Britain's best job? Castaway wanted to live on remote island with just 500,000 birds for company

[mc_squared]

Britain's best job? Castaway wanted to live on remote island with just 500,000 birds for company

 

 

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 8:12 AM on 05th January 2010

 

• Comments (9)
  
• Add to My Stories
  

 

The commute is a doddle and the views from the office are stunning.

But those applying for a job to look after an island off the coast of West Wales should be prepared to work unsociable hours - and deal with half a million very noisy neighbours.

The new warden of Skomer Island will have just an assistant for company.

 

Life in the office: Current warden Jo Milborrow keeps an eye on some puffins on Skomer island

 

The only other inhabitants are thousands of puffins and wild rabbits.

The island has no roads, no shop, and no pub, and is separated from the Pembrokeshire mainland by Jack Sound, one of the most treacherous stretches of water off the British coast.

Rare breed: The Skomer Vole is unique to the island

 

 

As well as a salary of £16,000 a year, the successful applicant will be provided with a clifftop bungalow, nestled in the heart of the main puffin colony.

Jo Milborrow, 32, the current warden, said she and her 32-year-old husband Dave have decided to return to the mainland after six years on Skomer.

'I feel incredibly lucky to have lived in such an amazing place,' she said.

'Gaining an intimate knowledge of one place, its wildlife and seasonal rhythms are things I value greatly.'

The island is carpeted by bluebells in spring and surrounded by a marine reserve, rich in sealife, including dolphins and porpoises.

 

Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales chief executive Sarah Kessell said: 'We are looking for a very special person to take care of our flagship reserve.

 

'The warden will have to manage people and resources, be familiar with conservation techniques and be confident on board boats.'

The vacancy has come up because the current warden, Jo Milborrow, wants to return to the mainland after six years on Skomer and its sister island Skokholm.

 

 

Enlarge Remote: Skomer has no mains water, electricity, shops or roads

 

The job pays between £14,000 and £16,000 per year for a 48-hour week with accommodation thrown in free.

 

Part of the work involves greeting the hundreds of birdwatchers and day trippers who arrive by the tiny ferry boat in the spring and summer - weather permitting.

 

Remote: Skomer Island

 

But only the warden and a few overnight visitors get to see the island's greatest spectacle - the nightly arrival of hundreds of thousands of manx shearwaters. The birds feed at sea during the day before returning to their underground burrows at night.

A third of the world's breeding population of shearwaters breed each summer on Skomer before flying to warmer climes in the winter.

Mrs Milborrow said: 'To have shared my home with puffins, peregrine falcons, shearwaters and storm petrels and to be able to help protect these birds and inspire other people about them has been a high point of my life.

 

 

Nice work if you can get it: Ben Southall works on Hamilton Island off Australia

 

'I wish the new warden as many memorable times as we have been lucky enough to share.'

A British man won The Best Job in the World competition to work as warden on an Australian tropical island in May last year.

Ben Southall, 34, a charity fundraiser from Petersfield, Hampshire, emerged from a field of more than 34,000 applicants.

 

Mr Southall now lives and reports from Hamilton Island, on Queensland's Great Barrier Reef.

 

He was chosen from among 16 finalists competing for the A$150,000 (£73,500) position.

 

 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1240464/Warden-wanted-remote-Skomer-island.html#ixzz0bjnWUXID

[Saffire]

There's a reason people call it "work" - because given a choice, most people wouldn't do it for free! :P

[mc_squared]

Is that what they mean by "doing bird"?:rolleyes:

[Reilly]

Why do the Daily Mail consistently present things that happened ages ago as 'news'? Its also like when I saw the Daily Mirror last week, which front cover was Jade Goody's kids and a headline with something teary-eyed like "First Christmas without Mummy", thats not news, thats a magazine article! I dont understand how newspaper journalists get away with this.

[mc_squared]

Why do the Daily Mail consistently present things that happened ages ago as 'news'? Its also like when I saw the Daily Mirror last week, which front cover was Jade Goody's kids and a headline with something teary-eyed like "First Christmas without Mummy", thats not news, thats a magazine article! I dont understand how newspaper journalists get away with this.

 

It happens all the time at this time of year, as it's "silly season".;)

Unfortunately there isn't a "nature" forum, otherwise I would have posted it in there.;)

Incidentally, I don't think newspapers should be publishing photos of Jade Goody's children, as they're minors, and not "celebrities" in any shape or form.