Where did that week go?! I think the answer is it was taken up with lots of habitat management and building maintenance. I wheeled out the bracken bruiser for it's annual month of work. A simple device that is pulled behind the quad bike and crushes bracken stems as you drive through the fields. This helps us keep the northern fields open for chough to feed in and the southern heathland from being swamped by bracken. We don't control it all though, far from it. Bracken is a vital food source for our population of Ramsey bank voles and provides useful cover for ground nesting second broods of species such as meadow pipits
The weather was favourable to get on with woodwork painting. The visitor shed and quad bike shed doors were next on the list and Derek paid us a visit and replaced a missing roof tile on the farmhouse roof
Our single pair of little owls have well and truly fledged now. One of the youngsters has taken up residence near the farmhouse, hopefully learning to successfully feed for itself.
The first returning willow warblers of the year made an appearance with a single bright juvenile on 15th followed by 5 yesterday. It might only be July but the breeding season is over for another year for many species and these birds, possibly born in the oak woodlands of mid Wales a matter of weeks ago are now on their way to Africa, using sites like Ramsey as vital fuelling stations en route. The cliff nesting seabird season is winding down now too with the vast majority of guillemots and razorbills having left for the open sea, leaving the cliffs to the fulmars and kittiwakes for a bit longer
As you can probably tell I didn't take many photos this week! Well I did, but they are all still on my camera and I haven't had time to sort them all yet. A job for the weekend perhaps as rain is forecast for tomorrow
Little owl photo from a previous year (hopefully some from the class of 2020 to follow soon!)