I can't promise daily blogs but we will provide regular updates to share island life with folk who had been planning to visit this season or might simply want a bit of a change in their timelines.
So today - well late March is the time when we pin down our chough nest sites. Last year we had a record 11 pairs nesting, roughly 3% of the entire UK population. Chough nest in sea caves and cliff crevices, the nest hidden from view. We look out for birds diving into the caves carrying twigs, wool or dried grass - the type of material indicating how far along the line they are (wool and grass being the final part used for lining)
Today we added another site to the list, bringing the running total to 2 - by the end of next week we should have most of them pinned down and then we usually add a few late comers during April.
Sheep farming is a big part of our lives over here as we use Welsh Mountain ewes as conservation grazers producing the short grass heights for chough to feed in. Our resident sheep dog Dewi, when not engaged in livestock work, likes to accompany us on our chough watches. He gets bored after too much sitting around though and isn't too subtle when it comes to stifling a yawn!
March sees the arrival of migrant birds and the chance to see summer and winter migrants alongside each other - today saw 3 male northern wheatears alongside a late winter redwing. We've already had our first chiffchaffs and goldcrests but there are many more still to come. Watch this space.....
Some nice sunsets these last few nights with cold easterly winds and clearing skies towards dusk
Lovely to get news even if our plans for visiting are on hold!