Last Saturday, Denise (South Stack’s assistant warden) and I joined a collection of organisations for the Holyhead Breakwater Park’s Nature Discovery Day. We used the event to publicise the RSPBs ‘Make Your Nature Count’ survey, handing out leaflets and information about studying the wildlife in your garden. We also handed out ‘bird bingo’ to the younger visitors to encourage them to spot birds and the places that they nest.
It was a truly lovely family day out and it was a pleasure to stand alongside other conservation and environmental organisations such as the Wildlife Trust, Keep Wales Tidy, the Countryside Council for Wales and PONT (the Welsh arm of the grazing advice partnership). It is PONT who enable us to graze the mountain over the autumn months, providing suitable feeding grounds and a wealth of insect life for our Chough population, among a host of others in the foodchain.
After the event, it was back to work at South Stack where hundreds of visitors had been enjoying the good weather and sampling our wildlife.
This week has been very interesting in terms of our bird populations, with colony counts and fledging taking place, but more on that in my next blog... For now all I can say is that all of our Mousetrap Chough chicks have left the nest! Denise is out and about today looking for fledglings and I will let you know how she gets on. Incidentally, if you do find yourself at South Stack anytime soon and you spot and Chough family groups, please do come into the visitor centre or Ellins Tower and let us know (especially if you can see the rings).
Ciao for now x