We all know what sort of a year 2020 was and life on Ramsey was not immune. While we felt very fortunate to have freedom to move around outside, and to work in such a stunning location, while the rest of the country was reduced to 1 hours exercise a day in the first lockdown, we were unable to welcome any visitors to the reserve.
The good news was, with no interaction with the outside world and no need for social distancing between staff who had been on the island since early March, we were able to continue with our farming and conservation work unhindered to a large extent. If you have been following this blog this year, thank you, and I'll try not to repeat myself here with a whistle stop tour by month, starting with part 1: Spring.....
March
The month began as normal with preparations in hand to recruit a new warden and open up to the public in April. All that came to a shuddering halt with the announcement of lockdown on March 23rd. It's a busy month farming wise and the Welsh Mountain flock, hardy as they are, needed daily feeds to see them through the 'hunger gap' of late winter / early spring when grass availability is at its lowest as we come out of winter (salt laden storms on three successive weekends in February didn't help this year). Ironically, just as lockdown started so too did a spell of fine and settled weather that lasted throughout April....
Dewi holding the ewes while I close the gates, to stop me getting trampled!
Late March was shorts weather
Huge thanks to The Veg Patch in St Davids who set up a grocery delivery service during lockdown and delivered weekly to St Justinians, where we collected by boat!
April
Chough monitoring was in full swing. 10 pairs, the second highest on record, were busy incubating eggs and, by the end of the month, feeding small chicks. Seabirds back on ledges for the season. The settled weather continued. For the first time since RSPB took ownership of the island in 1993, we remained closed at the start of the season. Little did we know at the time this situation would last all year.
Chough in typical April pose as the female leaves the nest to nosily beg to her partner to be fed, wings quivering
March and April see some of the biggest tides of the year around the spring equinox. Aber Mawr on the west coast nearly doubles in size at low tide revealing hidden sand banks. The nice weather continued with just 22mm of rain recorded.
May
The lack of visitors also meant a lack of volunteers which meant more maintenance work for us! I always appreciated how much work our volunteers did but it took a pandemic to make sure I didn't forget! Their accommodation had a full make over during the course of the season with not an inch of interior woodwork left unpainted! With the fine weather continuing (just 16mm of rain in May) we tackled fencing jobs and outdoor woodwork repairs and painting. Away from the maintenance side of things we undertook a small project for our Conservation Science department, carrying out an experiment using Dewi as a conservation dog to test his ability to detect Manx shearwaters in underground burrows. The project supervisor is writing the results up now and presenting them at a conference in January with the hope of the work being published in 2021. I will share with you all as soon as possible. When not taking part in science experiments, Dewi was back to his day job, rounding up sheep to bring them in for 'dagging' (the process of shearing dirty wool around their back ends to keep them free of flies until full shearing can be carried out)
Dagging - keeping their back ends clean helps keep flies away and prevents the nasty condition known as 'fly strike'
The seemingly unbroken May sunshine meant woodwork treatment all the more pleasant (our volunteers were missed!)
May sees carpets of bluebells
And acres of pink thrift overlooking the seabird breeding cliffs
Dewi detecting Manx shearwater burrows with his 'conservation dog' hat on
Many a fine sunset were enjoyed in what was the driest spring on record for Ramsey
Stay tuned for the summer update tomorrow.....