Think of gin and you might think tonic. But now think gorse, heather, thyme and mint and you might be thinking of Ramsey!

Just across Ramsey Sound our neighbours and friends at St David’s Kitchen have been hard at work creating a new and exclusive product. The Kitchen’s ethos has always been rooted in local provenance and high-quality produce. The map of the St David’s peninsula on the wall of the restaurant proudly…

In my view the Manx shearwater should be the official national bird of Wales! Over 50% of the world population of this species breeds here. With 316,000 pairs on Skomer and 62,000 pairs on Skokholm, Pembrokeshire alone accounts for most of that. Without doing any research I'll stick my neck out and say Manxies are the single most important bird species in Wales in terms of percentage of the world population breeding here…

As we reach July and the majority of viable gannet eggs have hatched on Grassholm, the fieldwork season for RSPB wardens and our research partners can begin. We’ve already completed seabird counts from the boat back in May and early June but we never land to work on the island until chicks are a few weeks old and the risk of disturbing incubating adults has passed.

Even so, the first landing of the season is…

Guest Blog by Andrew Crowder

When I was in my teens thinking about my future I knew I wanted to work somewhere within the field of biology. My wildest dreams were of animal research on the African plains or the jungles of South America. Real life didn’t quite deliver that opportunity although I did enjoy virtually my whole career within the NHS diagnostic science services. So when I retired I set out to experience…

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been busy counting the seabirds nesting on and around RSPB Cymru’s Pembrokeshire islands. It’s a lot of work so we don’t count every species annually, but we’ll be updating all our population figures this year and next to tie in with the UK wide Seabirds Count. The latest round of survey work is coordinated by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC…

We are often asked if we have any reptiles on Ramsey. The answer is that we do have Common Lizards and these are often seen basking on the footpaths, especially in the southern heath-land. We also have a writhing mass of Slow worms (legless lizards) in the farmhouse garden compost bin and many in the longer grass around the farm.  But we don't have any snakes. Despite what looks like perfect habitat for adders, they have…

Due to a planning decision by the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority the car park at St Justinians has been closed.

At present there is an hourly Park and Ride service from St Davids to St Justinians, provided by Pembrokeshire County Council. This will increase to two buses an hour in peak season.

Easter has demonstrated that the current shuttle bus provision with no car park at St Justinians is insufficient…

As i type this on the afternoon of March 18th it is snowing outside...again. I should be talking about the first chough nest building activity, the arrival of migrants and promising signs of spring. I can touch on some of those topics but March 2018 has been far from a 'typical month' weather wise. 

The beginning of the month saw the arrival of the 'Beast From The East'. Sub zero temperatures are rare on the islands…

Regular readers of this blog will be well aware of the plastic pollution issues facing our RSPB reserve of Grassholm, home to 36,000 pairs of breeding gannets - see here for a report from our 2017 mission. We were delighted when the 1st Johnston Scout Group approached us to say they wanted to cover the issue for their entry to the Young Reporters For The Environment competition; an international competition being hosted…

We are back on Ramsey for the new season after a short winter break. The island is very wet but everything is in good order. I was going through some paperwork on my return and found a blog which our 2016 and 2017 intern Sarah had written about last year's Manx shearwater season.....and I had clearly forgotten to publish!!

Given that our birds will be winging their way up the east coast of the USA as I type and the…

It's probably fair to say the last few blog posts on here have been a bit short on 'light entertainment'! And following Storm Brian, hot on the heels of Ophelia, it looked like more tidings of woe were on the way. Yet more grey seal pups were lost and the numbers left on our beaches plummeted still further BUT....there is a good news story to end on! 

There is a small beach to the south of the farmhouse called…

Lying 7 miles off the Pembrokeshire coast Grassholm Island is the oldest RSPB reserve in Wales. When purchased in 1948 it was home to around 7,000 pairs of northern gannet, today that number has increased to 36,000 making it the 3^rd largest colony in the UK (behind Bass Rock and St Kilda) and the only gannetry in Wales.

Regular readers will know that each October RSPB staff from here on Ramsey Island make the annual…

Ex-hurricane Ophelia rumbled up the Irish Sea on 16th October leaving a trail of wildlife destruction in her wake. A good friend of mine once told me at the start of my career 'death and destruction is all around you on seabird islands - get used to it!' - and so it has proved. Yesterday, however, it wasn't our seabirds that were suffering, it was our grey seal pups. 

As forecast we were subjected to 80mph…

As the season for residential volunteering on Ramsey comes to a close, we’re already thinking about plans for next year. 2018 will be special for the island as it will be 25 years since RSPB took ownership and opened it to the public.

It is true that Ramsey, like many of our iconic reserves has a loyal team of regular volunteers who come out to the island annually for anything from 2 weeks to 6 months. With just…

It's been a tough year for a lot of wildlife on Ramsey thanks to the largely unsettled weather, in particular our swallows and house martins. All was looking rosy for them following a dry and settled spring but following the wettest June on record for the island all that changed.

Our 10 pairs of house martins were all incubating or had small chicks in the first week of June but following 155mm (over 5" in old money…

Apologies for the lack of blogs of late - coupled with a very busy season we have been battling with some 'island life' internet issues - all seems to be sorted now! (*crosses fingers*)

To kick off the return of the blog here is one from our Ramsey Intern, Sarah Parmor with an update on the Manx shearwater season thus far......

Following the successful fledging of the two nest box Manx Shearwater chicks last…

Welcome home EB52672 and EB52673. After 7 months apart, travelling to and from the coast of Argentina, this pair of Manx shearwaters are back in the exact same nest box as 2016 - they were first time breeders last year and successfully raised a chick. Fingers crossed for another good year

Our 2016 survey showed a further increase in numbers of this nocturnal species as it continues to respond well to rat eradication…

The Pembrokeshire fire service arrived on Ramsey just after 9:30 this morning following reports of smoke rising from the island’s Grade II listed farmhouse. Firemen were rushed to the island on the St Davids all-weather lifeboat ‘Norah Wortley’.

Using water pumped from the old mill pond, firemen were able to avert disaster, saving the old stone buildings before they were razed to the ground.

Local…

Our Ravens are sitting on eggs and with the garden blackbirds attempting to build a nest to rival that of their somewhat larger cousins, spring must be here. Despite the cold, damp weather and a distinct lack of sunshine it is time to start keeping an eye on our chough pairs too.  

But it’s all change in the Ramsey chough world, with the loss of two of our oldest birds over-winter.

Firstly is the sad disappearance…

In the past 24 hours we have been hit by wave after wave of fierce, bitterly cold, showers, often containing hail. When I checked the rain gaugue at 10am this morning 25mm (an inch in old  money) had fallen since the same time yesterday and it was still hosing it down! All accompanied by a biting northerly force 7 wind. Not usual for this time of year perhaps but just a few miles inland I knew the weather was quite different…

During our recent October trip to cut free gannets entangled in marine debris (see previous blog) we were accompanied by members of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW to their friends!) Click on the link below to read a fascinating blog written by archaeologist Toby Driver on their findings

Life on the edge of Wales: The archaeology of Grassholm Island

Regular readers of this blog will know every October, at the end of the breeding season, we head out to our RSPB Grassholm reserve,home to 36,000 pairs of northern gannets, to cut free birds (mainly fledglings) that have become entangled in marine debris during the year. OVer the years these posts are a big like groundhog day so to avoid too much repetition I will direct you to previous years posts for more detail -

Big swells have meant no landings for a few days but equally big skies and meaty showers meant  some impressive scenes today. The selection of photos today hopefully do it justice

and one tired dog!......

We have been photographing female grey seals on Ramsey since 2007 in order to track their behaviour and movements from one year to the next.

Many have distinctive scars on their body which allow us to recognise them more easily. Scars can be caused by living in an ever changing coastal environment, resulting from a collision with rocks or scratches from the beach and some are caused when seals fight with other seals…

Over the years this blog has documented the devastating problems Ramsey’s burrow nesting seabirds faced when brown rats were accidentally introduced to the island via shipwrecks in the 1800’s. With eggs and defenceless chicks easy prey for this voracious alien predator a once thriving puffin colony became extinct, storm petrels disappeared and Manx shearwaters were severely impacted.

In 1999/2000 under the…