A PHOTOGRAPHER has captured these charming images of puffins in Cardigan Bay by managing to get up close and personal - wearing a decoy on his head.

Martin Yelland, 40, snapped the seabirds on a snorkelling trip off Skomer Island, Pembrokeshire, earlier this month.

He explains: "I was absolutely thrilled to see so many puffins. I have snorkelled with big blue sharks off of Penzance before, and seen tiger sharks whilst surfing in Indonesia, but this was an absolutely magical encounter.

"The decoys we were given to use were brilliant. The puffins became very interested in them, and would come up to them to check them out.

"We were told to move the decoys about, and this is what drew the puffins close by. It was one of the best things I have ever done.

Martin, from St Erth, Cornwall, says "Next summer I shall be taking my whole family to see the puffins and other birdlife, such was the impact in had on me."

Located less than a mile off the Pembrokeshire coast, Skomer Island has become known for it colonies of puffins.

They breed on coastal cliffs or offshore islands, nesting in crevices among rocks or in burrows in the soil.