Last week we were very lucky to receive a visit from a very special puffin. Before anyone in the RSPB media department gets too excited it was only a fleeting visit and breeding has not been confirmed! In actual fact it was a special reading of the new books in the Puffin Pal series by local authors Lucy and Chris from Island Friends.

The Island Friends stories, part of the Swansea based company We Are Lucky, are a series…

Anyone who has visited Ramsey this year will know there is a major engineering project going on at St Justinians. The RNLI are building a new lifeboat station to replace the old building in order to house their new Tamar lifeboat.

Such major works inevitably means some night working which in turn means the use of lights. Given the proximity of all this to Ramsey it has the potential to cause problems for our Manx shearwater…

Big thanks to Jamie the farrier and Graham the vet for coming over today to treat one of our ponies. His hooves had grown too long and needed trimming. Easier said that done with a semi wild animal that is rarely handled. It took a week of gently gaining their trust to get them feeding in the race which allowed the vet to administer a mild sedative before the farrier set to work with his tools.

He looks and probably…

Today is World Migratory Bird Day. At a time when migratory birds in Europe are facing a tough time of things (see Malta issue) it is worthwhile putting some time aside to celebrate the wonders of migration by appreciating the rigours these birds go through to reach our shores.

The weather on Ramsey today was fitting for such an occasion with thousands of swallows pouring across the island. Our breeding birds have been…

Back in January we ploughed up 3 acres of the old arable plot on Ramsey. The plan was to plant a variety of crops to serve various conservation needs. Many of you will know that we keep sheep on the island to help us manage our grass height to a level suitable for chough to access invertebrate prey that live in the upper soils. In harsh winters we bring on additional feed for the sheep (it’s a lot easier than moving them…

While on her way to monitor a chough nest site Lisa stumbled across a stunning male woodchat shrike. It is only the 3rd record since 1992 (when regular annual records began). It put on a great show all day as it fed non stop on bees and beetles! Some photos below

The bird favoured certain fence posts and bramble bushes in the centre of the island and made regular forays into the grass to pick off various large…

As many of you will have read here before we successfully eradicated brown rats from Ramsey in 1999/2000. Non-native to Ramsey this invasive species had been accidentally introduced via shipwrecks in the 1800's and caused havoc with our native seabird populations. Puffins and storm petrels became extinct and Manx shearwaters were reduced to very small numbers.

At the last full census in 2012, the Manx shearwater…

After a false start due to some typically unsettled early April weather we are now up and running for the new season. In fact we are now experiencing some rather a-typical early April weather with shorts and t-shirts replacing base layers and beanies in the space of a few days. However there is always a flip side to warm weather in April and that is fog - sea frets are commonplace as the sea is still very cold and causes…

Today's birding highlight were 2 fine male ring ouzels seen together on the west coast at Glyma. In addition we logged our first house martins of the year (3), a sand martin and 6 swallows. The highest willow warbler count of the year was logged with 35+ birds along with 15 chiffchaffs. At the other end of the seasonal spectrum we had a redwing and 2 fieldfares still making their way back to northern breeding grounds…

With the new season fast approaching we took advantage of this unseasonable spell of settled weather to start on an important job in the harbour. Anyone who has visited Ramsey will know that the Gower Ranger ties on to a buoy that is attached to a solid lump of timber that supports the harbour steps. The existing pole has been in place for around 20 years but the base of it  is now starting to severely corrode as it is…

It seems to be one day on, one day off with the weather at the moment. Today was another fantastic warm spring like day after the rain of yesterday, but there is more unsettled weather to come over the next couple of days.

More signs of spring today with two new wheatears (both male again), a water rail (rare out here), a stunning male black redstart that possibly overwintered as it was in the exact spot we saw one last…

After a wet and miserable morning the front cleared to leave a warm and sunny afternoon. It was too nice to be cleaning so we donned our bins and set off looking for migrants. We weren't to be disappointed as we discovered our first northern wheatear of the year on the earliest date for 5 years.  All the way from its African wintering grounds a fine male (they always arrive first) was at Aber Mawr. Always a joy to…

With the first week of March nearly over our chough should start nest building any day now. The first date in 2014 was 9th March, with the final pair not starting until 21st March. Most of the regular pairs are together in their territories and are bust feeding up in readiness for the rigours of the breeding season to come.

Its been a little surprising to see at least 3 of the regular pairs in groups of 3. In our experience…

Dispelling rumors that we never leave the island we returned to Ramsey yesterday after a 4 week break! We spent 2 fantastic weeks birding in Costa Rica with ace birder Diego Quesada where we saw an impressive 372 species including 29 species of hummingbird! Visits to family and friend made up the rest of our break

The aptly named Green-crowned Brilliant!

We then bumped our way back across Ramsey Sound yesterday to…

As forecast today was a stormy affair! Winds gusted to 60mph (force 10 to 11) around the middle of the afternoon at Milford Haven so you can probably add a few on for out here!

Not one to miss a weather phenomenon, Dewi and I crawled out to the island's west coast (literally at times in my case - the dog fared better) and tried to grab some video and photos. We then came back to the house and went down to get some of…

A female bullfinch feeding on what remains of the blackberry seeds on the garden bramble bushes was a good find by Lisa this morning. We only had one record in the whole of 2014 so nice to get it on the year list. The bullfinch was quite secretive, initially given away by her repetitive soft 'pew-pew' call. She did break cover on one occasion though which allowed us to get the following photos:

Meanwhile…

As many of you will know, Ramsey is an important site for (red-billed) chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax). We have between 7-9 pairs breeding most years which represents between 1-2% of the UK population. There are approximately 55-65 pairs in Pembrokeshire, around 250 in Wales and 400-450 in the UK as a whole

Chough chiefly feed on soil invertebrates (e.g beetle and crane fly larvae) and the island provides ideal feeding…

While the RNLI are having their new boathouse built at St Justinian they need to keep their new Tamar lifeboat on the water. If winds exceed gale force from the SW or NW then St Justinians is not a suitable site for such a large vessel so we have allowed the RNLI to put a temporary mooring on the island side at The Waterings where we usually have our boats moored in the summer. The island provides a good degree of shelter…

On Christams Eve it was looking like we were going to have to execute 'plan B' for Christmas dinner this year. The weather had been pretty rough up to then meaning we couldn't get across to pick up our turkey. However a break in the weather on 24th meant that Derek was able to whizz across the Sound and deliver it just in time! Conditions still weren't great so there was no time for him to stop and enjoy a mince pie and…

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been carrying out a variety of jobs that highlight the diversity of life out here which helps make Ramsey such a special place to work. One minute we’ve been lugging concrete blocks half way across the island, the next getting to grips with the workings of a plough and then up to our armpits in sheep! All in the name of species recovery and nature conservation from storm petrels through…

As the days grow ever shorter we bit the bullet and lit the rayburn yesterday! It's not particularly cold by day yet but the nights out here are getting a wee bit chilly now. Despite the arrival of winter thrushes, woodcock and snipe there is one bird that is a welcome reminder of summer. A late chiffchaff is still gracing out garden. They do winter in the UK but we've never had one this late out here. The previous latest…

If you missed the 'Plastic Gannets' film on Autumnwatch at the end of October or would like to see it again the BBC have put it on the 'clips' page of their Autumnwatch website. Here is the link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02cbk0v

Naturalist and wildlife TV presenter Iolo Williams accompanied us to our Grassholm reserve last month to film an item on plastic pollution for BBC Autumnwatch that was aired last week. Here Iolo tells us about his personal take on the day

Generally, a visit to Grassholm Island, a lump of rock 8 miles off the coast of Pembrokeshire, is one of life's great pleasures. Home to nearly 40,000 breeding pairs…

As some of you might know we try and get out to our Grassholm reserve each October to cut free juvenile gannets that have become entangled in plastic marine debris that accumulates in their nests. The plastic is mainly fishing related (rope, line and netting) that is floating on the surface of the sea. Gannets mistake it for seaweed and add it to their nests. Some chicks get tangled and as they grow it tightens around…

When we headed out to start the seal count today the weather was quite acceptable. Not as windy as forecast, the showers were missing us and it was warming up. In the space of an hour all that changed and we were pelted with hail, caught up in a thunderstorm, dried off in a brisk wind and then back to pleasant sunshine! See below for some photos:

Not too bad looking east towards the mainland when we set out

For…