The first few weeks of June are busy times for staff on seabird reserves (its busy times for the seabirds too!). Nia and myself have just completed a full island count of all our auks (guillemots and razorbills, plus puffins on the North Bishop), fulmars and kittiwakes.

Overall its good news, with one exception. Rather than bombard you with graphs and figures for all species in one blog, I'll do a short blog for each…

The Celtic Sea is one of the UK’s most important areas for seabirds. Breeding, wintering or migrating, they utilise this sea area in their millions. However, it is fast becoming a hotspot for the next phase of offshore wind generation in the battle against climate change - what potential conflicts with seabirds could this bring?....

The Celtic Sea (Y Môr Celtaidd) is the area of the Atlantic ocean lying to the…

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Un o swyddi rheolaidd pwysig yma ar Ynys Dewi yw ein monitor bioddiogelwch.  Mae bioddiogelwch yn yr achos hwn yn cyfeirio ar fesurau sydd gennym ar waith i atal cyflwyno unrhyw rywogaeth estron i’r ynys.  Y prif anifail rydyn ni’n poeni amdanyn nhw yw llygod mawr.  Byddai cyflwyno llygod mawr i warchodfa fel Ynys Dewi yn cael effaith ddinistriol a radar sy’n nythu yma ac a radar y môr…

Depending on your age you will either be familiar with 'This Is My House' or, in old money, 'Through the Keyhole' (or maybe both!). This is the Ramsey version. Is bank vole, Manx shearwater or wheatear the true incumbent?  You decide.

And what's that short eared owl up to?! Probably 'no good' in the real answer! The only reason I recorded the owl was because something had knocked the trail camera over …

I say 'May' but it has felt more like October at times. The dry April has been replaced by a wet and often unsettled May. The island was in desperate need of rain but the deluges we experienced on the bank holiday and the following weekend, accompanied by gales was not ideal. We lost two south west facing chough sites after the bank holiday storm. Relentless driving spray being forced into their breeding caves proved…

At 4pm on October 31st 2019 with daylight rapidly failing, the last visitor of the season boarded the Gower Ranger and turned to wave. Little did we know then what was to follow. It would be 547 days before a visitor set foot on Ramsey again.

But on 2nd May 2021 return they did. With the boat restricted to a max of 12 it was a small but enthusiastic group who paved the way. Nia gave her first talk as the new Ramsey Warden…

Gyda leddfu cyfyngiadau Covid-19 ar atyniadau awyr agored a daeth i rym yng Nghymru heddiw, rydym wrth ein boddau i gyhoeddi bod Ynys Dewi yn ail agor i ymwelwyr o dydd Sul 2^fed o Mai.

Gan nad ydym wedi gweld unrhyw ymwelwyr ers mis Hydrf 2019 (!), rydym yn gyffrous iawn am gwrdd a wynebau hen a newydd a’ch croesawu yn ol i fwynhau’r hyfrydwch sydd gan Ynys Dewi i’w gynnig.

Fel y byddech yn digwyl, bu…

With the easing of covid restrictions on outdoor visitor attractions that came into force in Wales today, we are delighted to announce that the island will be reopening to the public from Sunday May 2^nd

Having not seen any visitors since October 2019(!), we are very excited about meeting both old and new faces and welcoming you back to enjoy the delights that Ramsey has to offer.

As you might expect, we have needed to…

Sorry for the tardiness in blog posts of late, time is flying by and we have been immersed in trying to get everything ready to hopefully be able to open to the public to some degree again soon (more detail to come on that next week).

Chough continue to do well - 9 of the 10 pairs are incubating now. It looks like the 10th won't breed this year but it's possible they have switched sites and we are yet to find them! Although…

It’s been almost six weeks now since we arrived on the island and it feels like it’s flown by!  Every day is totally different with all sorts of jobs to do and the weather and tides play a big part in dictating what we do.  It's been very different to my previous job where I was office based (in my spare bedroom) 5 days a week! It's really nice to be active and to spend most of my days outdoors.

Building…

Once again it seems like we have 10 territorial pairs of chough, 9 of which have been confirmed as nest building, the other may just hold territory and not breed - the jury is still out on them. Having spent the last 2 weeks of March prepping their nests deep inside caves and rock crevices, the first two pairs got down to the serious business and began incubating today. 

The female usually lays around 5-6 eggs and she…

I'm often asked what is the most important piece of kit on the island? It's a bit of a catch 22 really as anything I say will in all likelihood have been winched off the boat by the crane. Therefore that must be the correct answer! So the 2nd most important piece of kit? That would have to be the quad bike - it plays a vital part in our farming work but more than that it carries luggage, building materials, shopping,…

It's been a busy couple of weeks as settled weather has meant a lot of outdoor jobs getting done and not much time for blog writing unfortunately! More to come on all that soon but in the meantime this is just a whistle stop update on some of the bird activity of late.

2 red kites have been seen most days since our return and yesterday they were joined by a 3rd. Young, non breeding birds have become a feature of…

A big welcome to our new Ramsey Warden, Nia Stephens! Without further ado I will let her introduce herself.....

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Dyma ni yng nghanol fy ail wythnos yn fy swydd newydd fel Warden Ynys Dewi ac rydw i wrth fy modd i fod yma.  Am fraint i alw’r lle hwn yn gartref i mi!

 Bydd rhai ohonoch yn gwybod nid wyf yn ddieithr i’r ynys.  Ar ôl graddio o’r Brifysgol buais…

Looking at the photos below its hard to think this was just two days ago. As I type this the farmhouse windows are rattling as a gale rages outside. After a week of stunning weather for our first week back on the island, its all change today. With 70mph gusts and 7m swells forecast for tonight into tomorrow morning we decided to lift one of the island boats out of the water and take the other round to Porth Clais and…

The fact it's taken me till Thursday evening to write this given we arrived back last Sunday says something of how busy things have been this week. I've not even unpacked my camera kit yet hence the lack of any bird photos in this post!

The 'we' this year is a new Ramsey team - joining myself (and Dewi of course) is our new Warden, Nia Stephens. Some of you may well remember Nia from when she started her conservation…

Following a short spell on the island in early Jan, then a month of toing and froing to carry out sheep feed and maintenance work, we landed on 5th Feb for a few days of pre season prep. This more prolonged winter stay is planned to coincide with the 'beast from the east' that is forecast as the sheep will need daily feeding during this period. As to how long we will stay out here this time is down to the weather!…

We are currently on the island carrying out some maintenance work and providing daily sheep feeds during this cold spell. It has dropped to 0c for the past 2 nights and looks to be heading that way again. Over the years we have only had Welsh Mountain ewes out here, firstly Glamorgan, then Lleyn and now 'Sennybridge Cheviot'. Settling on the latter was the best decision we ever made. They may be a little more 'wild' but…

The final look at 2020 sees us leave summer behind as we slide into ever shortening days. The once vibrant heathland colours slowly slip into a deep orange, illuminated by classic autumn sunrises, which are at a much more sensible time of day by now! But autumn on Ramsey is dominated by one thing....grey seals!

September

The first seal pup was actually born on 15th July on Cololmennod. This beach always returns the first…

The most noticeable change as we slipped from spring into summer was the demise of the weather! Following the halcyon days of April and May, the driest spring on record on Ramsey, we saw the wettest June with over 100mm (4" in old money) of rain. This was not ideal for our newly fledged chough and house martins. The pendulum swung the other way again in July and August with just 38mm being logged over the two months.…

We all know what sort of a year 2020 was and life on Ramsey was not immune. While we felt very fortunate to have freedom to move around outside, and to work in such a stunning location, while the rest of the country was reduced to 1 hours exercise a day in the first lockdown, we were unable to welcome any visitors to the reserve.

The good news was, with no interaction with the outside world and no need for social distancing…

community.rspb.org.uk/.../3252.1884.6138.Iolo_5F00_Gin_5F00_English.MP4

To purchase any of our conservation gin products go to: StDavidsGin.Wales

We are now in the third year of our partnership with local Pembrokeshire business St Davids Gin, so we’d like to give you a quick update and offer a suggestion or two if you are stuck for Christmas present ideas (spoiler alert: its gin!)

St Davids Gin launched in 2017…

There can sometimes be a 'groundhog' day feeling to November. You scurry around in the meagre daylight on offer to get jobs done outside then attack the emails when it gets too dark to see or your fingers feel like they are about to drop off (not conducive to attacking said emails). Getting those outside jobs done however can be a challenge given typical November weather patterns. But while it may seem like an endless…

The good news is the grey seal pup that was born a week ago on Aber Felin made it through the rough weather of last week and, at 8 days old today, is currently enjoying a much more settled spell of weather.

Below is a video shot 2 days ago - the pup seems to be enjoying his 'tickle' and 'cuddle' from mum but nature rarely does anything without a reason. The 'flippering' action by the cow is often seen as they try and…

The newborn pup I blogged about last time is now 3 days old and has made it through Storm Aiden. Yesterday saw 60mph winds coupled with big spring tides as a result of the full moon. Average wave height on the St Ann's Head weather buoy was around 5m with a peak of 11m! Luckily the south side harbour beach (Aber Felin) where the cow chose to pup extends back far enough to allow both mother and pup to ride out such weather…