Hi, I’m Ellie! I arrived at the Mull of Galloway on Sunday 4th May, where I will be a residential volunteer for two weeks. On my arrival driving along through the South Rhins in the sunshine I saw gannets diving into the sea and oystercatchers sitting on the sea wall just outside Drummore.
It was quite foggy when I got to the visitor centre and I could just make out the rocky island of Big Scare about 6 miles out into Luce Bay which is home to 2500 pairs of gannets.
On Monday as I walked in I heard a scratchy warble from one of the drystane dykes next to the visitor centre. I think this may have been a whitethroat, but I couldn’t see it. This is one of the birds found in the heath here but I’ve never seen one, so I’ll have to keep my eyes out! After walking round the reserve with Jone, the Community Liaison Officer for an introduction, I got to go up the lighthouse tower. It was much clearer and I could see across to the other side of Luce Bay in the east, and the Isle of Man to the south, as well as a good bird’s-eye view of the reserve.
We went down the steps to the foghorn viewpoint to clean the salt spray off the cameras, and there were lots of birds to see and hear. Kittiwakes calling from the cliffs and soaring on the air currents. Guillemots and razorbills sitting side by side on steep rock ledges and floating on the sea. The guillemots are more chocolate-brown in colour and the razorbills black with a chunky beak, so I was challenging myself to spot the difference as they flew past. The sea is so clear here, that even from 80m up on the cliffs I could see their feet paddling in the water underneath them as small groups floated by. I got to see one black guillemot, known here as ‘tysties’. It was floating on the water a bit further out from the cliffs, another first for me!
On the way back up the steps we paused to enjoy the flowers – the reserve has more than 300 different kinds of flowering plants, and we could see the blue of spring squill, the white of scurvy grass and sea campion, the pink of thrift and the yellow of birds-foot trefoil all growing on the steep sides of the cliffs. Meadow pipits were singing high in the sky on their display flights, and then parachuting back down to earth. Hundreds of snails clung to the white lime wall around the old garden behind the lighthouse cottages.
At Lagvag viewpoint, swallows and house martins were racing past in good numbers, catching insects as they went. Back up at the visitor centre whilst eating my lunch in the sunshine, green-veined and large white butterflies were feeding on the flowers. Stonechats have been alarming from posts and bushes nearby, and a wren singing his song from the gorse bushes. I saw a linnet in the willow scrub in the wet valley in the middle of the reserve near the old well.
On Tuesday, on one of several trips down to the foghorn I got to see fulmars gliding past on their stiff wings, effortlessly turning and tilting on the air currents. Lots of gannets were flying past to the south – I wonder at what point they turn and come back?! All the ones I saw were flying in the same direction!
It has been a great start to my time here – I have met lots of lovely visitors from so many different places – some here for the first time, and others who have come back year after year. The guillemots are mating, there is a pair of shag sitting on a nest with 3 eggs, which hopefully may hatch within the next week – I am excited to see what the rest of my time brings!