I was hoping to be reporting on some much needed rain today but unfortunately we got nothing more than a brief splash and even that was the kind you need to run around in to get wet. Instead we went from shorts and t-shirts and temperatures that reached 26c to a bitingly fierce northerly wind and the fire re-lit!
May was the driest on record (since we started regular recordings in 2005) which followed on from the second driest April which in turn came on the back of the second wettest winter! It is perhaps this last factor that means our water supply is still just about holding up but with little in the way of rain in the forecast for the first half of June we are already being careful with it
Seabird counting is underway and more updates on that in coming days but the first puffins of the year were seen off the west coast of the island - will 2020 be the year they return?.....
Chough will start fledging in the next week or two and as of today 7 of the 10 pairs are still feeding young. It will be interesting to see how many young each site manages to get away this year given the very dry conditions. The ground is like concrete and that surely must have affected their ability to forage efficiently. The 3 sites that have failed occurred quite early on so while it's possible weather conditions played a part it's more likely other factors were at play. If you remember I reported ravens showing an interest in at least one site and given that site has indeed since failed it might be their larger corvid cousin had something to do with it. I wasn't overly surprised at one of the other sites that failed as they are an inexperienced pair so we'll let them off this time.
Vibrant pink thrift on Ramsey's north coast yesterday with St Davids Head in the background
Staying on the pink theme - foxgloves
With a busy day of seabird counting ahead yesterday I was up early to get the sheep work done - always a bonus when you get a sunrise like this one
All the above photos were taken yesterday with a BBQ at the end of the day. Compare and contrast with the photos below from today.....
A cold northerly screamed through Ramsey Sound all day and I know there will be volunteers reading this laughing at me having a 'fire in June' after all the stick I give them for doing the same(!) but it really was a shock to the system today!
For those of you who haven't seen the feeding gannet video I posted on Twitter (taken 2 nights ago) I was going to put it on here for you but for some reason my blog software is having a wobbly about loading videos this evening. I will try and remember to post it tomorrow but if I forget, someone give me a nudge!