Back in the first week July a companion and I made two visits to the only colony of Keeled Skimmers on the Isle of Wight.The results of these visits are detailed in earlier blog entries.
It is quite a trek to get to the site as it is situated on cliff landslip on the south west coast of the Island and the only access is via the beach.In the past getting onto the shore at the closest point to the Keeled Skimmer site was via Whale Chine but winter erosion apparently made this route impassable.Therefore we had to use another chine farther along the coast which meant a walk of an hour and half to our destination.Not a stroll when trudging through sand and over stones in wellington boots.
En route we passed by Whale Chine and to our surprise saw that rough steps together with several ropes had been fashioned up the cliff by anglers who fish from the shore at night.Returning by this method up the cliff would save us an hour along the beach on our return trip.
Nearing the site we came across our first skimmer flying around on the beach.It turned out to be a mature female and hopefully they will spread out and colonize suitable habitat on any other nearby landslips.
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