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Skomer's shearwaters

Infra-red cameras reveal the nocturnal activities of Skomer's greatest treasure.

It’s half past nine, the sun’s set, and it really is getting incredibly dark, too dark now to use this camera, so we need to change to infrared and get out the image intensifying binoculars. But to begin with it’s more what you hear than what you see. Do you hear that? It’s been likened to the voices of cackling witches, I can believe that one. Somebody once said it was the ghosts of long dead pirates. It’s neither actually, it’s the sound of Skomer’s greatest treasure - and before long, they start to appear. Manx shearwaters, a quite remarkable bird. They’re not the most elegant birds on land… their legs are too near the backs of their bodies to get much balance or to be able to stand upright, but the shearwater’s designed for life at sea, it’ll just have come back now probably from a two day journey, fishing for sardines off the coast of Spain. Having eaten its fill it'll relieve its mate on the nest who will then go off and fish in turn. They come home at night to avoid being attacked by gulls. You can just make them out when your eyes get really accustomed to the dark. The place is beginning to be alive with them, and it’s not remotely scary, it’s quite wonderful. Just like the puffins, they’re here because of the rabbits – whose burrows attract 102,000 pairs of shearwaters each year – that’s a third of the world’s population on this one island. With so many neighbours in close proximity – the odd squabble is inevitable! These delightful birds pair up for life and may return to Skomer for anything up to 50 years.

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3 minutes

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