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South Stack
I'm telling you about this reserve to show you what it's all for.
There is something perfect about South Stack, the meeting of sea and land and life that melds in such a wonderful way.
There's a constant flow between sea and cliffs, noise and activity everywhere. An occasional dolphin or porpoise breaches the waves. The sea is dotted with milk-chocolate guillemots and intensely black razorbills.
Unique salt-loving plants cling to the cliff edge and adders and silver-studded blue butterflies thrive in the maritime heath. Peregrines, ravens and playful choughs ride the updrafts.
We work hard here to keep conditions just right for all this wildlife.
Some of the seabirds will have been coming to South Stack since I was a teenager, returning every year to lay a single egg. That's the thing about seabirds – some of them are very long lived, spending decades surviving on the open ocean, fighting over fish, squabbling around trawlers, covering incredible distances, diving to remarkable depths and riding out lashing gales.
While seabird colonies bordering the Irish Sea have been faring better than those further north, puffin numbers at South Stack have declined in recent years. Here we suspect the problem is mammalian predators.
Rats and other mammalian predators have wreaked havoc on seabird colonies worldwide when they have been unwittingly introduced by man.
We have worked with others to remove rats from several seabird islands in the UK, with dramatic results. Our work on this reserve will have just the same effect.
Become a Sea Life Guardian
And you'll help protect special places like South Stack, which in some cases are the last refuges for certain seabirds in the UK. Your monthly gift will keep these places in ideal condition, keeping the wildlife safe from the dangers they face in other places.