This is where I have to refer back to my diary as Monday
seems like such a long time ago! The hours pass so quickly here and so
much happens in one week that I often struggle to remember what I did
yesterday. Plus, in comparison to the brutal spring we endured last year it’s
much warmer this time around, it’s giving me the illusion that it’s much later
in the season. This week a fledged dunnock was spotted, two raven fledglings
were seen and one of our seven breeding chough pairs were exhibiting ‘feeding
chick’ behaviour. Wildflowers have already started to carpet the island and the
areas battered by the winter storms and salt spray seem to be recovering. It
feels like this time last year the plants were staying tucked under the soil as
long as possible and the wildlife was reluctant to do anything until the
promise of warmer weather. But this year, with April over, Ramsey is a very
different place.
Monday 28th saw the arrival of 17 year old
Gareth on five days’ work experience. A lot our volunteers come to Ramsey year
after year so it was great to see someone experience the island for the first
time. One of Gareth’s first tasks after helping with the 12 o clock boat was to
help me and site manager, Greg to dig in Manx shearwater nest boxes. The going
was tough, digging on a slope, into stony ground, which was laced with thick
bracken roots…but we managed to get 3 new nest boxes in before running off to
deal with the 4 o clock boat!
(Gareth digging away with the Bitches and Whelps reef behind
him.)
Gareth, Greg, the two other volunteers (Penny and Lesley)
and myself all went out later that evening to record the calls of Manx
shearwaters for a conservation science project going on this year. Although it
was quite a quiet night in terms of birds, Greg managed to get some great
recordings of male and female birds dueting.
Just
in case you haven’t heard a Manx shearwater before here are a pair of dueting Manx shearwaters recorded in a Ramsey island burrow and put up on SoundCloud by Greg.
There’s a great tale of Vikings landing on the calf of man
so that they could rest up in preparation for wreaking havoc across the water
in England. But as night fell the haunting calls of a flock of ‘dreadful night
ravens’ could be heard by the Vikings. They promptly swooped and dived at the
men and their ships, ripping sails down, ruining vital supplies and even
killing one or two of the men. So the Vikings fled! We now know these ‘dreadful
night ravens’ to be Manx shearwaters and they certainly couldn’t kill a man or
tear a ships sails down! But without any knowledge of these incredible seabirds
the eerie witchlike call was just too much to bear.
We dug in more Manx shearwater nest boxes on Tuesday the
29th, but this time in the sun! Whilst there I couldn’t resist
sneaking off to have a little nosey for spiders. Amongst some common arachnid
species I found literally hundreds or tiny caterpillars under stones along the
dry-stone wall.
They turned out to be muslin footman caterpillars and Lisa
the island moth expert confirmed that they were indeed regular visitors to her
moth trap. A little later I was sat above one of the northern caves doing a
chough watch and again got distracted by the opportunity for a small spider
hunt! There I found rare dew moth caterpillars in their silken retreats under
stones.
I wasn’t so distracted that I missed seeing what I was
really there for though and managed to catch the chough pair entering and
leaving the cave in a way that suggested that they were incubating eggs. The
two chough sites up on the north of the island are amongst my favourite and
somehow I feel more responsible for them. Last year when one of the two sites
failed it felt a little like I’d failed with them!
I started the following day (Wednesday 30th)
at another chough site on the west coast.
It was a stunning day with fulmars, lesser black backed
gulls, herring gulls, razorbills, guillemots, oystercatchers and gannets
beneath me. Lesser celandine, bluebells, spring squill and thrift surrounding
me and ravens ‘cronking’ above me. The chough were still incubating when I was
there but as I type this up they’ve now been seen showing ‘feeding chick
behaviour’.
Gareth and me spent the afternoon digging in the last Manx
shearwater nest boxes. For some reason unlucky number thirteen had been left
until last!!
The nest boxes are based on a design used for the slightly
smaller huttons shearwater. The boxes are placed near an existing colony and in
time Greg and Lisa are hoping that a Manx shearwater will choose one of the
boxes as their nesting site. The box has a handy observation hatch which will
mean that they will be able to monitor shearwater productivity. On some islands
the burrows and nesting chambers are so close to the surface that an
observation hatch can be just be dug out. The burrows on this island run deep
though and for Ramsey shearwaters this would prove far too invasive.
The evening turned into curry night with everyone
congregating in the bungalow. By half 10 the Manx shearwaters were in full
musical flow so everyone headed back out for another visit to the colony. It
was a busy evening and with a shearwaters vision not too dissimilar to our own
they were landing all around us….and occasionally hitting one or two of us!
Thursday the 1st of May was yet another
lovely day (Trying not to get too used to it!) and we spent most of it helping
Lisa meet some of Ramsey’s green dragon targets. Controlling the flow of
rubbish and waste to and from the island is tricky…and always has been. Years
ago with little thought to the environmental implications the people who lived
and farmed on Ramsey would dump rubbish in Ramsey sound or throw it into ‘scrap
bay’. Many islands around the UK will have had similar bays and dumping points.
Now with a much keener awareness of marine litter and pollution this is not an
option. Dealing with recycling and household rubbish is not such a problem but
scrap metal from machinery and harbour infrastructure used by wardens past has
been piled up amongst the farm buildings for years. A growing concern for what
might be leaching into the soil as the scrap pile got wet meant that we had to
move it inside and into a safer area. We all cleared a space in one of the
barns and set to hoofing it all inside. Amongst the rubbish we found at least 9
frying pans, a full jar of branston pickle which still looked pretty edible and
an oil dispenser that one of the volunteers cleaned up and kept. It could be
years before scrap like this is removed from the island (if ever) and the
question then is what to do with it once it reaches the mainland?
With such a tough, albeit rewarding job done the volunteers
heading out into the sun to enjoy the rest of the day. I managed commit myself
to the office for an hour or two in between visitors and boats.
Alas, by the time I was ready to leave the office the sun
had disappeared and the island was shrouded in a thick sea fog.
Friday 2nd as usual was my day off.
Although for a day off I managed to get an awful lot of work done! I spent most
of the day studying for my impending OU deadline, catching up with e-mails and
learning some bits and pieces that I hope to use on the guided walks. I did go
out for a run around the island though. I’m meant to be training for the
Pembrokeshire half marathon at the end of September but it’s all going pretty
slowly at the moment and 14 miles seems like a long long way! Before I could do
anything else even remotely productive after an island run I had to have a
granny nap…it was almost definitely one of the best parts of my day!
Saturday is normally volunteer changeover day and Saturday
the 3rd was no different. Penny and Lesley left Ramsey to be
replaced by Steve, Nicola and Pete. These days are often days spent chatting
and catching up as people leave and arrive with small jobs done in between. I
set up the ink traps that we use to monitor our mammal population and check
that the dreaded rats haven’t returned and did a bit of spidering. In the
evening me and Greg headed out for another night of shearwaters so that this
time I could do the recording and get familiar with the recording equipment.
The recorder really amplifies what’s going on in the burrows and it’s
incredible to get to hear some of the quieter shearwater squeaks and the
shuffling of seabird feet underground.
(A shearwater from late last season almost ready to fledge.
The downy feathers on the neck are a give-away of its age but take that away
and it looks like an adult.)
My first jobs of Sunday the 4th were to go
and monitor my favourite two cough nesting sites. It took me a lot longer than
I expected but eventually both pairs showed themselves to be incubating.
On the way from one site to another I found lots of cuckoo
spit hiding tiny froghopper nymphs and several Araneus diadematus spiders. (commongarden cross spiders). At the
sight itself I found mostly six eyed Segestria
senoculata spiders, lots of springtails, a hard tick, a centipede the size
of my arm (almost!) and one of my favourite Trochosa
terricola spiders. They’re one of my favourites for no reason other than
they’re really rather pretty!
Following a morning of birds, insects and spiders I had to check
our mammal ink traps. Only one trap had been used and the visiting vole had
left lots of prints but believe it or not hadn’t finished the peanut butter.
Luckily no rat or mouse prints!
The day and indeed week was ended with a smashing find
outside the toilets! An almost complete swallow skeleton.
I can’t believe how well preserved it is and I especially
love the remaining tail feather. I cradled it all the way back with me to the
bungalow and now I have no idea how I’m going to keep it in tact and undamaged!
I feel very lucky to have it and it’s currently lay on my desk keeping my
taxidermy razorbill company!
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