Dispelling rumors that we never leave the island we returned to Ramsey yesterday after a 4 week break! We spent 2 fantastic weeks birding in Costa Rica with ace birder Diego Quesada where we saw an impressive 372 species including 29 species of hummingbird! Visits to family and friend made up the rest of our break
The aptly named Green-crowned Brilliant!
We then bumped our way back across Ramsey Sound yesterday to find the island in good shape. The weather had been pretty benign in our absence but it looks like a series of storm systems are pushing in this week.
Crossing the Sound yesterday
Today saw the biggest high tide we will see in 2015 at 7.84m - by contrast the low tide, just 6 hours later was a mere 0.06m (the second lowest we will see in 2015). We took advantage of the low tides to explore some areas we don't get to very often.
Comparison between high and low tide today
We scrambled down to the foot of our highest seabird cliff at Glyma.It was quite impressive looking back up at the 100m high cliffs. It won't be long before the birds are back and they will be echoing to the growls and cries of guillemots, razorbills and kittiwakes (the fulmars have kept us company all winter of course!)
The empty seabird cliffs on the west coast of Ramsey
Water running off the cliffs at the bottom of Glyma
You know a westerly storm is coming when the RNLI bring the boat across to the sheltered east side of the island! Batten down the hatches again it would seem....