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The Natural History of Skokholm Island

by Graham Victor Frederick Thompson

380 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #06-3228; ISBN 1-4251-1469-5; US$58.04, C$66.75, EUR45.25, £30.00

Everything you'd want to know about the wildlife of an island nature reserve - and much about its management that perhaps you wouldn't dare to imagine.

About the Book

Skokholm is a remote island nature reserve located off the southwest coast of Pembrokeshire, Wales. Home to over 100,000 seabirds (including the third-largest Manx shearwater colony in the World), it was made famous by pioneer naturalist Ronald Mathias Lockley in the 1930s and 1940s as a result of the many books that he wrote about it. He leased Skokholm for 20 years from 1928 until 1948, during which time he established Britain's first Bird Observatory (in 1933). The field outing of the 8th International Ornithological Congress was held on the island in the following year. The Pembrokeshire Bird Protection Society (now the Wildlife Trust of South & West Wales), of which Lockley was a founder, took over the lease in 1948, and ran the island as a ringing station and nature reserve. In 1954 it was notified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

A huge number of studies have been carried out looking into the lives of the various birds, the House Mice and Rabbits, invertebrates, plants and plant communities. In 1963 the Edward Grey Institute for Field Ornithology became involved and began a number of studies looking at seabird biology and populations. The Council for the Promotion of Field Studies (now the Field Studies Council) was, at this time, running the island under license from the Wildlife Trust. The Medical Research Council and then the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine undertook a study on the genetically unique island House Mouse, and the Ministry of Agriculture studied the Rabbit population as the disease Myxomatosis swept across Britain, but did not affect the island animals at all, making the site even more interesting.

Skokholm ceased to be recognised by the Bird Observatories Council as an official Bird Observatory in 1976 following the cessation of ringing (banding) activities. This came about as a result of the landlord hearing news that he did not want to hear about goings-on there, including the way birds and animals were being treated during the studies, so he then insisted that the trapping of animals should stop.

This is the most complete work on Skokholm ever. All of the discoveries about the principle bird and mammal species are explained. The book gives a true insight into the site's management over the years. It also questions the ethics of the aforementioned studies, which included "twinning" experiments (auks being given a second youngster to feed, when they actually only lay one egg), relocation (birds transported hundreds or even thousands of miles from their nest, to see if they can re-find their home), refrigeration (can mice tolerate cold?), removal (exclusion of a bird from its territory to see if another takes it over), egg-swapping (between species, to see if migration is a learned behaviour or innate) and even killing (of those species not favoured at the time) - and all this on a "nature reserve"!

The author's own observations form a significant part, with him having lived there for 9 years as the Island Warden. The records have been sifted through, and annotated lists of plants and birds found on the island in the past century are complete and fully up-to-date. Lists of insects, lichens, fungi, mosses and liverworts have all been painstakingly updated with regard to current nomenclature - no easy task! It comes complete with 32 photographs, appendices, a list of references and an index.

There are many other threats faced by the island's inhabitants, and these are also examined:


• Situated close to the entrance of one of one of Britain's busiest ports - the Milford Haven waterway - and its associated oil industry, the island has had its share of man-made disasters over the years through large oil spillages, most recently with the grounding of the Sea Empress in 1996. What steps have been taken by UK and other governments since then to prevent such disasters from reoccurring?
  
  
• Fishing is also a major industry, the waters in the region being extremely rich in marine life - hence the presence of the seabirds. As usual, this activity also impacts on the birds and marine mammals found there, by way of entanglement in nets and direct competition for food resources.
  
  
• A lighthouse situated at the south-western tip of the island has caused a huge number of difficulties for birds over recent years, due to the change in colour of its light (the author successfully campaigned for remedial work to be carried out for the sake of the birds), and also because of the activities of some of the staff that visited to maintain it, most of whom obviously had little respect for wildlife, even those species that they knew were specially protected by law.
  
  
• The newest threats to Skokholm's birds have arisen as a result of Man's increasing amount of leisure time and disposable income. Pleasure-boating, canoeing, "sea safaris", scuba-diving, flying of light aircraft and general "playing about" are all putting the wildlife under extra pressure.
  
  
  Will it all end unhappily for nature? Not necessarily, hope remains, but only if proper action is taken NOW to protect what still exists.

About the Author

Born in central London in 1964, it was perhaps a surprise that the author became infatuated with wildlife. His mother puts it down to his grandfather taking him to feed the pigeons and sparrows in the local park. This early interest blossomed through expeditions in search of birds along local canal banks, on wasteland, and in parks. Visits to zoos, membership of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds' junior section (Young Ornithologists' Club), and family holidays the length and breadth of the UK (including the Pembrokeshire island of Skomer) widened his horizons. A first visit to Skokholm was made in 1982, when the author was 17 years old, the first of many visits which including weeklong stints as Voluntary Warden. Studying "Advanced level" Botany at college evening classes forced him to become more interested in plants! A degree in Ecology followed, opening up avenues in his quest to become a nature reserve Warden, with Skokholm always in mind. Working in central London on a tiny nature reserve, and then 5 years as a Countryside Ranger in East Sussex further strengthened his desire to work on Skokholm, regarded by him as an escape from all of the World's troubles! A summer as Assistant Warden on his "dream island" of Skokholm finally led to his dream being fulfilled - he was appointed as the Warden in the autumn of 1995. That's when the "behind the scenes" view led to the inception of this, his first (and certainly not his last) book about life on an island nature reserve. The story of his personal adventures there and his extensive natural history diaries have yet to be published. He now lives in the Massif Central region of France where he and his wife Theresa have established a bird-watching and natural history holiday business under the name of Massif Nature.