An early start this morning to finish off our seabird counts. And what a sparkling morning it was, calm clear and sunny, absolutely perfect conditions for counting with binoculars from a moving boat.
This year’s counts have been generously sponsored by Thousand Islands Expeditions in St David’s and it was the jet boat Ocean Ranger that picked Amy, Greg and myself up from Ramsey harbour. The aim of the exercise was to finish our counts of Fulmar and Kittiwake. Most of these cliff-nesting birds had already been counted from the island but there are a few blind spots and dramatic caves that can only be viewed by boat.
On our way around the west coast of Ramsey we checked in on our Puffin decoys and sound system and were thrilled to be greeted by a positive ‘wheel’ of 16 birds flying around underneath their plastic cousins above! Another step closer to the possible re-colonisation of Ramsey by Puffins following the successful rat eradication project back in 1999/2000?
We’re yet to finalise all the figures but Kittiwake numbers were noticeably lower than in 2013 and shags were conspicuous by their absence from all their usual nesting haunts. Many shags washed in dead during the winter storms in February and this may be the cause of decline this year.
Fulmar numbers appear normal and our study plot counts of Guillemots and Razorbills also look like being around the average. It was also great to see families of chough circling high over their cave nest sites, with all our pairs having fledged families in the last week and all getting either three or four youngsters out of the nest each. A great result.
After a quick cup of tea back at the farmhouse, the Ocean Ranger and her skippers Zamen and Martin were back out on the water. They were off to Grassholm with Amy as the RSPB guide for a group of very lucky and excited passengers, who all had a thoroughly enjoyable day, visiting the gannet colony this morning and then landing on Ramsey for the afternoon.
We are indebted to Thousand Islands Expeditions for their help this year and for providing their boats and expert crews free of charge. Not only do they assist RSPB staff here in Pembrokeshire with our research on Ramsey and out to Grassholm, but they are also sponsoring the work of our friends and colleagues in Mallorca where their financial support is funding work on critically endangered Balearic Shearwaters.