’. There were single records of Song Thrush on the 4^th and 29^th and Redwing on the 4^th and 5^th.

The first Spotted Flycatchers (two) were seen at South Stream on the 30^th. There were odd records of Robins with two on the 4^th, 8^th and 12^th. A male Pied Flycatcher was seen in North Haven on the morning of the 13^th and, what was probably the same individual, was seen later at the Farm. Single Black Restarts were seen on the 3^rd and 4^th and there were two on the 5^th and 6^th.

Small numbers of Stonechats continued to pass through at the start of the month with five on the 5^th but by the 20^th only one breeding pair remained. Wheatears passed through in small numbers with 28 (including six Greenland birds) on the 29^th and 32 (including nine Greenland birds) on the 30^th.

A single White Wagtail was seen on the 7^th.

Chaffinches were seen on the 9^th and 14^th. Numbers of Linnets and Goldfinches passing through peaked at 91 (on the 21^st) and 59 (on the 26^th) respectively. Lesser Redpolls were seen on the 21^st and 23^rd and single Siskins were recorded on the 14^th and 21^st.

If you’d like to visit Skomer or Skokholm Island for an overnight stay please contact our booking team via 01656 724100. For day visits to Skomer all information can be found here.

Migrants on Skomer

Many of this month’s peak counts were caused by the extreme cold spells at the beginning and middle of the month. Monthly maxima of wildfowl include five Wigeon on the 2nd and 3rd, 28 Teal on the 1st, 13 Mallard on the 1st and four Shoveler on the 31st. Manx Shearwaters were first heard, at night, on the 7th. A Little Grebe was present on North Pond between the 26th and the 28th.

One Red Kite was seen on the 24th and there were two the next day. Up to two Hen Harriers were present all month.

Monthly maxima of waders were 154 Oystercatchers on the 28th, at least 500 Golden Plover on the 2nd, at least 1,000 Lapwing on the 2nd (both being extremely high counts for the island, caused by the severe cold snap at the start of the month), 36 Curlew on the 8th, 13 Turnstone on the 11th, six Purple Sandpipers on the 10th, five Woodcock on the 2nd and 3rd and 80 Snipe on the 2nd. Additionally, there were single Bar-tailed Godwits on three dates, up to two Dunlin on seven dates and up to two Jack Snipe on four dates.

The first Puffins were seen on the 13th and there was a high count of 5,440 in North Haven on the 30th. There were 16 Black-headed Gulls on the 2nd. There were single Common Gulls on the 1st and 3rd. An immature Iceland Gull flew over the Farm on the morning of the 27th. Short-eared Owls were seen on several dates with four plus on the 3rd and one was found fresh dead on the morning of the 28th. A female Kestrel was on and off throughout the month. There were multiple records of Merlins throughout, including an adult male on the 20th, with two on the 26th.

The first Goldcrest was recorded on the 12th (one) and there were six on the 27th. At least one Blue Tit was present for most of the month and there were three on the 10th. A male Great Tit was present from the 5th and was heard singing towards the end of the month.

The first Sand Martins were recorded on the 30th when three were seen. The first Chiffchaff with pollen horns was seen on the 12th and there was a clear arrival on the 30th when 13 were recorded. The first Willow Warbler was seen on the 24th and there were three on the 30th.

Thrush numbers were also much higher than usual due to the two cold snaps. There were an incredible 1,700 Fieldfare on the 2nd and numbers gradually dwindled after that. Redwing numbers were equally incredible on the 2nd when at least 7,500 were recorded either passing over or trying to feed and shelter on the island. Song Thrush numbers peaked at ten on the 8th and Blackbird at eleven on the 12th.

A male Black Redstart was seen along the main track on the 17th. Numbers of migrant Stonechats peaked at ten on the 7th and there were nine on the 16th. The first Wheatears arrived on the 13th (three). There were two on the 15th and only singles after that.

Six Chaffinch were recorded on the 2nd. There were 14 Linnet on the 2nd and twelve on the 3rd.

Many birds were found dead after the extreme cold weather, especially at the start of the month, with Golden Plover, Lapwing, Fieldfare and Redwing being the worst affected.

Find out more information about visiting Skomer Island.

1000 lapwings were seen on Skomer