Skomer Island offers free stays for volunteers who count puffins

The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales is recruiting long-term volunteers to live on Skomer Island and help count its puffin colony, with free accommodation and travel expenses offered and roles running across spring to autumn.

Skomer Island, off the southwest coast of Wales, is managed by the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales and is internationally important for seabirds. The trust is advertising several long-term volunteer roles through spring, summer and autumn to support island management and wildlife monitoring. Volunteers will assist wardens and staff with visitor engagement and a range of monitoring tasks focused on breeding seabirds and other species. The island is known for its puffin colony, which arrives in spring and is counted each year. Key facts: - The trust is seeking three long-term volunteers for periods covering March–July, April–August and July–September, plus a seabird monitoring volunteer for late May to late June. - Duties include visitor engagement, seabird and wildlife monitoring (including puffin counts, boat counts, chick productivity checks, and other species monitoring), and some path and infrastructure maintenance with training provided. - Puffin counts are done section by section, often about two hours before sunset; volunteers record birds on land, at sea and in the air using clickers. - The island hosts more than 40,000 puffins and is described as an internationally important seabird site; puffins are listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. - Volunteers receive free accommodation with bills included and travel expenses to and from Skomer from within the UK; one source notes a small bursary of £200–£400 while the role is unpaid. Summary: The volunteer roles contribute to ongoing conservation and annual seabird monitoring on Skomer and support visitor management during the breeding season. Applications are being sought for set periods from spring through autumn and the trust is advertising the positions on its site.