Hi, I'm Rudi, i'm 8 years old and my favourite book is 'Tarka the Otter' by Henry Williamson. Its about the life of an otter named Tarka and British Wildlife. One night i was reading the book with my dad and i said that i wanted to see all the animals in the book, he said i should do it and call it the Tarka Challenge. My Tarka Challenge started on 1st January 2012. The book contains 89 birds, 54 land based animals, 120 plants and 56 aquatic organisms.

The rules are simple, i must either see each thing myself or photograph it using my trail camera. I will try and see each thing on my local patch (Ogmore River Catchment) but may need to look somewhere else in Britain.

Skomer

We finally made it to Skomer, today it was not raining/windy/foggy and my Dads ankle is better. We got up early and drove there in the car, thinking of Puffins all the way.

Waiting for the boat we saw Sea Beet growing on the cliffs....


There were Swallows nesting in the toilets....


On the boat across to the island we saw......

 A greedy Gull


 Gannets



 More Gulls


Guillemots


As we got near to the Island we saw our first ever Puffins......





We had to walk up the steep steps above the beach, there were Puffins everywhere, when we got to the top we could see a pod of Dolphins jumping around out at sea. The water on the beach looked really clean....



After walking we stopped for a pasty picnic, but we were being watched.....





We saw lots more Puffins, some were nearly walking over our feet....








We also saw lots of Kittiwakes nesting on the cliff, shouting "Kittiwake" at each other....


As we walked we saw a juvenile Wheatear....


Wild Black Rabbits....


Seals.....


Shags.....


And a pair of Harbour Porpoise...


By the time we got back to the boat my feet were aching but i was smiling. In the car i slept all the way home.


There are no Puffins in Tarka the Otter but i bet Henry Williamson would have liked them. So, i can cross 3 things off my list....

Guillemot (Uria aalge)
Gullimots live in colonies on steep cliffs. They like hanging around together and dive underwater chasing fish using thier wings to swim.

Porpoise (Phocoena phocoena)
This is the commonest and smallest cetacean in European waters. It is dark grey above and white below with a low, blunt dorsal fin. Unlike most dolphins the snout is not extended into a beak, it has quite a blunt head. They are not as energetic as dolphins and do not leap out of the water.

Sea Beet (Beta vulgaris)
This is the wild ancestor of Beetroot and spinach were. It likes to grow in rocky and pebble places by the sea. It has long green flower spikes between June and September.
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