Hello! Welcome to the new Mull of Galloway blog. This is my first full season as Community Liaison Officer at the Mull. I've been here for two whole months already, but what with keeping tabs on seabirds, swotting up on wild flowers, and the general fun of getting into the swing of a new job, I haven't had the chance to set up a blog page - until now.
So what's been going on on the reserve? Well, everything really! Now is the most dynamic and exciting time in a seabird colony. Kittiwakes are building their nests. Big green and white guillemot eggs keep turning up in unlikey places all over the reserve (those pesky herring gulls keep stealing them and dropping them on the reserve paths before lapping up spilt egg gloop). Gannets are putting on a spectacular show as usual, soaring past the cliffs. Fulmars (my favourites) are gorgeous to watch both on and off the cliffs - such fantastic flyers! Did you know that fulmars are petrels, and are more closely related to albatrosses than to gulls? A family of shags are providing hours of entertainment in the visitor centre via our live cameras - it's amazing to watch an adult sized chick stuff his head right down his mum's neck to gobble up half-digested fish goo - yummy. Puffins are being spotted most days - there aren't many (only about 7 we think!) - but enough to put a smile on lots of faces. I still haven't seen them yet... where are they hiding?
The wild flowers are also putting on a great display at the moment - the cliffs are a patchwork of purple, blue, white and yellow. The bell heather is just coming into bloom, and sea-campion, english stonecrop, wild thyme and sheep's bit are all out at the moment. Another highlight is the deep pink orchids growing along the path opposite the visitor centre. We are not entirely decided about which type of orchid it is yet, but Rob - our new local volunteer - has suggested Northern Marsh Orchid. He might just be right...
That's all for now, plenty more to come soon.
Hannah
As you seem to like them, here's some more. See if you can guess what they are:
They're grey against stone,
But they cheep and wag their tails,
Mad for attention.
Shrieking a cancan
They display their scarlet legs
To the whole wide world.
Those aerobatics,
Skimming the froth off the waves,
Live up to its name.
Wheeling in sunlight,
On those glorious white wings-
What is left to say?
At Blind Man's Cove
They scream their names loud enough
To waken the dead.
Totally immersed,
They yearn for a christening
Other than 'sea-hag'.
Oh right, I was thinking maybe it was supposed to be 'shearys' as in shearwaters, which would be quite nice, but hearts works too.
Sorry, 'hearts' not hearys! Malachy says they're Haiku. Liz is having trouble registering so will both be bubbles for the mo!
Fantastic, I love that. I saw my first two puffins today down at the foghorn, as I was showing Eleanor, my new residential volunteer, around the reserve. Hooray! No matter what the cynics say - those birds are CUTE. That 'sad clown spend(ing) his winters completely at sea' reminds me of 'Moominpappa at sea' - a book I'm going to have to re-read now that I'm living in my own lighthouse (well, almost). What are hearys? Or was that a miss-spell?
Hello Mull of Galloway, Liz here. What a special place you have there!
I have just been reading some lovely bird poems from a collection called 'Voices at the World's Edge Irish Poets on Skellig Michael' (Dedalus Press) Edited by Paddy Bushe
Here's a few samples:
Puffin
Hilarious, yes,
But that sad clown spends winters
Completely at sea
Fulmar
Looks like the others
But it spits independence
And will not be gulled.
Pergrine
When its tapered wings
Stir to plunge from the high ledge
Fledgling hearys plummet.
By Paddy Bushe