High pressure is dominating our weather at the moment meaning largely dry and settled conditions. This is all good news for the grey seal pups that are starting to pop out all over the shop now. From just 12 on our study beaches 3 days ago, we saw a rise to 29 today! This compares with 21 on this day last year and 26 in 2019.

We should see a rapid increase over the coming few weeks with numbers peaking around the middle…

Artist and good friend of the island, Jazz Austin, has taken a few of my Ramsey photos and given them a makeover by turning them into a lovely set of watercolour postcards. They are available to buy via her Etsy web page and from the Thousand Islands boat booking office in St Davids. £2 from every sale will be donated to us here on Ramsey Island and will help fund our conservation work.

Jazz has taken a range of…

Like everywhere it's been a warm week on Ramsey. Heatwaves are a rarity out here thanks to the surrounding cool sea, anything over 20c is considered 'hot' by our standards. This week we saw the mercury register at 25c or over on 5 consecutive days (max 27c on two days). Our weather data set only goes back to 2005 but this is the first time we've recorded 25c or over on anything more than two days. The record since 2005…

And so to the final instalment of this year's seabird count update and two of the seabirds with the smallest breeding populations on Ramsey and the Bishops & Clerks. 

Kittiwake have never bred here in large numbers but at their peak there were 489 pairs in 1995. Subsequent years have seen a steady decline to a new low of just 51 pairs this year. The figure had been stable around 80-90 pairs for the past few years…

Moving slightly further up the cliff face and away from the hustle and bustle (and smell!) of the auks we find the northern fulmar. The closest relative to the albatross family we have in the northern hemisphere you can find this graceful flyer arcing through the sky at most northern and western seabird colonies in the UK. Flying on stiff wings, covering miles at a time with minimal energy usage they breed on narrow ledges…

After razorbills yesterday we're moving on to their close cousins, the common guillemot. With the smallest breeding territory of any UK bird, these gregarious seabirds can be found around large parts of the UK coastline, crammed precariously on ledges that look barely wide enough to support the adults let alone an egg and chick.

Seabird colonies are noisy affairs and a lot of that emanates from this species - their…

The first few weeks of June are busy times for staff on seabird reserves (its busy times for the seabirds too!). Nia and myself have just completed a full island count of all our auks (guillemots and razorbills, plus puffins on the North Bishop), fulmars and kittiwakes.

Overall its good news, with one exception. Rather than bombard you with graphs and figures for all species in one blog, I'll do a short blog for each…

The Celtic Sea is one of the UK’s most important areas for seabirds. Breeding, wintering or migrating, they utilise this sea area in their millions. However, it is fast becoming a hotspot for the next phase of offshore wind generation in the battle against climate change - what potential conflicts with seabirds could this bring?....

The Celtic Sea (Y Môr Celtaidd) is the area of the Atlantic ocean lying to the…

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Un o swyddi rheolaidd pwysig yma ar Ynys Dewi yw ein monitor bioddiogelwch.  Mae bioddiogelwch yn yr achos hwn yn cyfeirio ar fesurau sydd gennym ar waith i atal cyflwyno unrhyw rywogaeth estron i’r ynys.  Y prif anifail rydyn ni’n poeni amdanyn nhw yw llygod mawr.  Byddai cyflwyno llygod mawr i warchodfa fel Ynys Dewi yn cael effaith ddinistriol a radar sy’n nythu yma ac a radar y môr…

Depending on your age you will either be familiar with 'This Is My House' or, in old money, 'Through the Keyhole' (or maybe both!). This is the Ramsey version. Is bank vole, Manx shearwater or wheatear the true incumbent?  You decide.

And what's that short eared owl up to?! Probably 'no good' in the real answer! The only reason I recorded the owl was because something had knocked the trail camera over …

I say 'May' but it has felt more like October at times. The dry April has been replaced by a wet and often unsettled May. The island was in desperate need of rain but the deluges we experienced on the bank holiday and the following weekend, accompanied by gales was not ideal. We lost two south west facing chough sites after the bank holiday storm. Relentless driving spray being forced into their breeding caves proved…

At 4pm on October 31st 2019 with daylight rapidly failing, the last visitor of the season boarded the Gower Ranger and turned to wave. Little did we know then what was to follow. It would be 547 days before a visitor set foot on Ramsey again.

But on 2nd May 2021 return they did. With the boat restricted to a max of 12 it was a small but enthusiastic group who paved the way. Nia gave her first talk as the new Ramsey Warden…

Gyda leddfu cyfyngiadau Covid-19 ar atyniadau awyr agored a daeth i rym yng Nghymru heddiw, rydym wrth ein boddau i gyhoeddi bod Ynys Dewi yn ail agor i ymwelwyr o dydd Sul 2^fed o Mai.

Gan nad ydym wedi gweld unrhyw ymwelwyr ers mis Hydrf 2019 (!), rydym yn gyffrous iawn am gwrdd a wynebau hen a newydd a’ch croesawu yn ol i fwynhau’r hyfrydwch sydd gan Ynys Dewi i’w gynnig.

Fel y byddech yn digwyl, bu…

With the easing of covid restrictions on outdoor visitor attractions that came into force in Wales today, we are delighted to announce that the island will be reopening to the public from Sunday May 2^nd

Having not seen any visitors since October 2019(!), we are very excited about meeting both old and new faces and welcoming you back to enjoy the delights that Ramsey has to offer.

As you might expect, we have needed to…

Sorry for the tardiness in blog posts of late, time is flying by and we have been immersed in trying to get everything ready to hopefully be able to open to the public to some degree again soon (more detail to come on that next week).

Chough continue to do well - 9 of the 10 pairs are incubating now. It looks like the 10th won't breed this year but it's possible they have switched sites and we are yet to find them! Although…

It’s been almost six weeks now since we arrived on the island and it feels like it’s flown by!  Every day is totally different with all sorts of jobs to do and the weather and tides play a big part in dictating what we do.  It's been very different to my previous job where I was office based (in my spare bedroom) 5 days a week! It's really nice to be active and to spend most of my days outdoors.

Building…

Once again it seems like we have 10 territorial pairs of chough, 9 of which have been confirmed as nest building, the other may just hold territory and not breed - the jury is still out on them. Having spent the last 2 weeks of March prepping their nests deep inside caves and rock crevices, the first two pairs got down to the serious business and began incubating today. 

The female usually lays around 5-6 eggs and she…

I'm often asked what is the most important piece of kit on the island? It's a bit of a catch 22 really as anything I say will in all likelihood have been winched off the boat by the crane. Therefore that must be the correct answer! So the 2nd most important piece of kit? That would have to be the quad bike - it plays a vital part in our farming work but more than that it carries luggage, building materials, shopping,…

It's been a busy couple of weeks as settled weather has meant a lot of outdoor jobs getting done and not much time for blog writing unfortunately! More to come on all that soon but in the meantime this is just a whistle stop update on some of the bird activity of late.

2 red kites have been seen most days since our return and yesterday they were joined by a 3rd. Young, non breeding birds have become a feature of…

A big welcome to our new Ramsey Warden, Nia Stephens! Without further ado I will let her introduce herself.....

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Dyma ni yng nghanol fy ail wythnos yn fy swydd newydd fel Warden Ynys Dewi ac rydw i wrth fy modd i fod yma.  Am fraint i alw’r lle hwn yn gartref i mi!

 Bydd rhai ohonoch yn gwybod nid wyf yn ddieithr i’r ynys.  Ar ôl graddio o’r Brifysgol buais…

Looking at the photos below its hard to think this was just two days ago. As I type this the farmhouse windows are rattling as a gale rages outside. After a week of stunning weather for our first week back on the island, its all change today. With 70mph gusts and 7m swells forecast for tonight into tomorrow morning we decided to lift one of the island boats out of the water and take the other round to Porth Clais and…

The fact it's taken me till Thursday evening to write this given we arrived back last Sunday says something of how busy things have been this week. I've not even unpacked my camera kit yet hence the lack of any bird photos in this post!

The 'we' this year is a new Ramsey team - joining myself (and Dewi of course) is our new Warden, Nia Stephens. Some of you may well remember Nia from when she started her conservation…

Following a short spell on the island in early Jan, then a month of toing and froing to carry out sheep feed and maintenance work, we landed on 5th Feb for a few days of pre season prep. This more prolonged winter stay is planned to coincide with the 'beast from the east' that is forecast as the sheep will need daily feeding during this period. As to how long we will stay out here this time is down to the weather!…

We are currently on the island carrying out some maintenance work and providing daily sheep feeds during this cold spell. It has dropped to 0c for the past 2 nights and looks to be heading that way again. Over the years we have only had Welsh Mountain ewes out here, firstly Glamorgan, then Lleyn and now 'Sennybridge Cheviot'. Settling on the latter was the best decision we ever made. They may be a little more 'wild' but…

The final look at 2020 sees us leave summer behind as we slide into ever shortening days. The once vibrant heathland colours slowly slip into a deep orange, illuminated by classic autumn sunrises, which are at a much more sensible time of day by now! But autumn on Ramsey is dominated by one thing....grey seals!

September

The first seal pup was actually born on 15th July on Cololmennod. This beach always returns the first…