I'm often asked what is the most important piece of kit on the island? It's a bit of a catch 22 really as anything I say will in all likelihood have been winched off the boat by the crane. Therefore that must be the correct answer! So the 2nd most important piece of kit? That would have to be the quad bike - it plays a vital part in our farming work but more than that it carries luggage, building materials, shopping, crates of beer etc up the steep slope from the harbour and much much more. In short we couldn't get by without it.
So last week we were very pleased to take delivery of a new vehicle. Getting the best value for money as a charity is very important and experience has taught us that it is far more economical to periodically change the bike before it gets too old. The part exchange value remains high and you don't fall into the trap of keeping it too long and having to shell out on mounting maintenance costs - getting engineers to Ramsey is not cheap as, understandably, what might be a 2 hour job on the mainland can result in an entire day being needed when you factor in location, boat travel etc.
Getting the bike to Ramsey is always a 2 day affair - we get the old bike off on day 1, store it on the mainland overnight, exchange it with the delivery driver the next day and ship the new one by boat from Porth Clais the next day. All this relies on good weather and the right tides. And also on a very patient supplier who has learnt by now to expect a last minute phone call from me asking if he minds delaying delivery by an extra day or two! MKM Agriculture are very patient indeed and owed a big thank you from me!
New quad being winched off the boat (top) and old one leaving (below)
Dewi seems to approve at least
It is well documented on here but one of the key reason for our farming activities on Ramsey is to provide ideal foraging conditions for our important chough population. Not much to update on this story as we are still in the process of finalising exactly how many breeding pairs we will have this year. .10 are certainly holding territory and at least half have now been confirmed nest building.
Chough feeding on short coastal turf on Ramsey last week - the island not only supports the breeding pairs at this time of year but also an important, and noisy, population of non breeders too. With the winds easing this week, and the lighter evenings, we hope to get a better handle on numbers of these younger birds by counting them in to their evening roost site.
With lock down restrictions gradually being eased in Wales we are making progress towards being able to open Ramsey to the public again, all be it on a much reduced scale this year. More news to follow in due course as we are still working on plans but fingers crossed we will see something happen later this spring.
Big skies are one of my favourite features of coastal living so I will leave you with this recent shot of the sun trying to poke through stubborn clouds over the Bitches