Its been another quiet week on the island for myself & Nia with only one boat on 16th. The strong easterly winds and big swell has put a stop to any other landings.
View of the east coast of island and the set of reefs called the bitches © Alys Perry.
We have spent the majority of our time hiding from the heavy rain inputting our records for the season and writing the end of season reports.
Flooded paths on the south end after the torrential rain on the 13th © Nia Stephens.
In between the showers we have been out and about birding, continuing our seal pup counts and replacing old Manx Shearwater boxes in our study plot.
Counting the seal pups on Abermawr during one of our seal rounds © Dave Astins.
Nia digging in a new Manx Shearwater nest box © Alys Perry.
Nia painting the number on a replacement Manx Shearwater nest box © Alys Perry.
We also had a surprise visit from Derek on the 16th who rushed over to help us fix the broken water pump at the Bungalow. It is now working as normal and we can treat ourselves to warm showers. Thanks so much again Derek!
Lisa & Dave also joined us for the day on the 16th and surprised us with a wonderful food hamper! We are now fully stocked with enough cheese, wine and chocolate to see us through to the end of the year. Thank you so much both! We are two very happy and very well stocked island wardens.
Weekly Wildlife Round-up
Our seal pup numbers are now steadily decreasing as we get closer to the end of the breeding season. On our last count on the 19th we had 27 pups, a drop from the 48 pups we had on the previous count on the 16th.
There is still plenty of birds appearing on the island with records of Blue tit, Great tit, Chaffinch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Goldfinch, Goldcrest, Robin and flocks of flyover Siskin seen almost everyday. A surprise pair of Long-Tailed tits made an appearance on the 20th in Capel along the east coast. They are less than annual on the island, with this record being our first since 2020 and the 29th record for the island.
Long-Tailed tit hopping about in amongst the blackthorn at Capel © Alys Perry.
Blackcaps, Chiffchaff, and Spotted Flycatcher have also been seen almost everyday.
Thrushes are starting to move through now with sightings of Song Thrush, Redwing and Fieldfare.
Fieldfare on a gorse bush behind the farm buildings on the 16th © Alys Perry
We are still seeing Wheatear in small numbers along the coast every couple of days. These two were spotted and photographed by Dave and Lisa on the 16th.
© Dave Astins
Its been a good week for birds of prey with sightings of Peregrine, Red Kite, Buzzard, Merlin, Kestrel and Hen Harrier.
A Merlin sitting on the fence posts behind Abermawr on the 15th © Alys Perry.
A beautiful juv Hen Harrier spotted by Dave & Lisa behind Carn Ysgubor on the 16th © Dave Astins.
A Peregrine sitting on a look out point above Porth Lleuog on the 19th © Nia Stephens.
We have also had records of Curlew, Grey Heron, Snipe and stonechat throughout the week.
In terms of fungi we have had some more interesting records.
This jelly fungus called Witches Butter or Yellow Brain typically parasitizes gorse bushes and was seen growing out of the trunk of a decaying gorse bush along the east coast.
Witches Butter fungi © Alys Perry.
We also had a record of Fairy Fingers (Clavaria fragilis) which is an indicator species for unimproved grassland and was found on the south end of the island in large quantities.
Fairy Fingers © Nia Stephens.
Until next week!
Alys Perry
Assistant Warden
Assistant Warden Ramsey & Grassholm Island