Here is the next part of the review of 2013 on Ramsey Island, following on from part 1 (see earlier blog post)
In keeping with the rest of the country Ramsey experienced some extreme weather in this period. April 2013 was the coldest on record with sub zero temperatures at the start of the month. The period April to June was also the coldest on record and the driest. Not ideal conditions for lambing.....
Lambing allows us to build up a big enough flock for the summer months to keep our SSSI grassland and heathland in favourable condition through grazing and provides the open sward that chough prefer for feeding. Having a mixed livestock grazing regime with ponies (and the red deer!) is beneficial for dung invertebrates which in turn benefit chough.
Lisa and I are proud to say that we are now proficient at lambing but 6 years ago we had no experience at all! We have been expertly trained over the years by local farmer Derek Rees. As well as being our shepherding contractor Derek also delivers supplies to the island in his purpose build aluminium boats (built by Robust Boats) and also provides most of our building contractor labour! To say Derek is worth his weight in gold is an understatement! There was a serious side to getting us up to speed so quickly. The weather in April can often stop Derek getting across to us and we have dealt with many a difficult birth (often not even mentioned in the book!) with Derek on the other end of a phone propped up against a hay bale on loudspeaker!
A steady well trained dog is essential when trying to move ewes with lambs
Most of our ewes give birth naturally outside. Within minutes the new lamb is usually up on its feet (or its knees at least!) having its first feed
With such extreme low temperatures at the start of April I was not the most popular person when I packed my bags and headed to Mallorca for 2 weeks! This was not some sun seeking holiday (despite local rumours!) – I was joining up with researchers from Oxford Uni, the National Oceanographic Centre and Spanish counterparts from Balearic Shearwater Tours to help them with GPS tracking work on the critically endangered Balearic shearwater on the small island of Sa Dragonera. Whilst out there we also carried out a population survey of this close relative of the Manx shearwater which breeds here on Ramsey. See here for a review of last year’s trip
Sa Dragonera, Mallorca - home to the critically endangered Balearic Shearwater (photo: Miguel McMinn)
So while my phone calls home with tales of 20C temps became more tedious (the plea that I was working in darkness in a cave most of the day seemed to carry little weight) Lisa received timely help from the arrival of our reserve assistant for 2013, Amy Cooper.
Reserve Assistant 2013 (and I'm delighted to say 2014!) Amy Cooper with new born lamb
Amy was thrown straight into lambing from day 1 and took to it like a pro! By the time I arrived back in the second week of April the team were nearly half way through. I’d barely set my bags down when a call came in saying there was a ewe in trouble. Lisa took one look at me and said ‘off you go then!’....fair dos!
Lambing took up the majority of the month but this all had to fitted in around ‘normal’ day to day activities. Our passenger boat started running from April 1st but the poor weather meant many boats cancelled due to rough sea conditions and with an early Easter we missed out on a lot of visitors. Our sterling volunteers arrived in April too and helped with everything from visitor work to lambing to maintenance work to bird surveys. We really couldn't run the reserve without them.
Strong northerly winds through much of April and May turned Ramsey Sound into an angry mess and prevented the boat running on many dates
Lisa and Amy with some of our excellent residential volunteers
Dave Gadd has been volunteering on Ramsey for at least 10 years and is incredibly handy. Pictured here with a fine new picnic bench he knocked up us
Tasks that would be simple on the mainland can present a challenge on an island. Delivering gas to run our fridges and cookers, as well as their most important job of making tea for visitors needs to be carefully organised. Our supplier is sympathetic to our needs, often responding at short notice to a phone call telling him that the weather is good so let’s do it now! He delivers to Porth Clais where Derek meets him in his landing craft, we swap empties for full, bring them back through The Bitches, winch them out on to the harbour wall and then drive them by quad bike and trailer up to the buildings....
Amy and Derek at Porth Clais swapping empty gas bottles for full
Derek's landing craft is invaluable for deliveries such as this. Gas bottles are winched out with our harbour crane
Despite having to negotiate the Bitches in full flood we've not lost a gas bottle over board yet!
After the slow start to the chough season reported in part 1, fears of a disastrous season were allayed when the remaining pairs finally began nest building in early April despite the continuing freezing weather. 7 pairs nest built and began incubating but sadly two pairs lost their nests in severe northerly gales, firstly in late April and then in mid May. Both these sites suffered the same fate last year. Northerly sites usually fare well as they are out of the prevailing wind but two years of exceptional conditions have proved costly for these particular birds
After a slow start due to the weather our chough finally got around to nest building (photo: Ben Hall)
The remaining 5 pairs all got young out of the nest by the third week of June (slightly later than normal but to be expected after the late start). A total of 14 young fledged which was the same as 2012. Not the best set of results we have ever seen here but not bad given the conditions.
May remained cool with a mainly northerly air flow from the middle of the month. Visitor numbers picked up slightly. Local entomologist and TV presenter Dr Sarah Beynon began leading what were to become a very popular series of guided insect walks. Sarah will be leading these again in 2014 and I can highly recommend them. They are suitable for all ages and all abilities. For more info see Sarah’s website here (2014 dates to be added soon) or contact Thousand Islands Expeditions to book (01437 721721)
Dr Sarah Beynon leading an insect walk on Ramsey
Puffins used to breed on Ramsey but the arrival of rats in the 1800’s through shipwrecks saw them become extinct as a breeding species by the early 1900’s. Burrow nesting seabirds have evolved over millions of years to breed on offshore islands free from the pressure of mammalian predators and consequently have no defence against them. Together with Wildlife Management International the RSPB eradicated the rats in 2000 and whilst seeing a marked increased in our Manx shearwater population since (up from 850 to 3800 pairs in 12 years) plus storm petrels breeding for the first time, puffins have yet to recolonise. In a bid to attract them back we have been deploying plastic decoys in suitable habitat for the past few years. This has had no discernable effect so in 2013 we added a sound attraction system which had proved successful on Copeland Island (off Northern Ireland). The sound system was made by our RSPB technical guru Nigel Butcher in our Conservation Science dept and one of our regular volunteers, Steve Bool, rigged up a wooden frame to enable the device to be deployed on a cliff top with a solar panel to power the car battery.
Steve Bool and myself putting the new puffin sound system in place amongst the decoys (we're not as close the edge as the picture makes it look!)
Although we didn’t get the device fully functional until June we still saw a notable impact with birds recorded on land (albeit briefly) and on low tide rocks on several occasions for the first time since the 1930’s. We are planning to deploy it again in 2014 so it’s a case of fingers crossed!.....
May saw some interesting birds on the island with a second record of Montague’s harrier and the first woodchat shrike in 20 years. Spring flowers are at their best in late May and it is a good time to visit outside of the busy summer period.
Bluebells (top) and thrift (bottom)
The end of May saw Lisa and I make our first trip of the year to the other RSPB reserve we manage, Grassholm. This tiny island is home to 39,000 pairs of northern gannets (10% of the world population) and lies 7 miles SW of us. Thanks to Tim and Beth from Venture Jet for getting us out there and landing us safely as usual. We spent the day plotting monitoring sites for productivity purposes. From a safe distance we marked boundaries on high definition photographs and counted 500+ nests that contained incubating birds. We returned later in the summer to see how many had large chicks to gauge an idea of how successful the colony was in 2013 (results in part 3). There are no public landings permitted on Grassholm due to the disturbance this would cause but equally as spectacular round island trips can be booked with Thousand Islands Expeditions
Grassholm from the air - home to 39,000 pairs of gannets(photo: Stuart Murrary)
Lisa monitoring gannets on Grassholm
June is a busy period. We gathered all the sheep back in with their lambs. A slow process as the ewes do not want to be separated from their lambs so you have to go at quite a slow pace. The main reason for gathering them in was for shearing. Aled and his crew came over from the mainland and as usual had the job done in next to no time! We also gave the lambs their first worming while we had them all in.
Aled shearing
Is that really you mum?! - newly shorn ewe with 1 month old lamb -
Derek's dog Sweep trying to keep order at shearing time
Seabird monitoring then took up the bulk of the month with all gulls counted and our auk (guillemot and razorbill) study plots counted. Manx shearwater study plots were monitored too. As well as counting Ramsey we also do the Bishops and Clerks so once again Venture Jet were pressed into action being asked to hold the boat perfectly still in a vicious tide race while we tried to count birds! (a good test for seasickness...) We don’t ask much of Tim!
Manx shearwater -3850 pairs now breed on Ramsey, the biggest success story of the rat eradication project (photo: Lyndon Lomax)
Guillemots packed tightly on ledges. Record numbers now breed on Ramsey with over 4,000 individuals counted in 2012
Kittiwakes are in decline nationally and Ramsey is no exception. 139 pairs bred in 2013, down from 450 in the 1990's
Due to their long lived nature we only count some seabirds (gulls and auks) on a 5 year rotation with smaller study plots monitored in intervening years. Gulls were down on the last count in 2008, something that has been reflected around the country. Our last full auk count in 2012 provided better news with guillemot and razorbills up on 2007 – guillemots to their highest level ever at over 4,000 individuals. The best time to see seabirds on Ramsey is June.
We also monitor land birds too. The table below shows the total for 2013
Species
Pairs
Skylark
16
Meadow pipit
58
Blackbird
Rock pipit
33
Dunnock
13
Pied wagtail
8
Wren
49
Whitethroat
11
Stonechat
14
Oystercatcher
32
Lapwing
1 (only pair in Pembrokeshire in 2013)
Carrion crow
7
Raven
4
Chough
Linnet
37
Jackdaw
Bred but not censused
Feral rock dove
Buzzard
2
Kestrel
1
Peregrine
Little owl
5
Short-eared owl
Swallow
10
Great tit
Mallard
Wheatear
107
Canada Goose
House Martin
1 (first breeding record for Ramsey)
Seabirds
Pairs (individuals for auks)
Fulmar
227
Manx shearwater
3835 (in 2012)
Storm Petrel
5 on Ramsey and 147 on Bishops and Clerks in 2010
Shag
15 (in 2012)
Herring gull
221
Lesser black-backed gull
170
Great black-backed gull
25
Kittiwake
139
Puffin
40 (on Bishops and Clerks)
Guillemot
4204 individuals (in 2012)
Razorbill
1482 individuals (in 2012)
For more details on the breeding season on Ramsey including comparisons to 2012 you can download the systematic list via this link
Ramsey Island Systematic List 2013.pdf
Short-eared owl - after a gap of over 20 years one pair of these wonderful birds have bred on Ramsey again for the past few years
House martin bred on Ramsey for the first time in 2013
Two large buzzard chicks nearing fledging age
Part 3 (July to September) will be up next featuring news of the annual gannet GPS tracking trips to Grassholm with University of Exeter, seal pup monitoring and a good autumn for rare birds on Ramsey!