The 2010 season is finally underway. Despite not yet being able to welcome any day visitors to the island, the occasional lull in the sea swells have allowed us to deliver new member of staff Lyndsey and first volunteer Mike safely to the island. Lyndsey joins us for the summer having spent 6 months as a long term volunteer at RSPB Strumpshaw Fen.
They are not the only deliveries we have seen over the last week, with over a dozen lambs born to date, many of those today, with several sets of twins. So with lambing not due to officially start until Tuesday, we are already up and running and shepherding duties are top of the agenda. I am on tenterhooks this year as my first orphan lambs from 2008, that I painstakingly raised by hand, are now expectant mothers themselves.
Returning after a long winter, swallows have been coming in off the sea, hawking over the island’s ponds and circling the farm buildings. A striking hoopoe has been present for the last two days giving fleeting glimpses along the east coast footpath, as it feeds on the short turf.
So the island passenger boat, The Gower Ranger, is in the water and ready to bring our first visitors of the year, but it maybe a few days before we see them with another low pressure coming in off the Atlantic. However, an improving picture latter in the week looks promising.