After a bit of a break from blogging, it is now time to get back on it and fill you in with what's been happening on the Island.
Porth Lleuog during some high winds and big swells on the 19th © Alys Perry.
The weather has taken a major turn over the last few days with heavy seas and strong winds giving the South West side of the Island a bit of a battering. It's starting to feel much more like Autumn here and time seems to be flying. Myself and Nia cannot believe that the 2023 season is almost over!!
We were due to have our final volunteer of the season on the 16th but unfortunately, the weather scuppered our plans. It is unlikely we will have boats now for a little while with the large residual swell around the Island. We welcomed and said goodbye to our last volunteers of the year over the last couple of weeks. Pete and Zeman who joined us for a week from the 27th of August and Jimmy who came for 2 weeks for his sabbatical with the RSPB. All three volunteers were exceptional and got a huge amount of work done during their short time here on top of all their other daily tasks.
Zeman did plenty of maintence work on our quadbike and trailers.
Pete conducted chough surveys and painted plastic puffins.
Pete painting plastic puffins © Alys Perry.
And Jimmy put his walling skills into practice.
© Nia Stephens.
Thank you so much to all three of you for all your work on the Island this year. It was great to have you on the Island and we look forward to seeing you all again next year!
While Jimmy was on the Island he found an artefact which could be either a whetstone, loom weight or fishing weight in amongst the scree at Abermawr. Having spoken to some Archaeologists this stone could be dated as far back as the Viking era! Well done to Jimmy on such a great find.
Whetstone or loom weight found by Jimmy on the 5th © Alys Perry.
Myself and Nia have kept ourselves busy with clearing out the barns of junk and scrap, doing admin, welcoming visitors to the island, power shredding the heathland to allow fresh heather to grow, and of course, conducting seal pup counts of our 9 study beaches.
The quadbike and power shredder after cutting a large area of heathland © Nia Stephens.
Wildlife Update-
We have already reached our peak number of the pups and are starting to slow down now. We had over 200 seal pups on our 9 study beaches as of the 11th of September and it looks like we are on track for another year of 800 pups being born on the island.
One of the seal pups in the harbour © Alys Perry.
More migrants are appearing by the day.
With records of Spotted Flycatcher, Pied Flycatcher, Goldcrest, Willow Warblers, Chiffchaff, Blackcaps, Whinchat, Yellow Wagtails, Little Egret and two Wrynecks (one on the 6th and 17th) all over the past few weeks.
Wryneck on the farmhouse garden wall © Nia Stephens.
Spotted Flycatcher catching itself a butterfly snack in the harbour © Alys Perry.
Snipe and Woodcock have also been recorded since the 6th.
7 Grey Herons were seen on the 11th.
A Short Eared Owl was seen hunting around Foel Fawr 13th.
Most of our breeding Swallows and House Martins have now departed.
Large flocks of 40+ Linnets are still making the most of the Island, foraging around the farmhouse and central fields.
Almost all of our breeding Wheatears have now left but Greenland Wheatears are now passing through on their migration.
Robins are still very abundant on the Island, calling away and be territorial of most of the bushes and shrubs on the Island.
A single Blue Tit and Chaffinch were seen on the 18th.
Two Blue tits were seen on the 20th in the Farmhouse willows along with a Collared Dove on the 17th.
Large flocks of Chough are still being seen feeding in the Northern fields with a flock of 39 seen on the 19th.
Mediterranean, Black-Headed and Common Gull have all been seen feeding in the tide around the Bitches.
A Great Tit & Yellow Browed Warbler were both recorded on the 21st.
Along with a Great White Egret and Great Spotted Woodpecker on the 23rd.
However, by far the biggest news of the week was the appearance of a Bay-breasted Warbler next to the farmhouse!
Bay-breasted Warbler © Alys Perry.
It was first spotted on the 21st and has been seen hanging around ever since. This is only the 2nd record of this species in the UK and the first ever for Wales. This is a very unusual species to turn up as it breeds in Canada and North America and migrates to South America, the Caribbean, and Central America to spend its winter. It is thought that amongst many other American songbirds, it got blown across the Atlantic during its migration by the tail end of Hurricane Lee and that's why it has appeared on the island.
We didn't quite anticipate how popular this bird would be and had over 160 people come to the island on Saturday to see it. Thank you so much to all the wonderful volunteers who came to help on the day and to Thousand Islands Expeditions for accommodating us and the large number of bird watchers. We are delighted that it has stuck around for people to see.
People viewing the Bay-breasted Warbler from the bank above the farmhouse © Greg Morgan.
Until next week.
Assistant Warden
Alys Perry
Assistant Warden Ramsey & Grassholm Island