Apologies for the lack of news from the rock for the past week! No idea where the time goes.....I will post a couple of blogs over the coming week to bring you up to speed, rather than turn this into an unreadable essay. So for today here is a quick summary of events from the past week - well the bits I can remember without having my diary in front of me!
We are in the thick of the grey seal pup monitoring season now. Every 3 days we count 9 beaches on the island that roughly account for 50% of the total number of pups born. The peak week for births is usually around the 3rd week of September but it looks like we may have been a week earlier this year. On the 16/9 there were 179 pups on the monitored beaches, the same figure as on 13/9. By yesterday this figure was down to 155. I haven't put the data into the spreadsheet that calculates the running total born yet but it will be in the region of 350-400 pups so far with daily totals like that.
So far so good in terms of weather - after the two named storms at the end of August we have enjoyed a prolonged spell of settled weather which has been good news for the pups. That looks to be changing by the end of this coming week with a gale in the forecast but that's to be expected for late September.
The majority of a 'day in the life' of a grey seal pup is spent sleeping interspersed with around 4-5 feeds and maybe a bit of swimming
This pup is fairly news born, now more than 2-3 days old. The coat is still stained yellow with amniotic fluid and, if it turned over, you would see the umbilical chord is still red
It's been a busy week in the lives of our fledging Manx shearwaters too - the majority have left now and are heading rapidly towards Argentina. Of our 9 nest box birds only 2 remain. It was a busy week for our mainland volunteers too with RSPB and Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales helpers busy gathering up and releasing fledglings that had been attracted inland by mainland lighting. The full story on this will be told at a later date but our valiant band have rescued and released well over 200 birds so far. More Ramsey shearwater photos to come this week when I have downloaded them all!
When not counting seal pups we have been busy continuing with various building maintenance jobs, taking advantage of them being empty. The volunteers bungalow is having a bit of a makeover with most rooms getting a new lick of paint, window repairs and this winter will see the second room fully drylined and plastered. The building is 112 years old and mainly made of wood (with a bit of brickwork thrown in for decoration it would seem!) so ongoing works to prolong its life are essential.
Fencing work has been to the fore throughout the last month with thanks to Derek, Jack and Tom for making short work of it in this settled spell
Today we got the sheep in to treat them with a fly repellent. Their fleeces are growing back nicely after shearing in July but the mild September means the greenbottles are still active. This treatment will keep them safe from 'flystrike' until the end of October when the threat should have passed - will post some pics / videos on that in coming days
Migrants are busy moving through. No rarities here yet but plenty of common stuff. Willow warblers and blackcaps have been the most numerous (other than swallows that have been streaming south in their thousands) plus in the last few days, whinchat, tree pipit, grey wagtail, red kite, golden plover, house and sand martin and. always a favourite on a treeless island - great spotted woodpecker!
And finally, this lovely spotted flycatcher has been around the farmhouse garden all day.
(click on photos to see them at full res)