In our last blog, I introduced Mick as our first to volunteer for the season. Well, Mick has now finished his first week of volunteering with us for 2023. Mick got stuck into all things Ramsey and did a fantastic job of painting the plastic puffins ready to go back out on the Western cliffs, clearing teasel, helping with visitors, and monitoring chough nest sites. Thank you so much for all your help Mick, we look forward to seeing you again later in the season!
Mick with his plastic puffins © Alys Perry.
Bam our next volunteer then joined us from the 20th- 27th. Bam was an integral part of the team and got stuck into everything required. Bam dabbled their hand at mainland and boat-based gull counts, weaseling some teasel and assisting with visitors. All of which they did excellently. I have attached a few of Bam's excellent photos from their week on the Island.
We are looking forward to having you back on the team next year.
Bam counting gulls on Ynsy Berry © Alys Perry.
Gannet flying past the Bishops and Clarks © Bam Mitchell.
As for myself and Nia, we have become more and more busy as the season is starting to pick up in terms of the monitoring work. We have been continuing to conduct our breeding bird surveys, conducting gull counts on Ramsey and the Outer lying Islands, and starting to check our fulmar productivity sites, in addition to welcoming plenty more lovely visitors to the Island.
Myself and Bam looking for gulls on the Western end of the Island © Nia Puffnia.
Thank you so much to Thousands Islands for accommodating us on our boat-based seabird counts. We look forward to going out with you again over the next few weeks.
Using the scope to count gulls at Abermawr © Alys Perry.
Malcolm our lovely volunteer is continuing to conduct our butterfly transects on Ramsey for another year and has had some exciting records so far. Including Small white and Small copper.
Small Copper © Malcolm Gray.
In addition to several other insects, including Blue tail damselfly and a broad-bodied chaser laying eggs in the Eastern ponds.
Blue Tail damselfly © Malcolm Gray.
Weekly wildlife round up
All the birds are now in full breeding swing. Plenty of wheatears and stonechats are feeding chicks. We have also managed to add spotted flycatchers to the island breeding bird list this year, which is very exciting.
Spotted Flycatcher © Nia Stephens.
Three sedge warbler pairs also appear to be getting ready to settle down to nest.
All but one of our breeding pairs of chough appear to be rearing chicks. So fingers crossed for a very successful year for them.
Chough flying low over the sea © Nia Stephens.
Our first Oystercatcher chicks were also seen in the central fields last week.
Oystercatcher sitting by the harbour © Nia Stephens.
More migrants have been passing through including influxs of 6 or more spotted flycatchers at a time and several Blackcaps.
We also had a record-high number of 50+ Red Kites over the island on the 20th.
Red kites © Bam Mitchell.
We have had some interesting sightings of marine life in the past last week. Including our first Compass, Barrel, and Blue jellyfish of the year. Not to mention records of sea gooseberries and comb jellyfish in the harbour which are a type of marine invertebrate known as Ctenphores. These weird creatures use tiny cilia on their bodies to propel them through the water.
More wildflowers are starting to appear, including our first fox gloves of the year.
Fox gloves © Alys Perry.
Until next week!
Alys Perry
Assistant Warden
Assistant Warden Ramsey & Grassholm Island