Day 4

14 April

Day starts out quite mild and I decide to have a run. Dunnocks, robins and wrens in the hedgerows and on the stone walls along the road. After that a bit of yoga & stretching and then breakfast and getting ready for another day at the bird centre. Wendy has a day off.

Cycling up I hear skylarks singing.

Today finally brings us puffins (30-40), razorbills (scattered, maybe 50) and guillemots (150)! Unfortunately it’s a day of mixed blessings: steady rain most of the day. Our visitors are not troubled by it and very happy to see the puffins as well as all the other birds. Quite a few very small but sturdy children who happily point their borrowed binoculars at the rocks or look into the telescopes for the peregrine and the ravens’s nest. In the afternoon the puffins and guillemots leave for the sea again. Later, we discover them floating on the sea quite close to the lighthouse and manage to set our telescope to watch them. So the last group of visitors is lucky to be able to see puffins anyway!

Nice to meet Colin who is the RSPB’s officer responsible for the volunteer scheme. He stays out with us on the platform for most of the afternoon.

Be a puffin if you can't see one: