We have had some very misty weather this week with several days of the Island shrouded in low clouds. Unfortunately, it wasn't great conditions for spotting and counting birds but it was very atmospheric.
Thousand Island's Gower Ranger arriving with visitors between patches of mist. © Alys Perry
The low cloud surrounded the island on the 26th with only the top of Carn Llidi near St. Davids's head visible on the mainland. © Alys Perry
Despite the foggy conditions, we welcomed plenty more happy visitors to the Island and still managed to complete lots of different tasks.
Derek and Steve brought over two new fridge freezers for the bungalow and several bundles of fence posts on the landing craft to replace some of the old ones in the central and northern fields. It was a busy morning but it all went very smoothly. A big thank you to Derek and Steve for bringing it all over on the landing craft and helping to crane it up onto the Island!
Derek and Steve arriving at the Harbour on the landing craft. © Alys Perry
Derek expertly reversing the tractor and trailer down to the harbour ready for the fence posts to be offloaded. © Alys Perry
Derek has also been busy this week finishing off the last bits in the bungalow. The new front door steps are now in and all the door handles for the kitchen cabinets. A few more finishing touches and it will be all finished!
Nia and I kept ourselves busy with more biological monitoring. Including biosecurity checks, breeding bird surveys, and chough nest monitoring. 4 out of my 5 chough pairs on the North appear to be incubating and several of Nia's on the South too.
Weekly Wildlife Roundup-
Despite the misty weather we still managed to add a few more bird species to the year list.
Including a Whinchat seen on the 27th.
© Alys Perry
Our first Grey Heron of the year was spotted by the central Ponds on the 29th. Several Whimbrels have been spotted feeding in the fields over the last couple of days and there are still good numbers of Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, and Blackcap passing through. Another male and female Ring Ouzel was seen on the 26th in the central fields.
You might remember from a previous blog two tiny Raven chicks from a nest on the East Coast. Well, those chicks have now successfully fledged and have been spotted flying along the East Coast with the parent birds.
The Raven chicks a day before fledging! © Alys Perry
A nice highlight of the week was this colour-ringed Oystercatcher that was spotted behind Abermawr on the 27th. After, contacting a few local ringers the bird is believed to be part of the colour ringing scheme at the Gann with the Pembrokeshire ringing group. Unfortunately, the colour ring numbers have faded on the right leg but they are fairly certain it is one of their color-ringed birds. The last Oystercatchers ringed on the Gann was in December 2020 making it at least 3 years old. Thank you so much to Teresa and Mike for providing this information.
More and more wildflowers are starting to appear including forget-me-nots and of course one of our favorites the bluebells.
Until next week!
Alys Perry
Assistant Warden
Assistant Warden Ramsey & Grassholm Island