Searching for puffins

Linda Precious has travelled all the way from Southend in Essex to see one particular seabird – a puffin. She’s doesn’t have much luck until Dave Bateson of the RSPB wanders over, points down at the sea far below and advises her to look out for their distinctive white cheeks and tummies.

“It’s exactly what I came for. It’s just a bird I have never seen and I was desperate to see them – they are just so sweet” said Linda. Dave and his team spend a lot of time finding puffins for the 35,000 visitors a year to South Stack, but in conservation terms, their most important bird is the chough. It is a member of the crow family, with a distinctive curved red bill and red legs, and is one of the rarest birds in Britain.

South Stack has nine breeding pairs of chough, an incredible two per cent of the UK population. The whole reserve with its great swathes of heathland is run to suit them and their need to probe the earth for grubs and beetles.
The guillemots and razorbills that throng the cliff ledges in summer are true sea birds. They hate being on land and only come ashore to lay their eggs. Even before the chicks can fly, they

will hurl themselves 150 feet through the air, crash into the water and paddle out to the open sea with their parents. It’s a great sight to see.

Normally, seabird colonies are hidden away from view, but at South Stack, you can watch the entire spectacle from Ellin’s Tower, the RSPB Seabird Centre, which is perched right on the cliff edge in front of the nesting, squabbling birds.

If you can’t quite see enough with the naked eye, you can borrow binoculars from the centre, peer through a telescope or watch live images from three different cameras – one of these cameras is constantly pointing at a chough nest in an inaccessible sea cave. “You will remember these moments for years to come,” promises Dave Bateson. “We are trying to open people’s eyes to the marvel that’s out there.”

Much of Anglesey’s wildlife is equally marvellous: take Newborough Forest for instance, where you might, if you’re lucky, glimpse a rare red squirrel and experience the second-largest raven roost in the world.

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