Written by Dani Moore

RSPB South Stack is one of the RSPB’s most well known reserves, and I have been lucky enough to get a place as a residential volunteer here for a whole three months!

Residential volunteers stay on site at the reserve in a fantastically quaint cottage, completely free of charge, and with views of the cliffs, the coastal paths, the ocean and mountains, who can complain?!

The work starts from…

Spathulate Fleawort is bracing itself against the strong May winds and can now be seen flowering on several places on the reserve! It is one of the rarest flowers in the world and can only be seen here on Anglesey. Flowering on the steepest cliff faces and thriving on the sea spray, it can be seen near Ellin's tower, just by the benches.  Several more plants are flowering along the coastal path from Ellin's tower and…

May 5^th and 6^th was a busy weekend for South stack, people just seemed to come out of the woodwork. I have never seen the car park so full since last summer, from now on for the next several months it will be like this, good,we like to be busy.

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL MISTAKES ARE FULLY INTENTIONAL (that is my excuse) and there are no prizes for any that are found.

In the morning we had two coaches…

Huzzah!  It’s Chough time! 

Our lovely little corvid friends have hatched their first egg!  At around 11.30am on Saturday 5^th May we were watching our Chough camera in the Visitor Centre and Ellin’s Tower and saw the male removing half an egg shell from the nest.  This is very exciting news as this is five days earlier than last year!

 Chough are the rarest member of the crow family, with only 462 breeding pairs…

Well, spring came and went and winter returned with a vengeance to South Stack! Gale force winds and horizontal rain ruled last week causing wildlife and people to batten down the hatches. Despite the atrocious weather there were some creatures that positively enjoyed the elements! A pod of 6 dolphins spent one wild day entertaining visitors who were brave enough to venture out, putting on a brilliant show just outside…

PLEASE NOTE! THERE WILL BE A SECOND CHANCE TO ATTEND THE OPTICS DAY ON THE 2nd and 3rd OF JUNE 2012.

24^th April. (My reptile walk)

Tuesday was a beautiful day at South Stack and during my break I decided to go down to Ellins tower. There were no sea birds on the cliff’s but I did find Mark Baldwin on the main path to the bottom car park also having his lunch break. This was a good find as I have been wanting to see…

I have posted this blog for Hayley Riseborough, the blog written by Stuart.

Below the blog please find pictures of the fitting of the remote camera for the filming of the Chough. I have also included a picture that I have taken today of the female Chough sitting her eggs (as yet we do not know how many).

Also I have added a couple or two pictures that I took today, guillemot's and razorbills resting on the rocks below…

South Stack Blog: April 2012

For one reason or another I have not been able to keep my blog up to date. So now you are in for a long catchup. 

I LEAD MY FIRST WALK

On the 31st March I was asked to lead a walk on the site. This would be the first time that I had led a walk. I have to say that I was a little nervous, especially when I found out that the group were an RSPB group from Brighton. As an ex professional planner…

In the last couple of weeks spring has well and truly ‘sprung’ here at South Stack. The warm weather has brought out the reptiles in abundance, with sightings of adders and common lizards. I saw my first ever female adder which was a dark orange colour and curled up basking in the sun. Almost at the same time a lizard popped its head out from behind a branch which was  perfectly camouflaged until it moved!

…

Sunday the 18^th March we held a mothers day walk around the reserve. The walk was led by Hayley our People Engagement officer, I brought up the rear. 

It was a beautiful sunny day although during the morning there was a very cold breeze.  There were only a few of us as some people cancelled. This made the walk more personal  as we were able to devote more time on an individual basis. 

Our route took us from the visitor…

 North Stack    

Yesterday was like a summers day here on Anglesey. I decided to go over to South Stack with my scope and have a look at the Guillemot's. I counted about 1400 and two pairs of Razorbill. I also stocked up on fat balls,peanuts etc whilst i was there. When I arrived I dashed in with my camera went straight over to Jon the catering manager in order to brag about the male Sparrowhawk   that came and sat…

A visit to Burton Mere Wetlands Sunday the 26^th February 2012

The volunteers at South Stack were given a real treat by the staff and management at the South Stack Reserve.

It was great and appreciated by all. We all travelled in a mini bus this helped all the volunteers to get to know each other better,as we all work on different days of the week. 

Below are some pictures of our time spent at Burton Mere

The above…

Volunteers Day Out: Burton Mere  and Parkgates (Both on the Wirral)

 

The volunteers at the RSPB South Stack Reserve would like to say a very big thank you to the management and staff for the wonderful day out on Sunday the 26/02/2012.

We would like to say a very special thank you to Haley (the hostess with the mostest) and Jon our catering manager who both gave up their time to make the day so enjoyable.

Speaking for…

Hi again, I have not written for some time. During the winter months I am not required as often as a volunteer and  basically have nothing to write about.

I was in at South stack on Monday the 19^th, it was a very nice day especially for this time of year. I expected to be overrun by visitors but surprisingly it was a very steady day.

I was running a children’s competition were they had to go around the site and identify…

Hi everyone!

It's been a while since we last spoke, so I wanted to say hi to all our loyal readers and keep you updated with sightings on the reserve.   We first spotted our Guillemots back on 27th December and since then they have been in and out to sea quite frequently!  They have been busy prospecting their nesting sites making sure no other Guillemots are moving in on their patch!  A few Razorbills have been bobbing…

I just wanted to let you know about a just-for-fun bird race I am running....

It is a six-hour event for you go out with friends and family to spot as many bird species as possible in that time within a county. I am arranging this purely in the hope of getting people outdoors and enjoying themselves! For more details please have a look on http://naturebites.wordpress.com/ and let me know if you would like to join in!

…

Visit www.facebook.com/RSPBsouthstack for pictures from last Fridays's heather burning. Alternatively I've put some on my personal wildlife blog www.naturebites.wordpress.com.

It's hot stuff!

South Stack RSPB Reserve has been nominated as the best tourist attraction and Cafe in the 2012 Anglesey tourism awards!!!!!! 

Well done to one and all.

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Queen Victoria also had a soft spot for South Stack has the following pictures show. She stopped off twice on her way back from Ireland to visit.

She also…

‘’A Day In The Life of Denise Shaw RSPB Warden South Stack Isle of Anglesey’’

Hi all,

It is not always apparent to the public that much work is carried out behind the scenes of a busy nature reserve such as RSPB South Stack, we all sometimes take the beauty around us for granted, but as you will find out it does take a lot of planning and management work to help protect and sustain such a beautiful…

South Stack Blog December + 1

Hello again

I was not intending doing a second blog for December but I thought I had to tell you all about this.

On the 19^th we had a staff plus volunteer get together, it was sort of a Jacobs Join. The following pictures explain it better than I can do in words alone.

 Mr Alistair Moralee (Area Manager North Wales Team) joined in and enjoyed a great time with us all. 

…

A very Merry Christmas to all our readers from

    the Staff and Volunteers

     South Stack RSPB Reserve

 

     Nadolig Llawen

 

South Stack Blog: December 2011

                 

December has started the bad weather it seems. However we can still enjoy ourselves at South Stack

 

On Saturday and Sunday, the 3rd and 4th of December we had a two day event featuring a local very prominent artist namely Mr Philip Snow. He is well renowned…

 

 

I haven’t done this for a while (written a blog that is) so please bear with me. I have also been off work for a while because I had a car accident – I am ok and not brown breaded yet!!  Just trying to adjust getting back into normality.

Sorry for being so deep but it does sometimes makes me think how fragile life can be and how it is sometimes taken for granted. Life of course is different for every…

 

Blimey, we have seen some wickedly strong North Westerly winds here at South Stack this week,

had a couple of American ladies that were blown off course from Holyhead Port and ended up at our RSPB visitor centre by mistake!,

lovely ladies from the mid west of US of A,

they loved our visitor centre, café and shop

and thought that our South Stack Nature reserve was very quaint!!.  

Thank you ladies - God…

On Friday, we had an unexpected visit from Ian Daniells, a volunteer from Lower Moss Wood Wildlife Hospital in Cheshire. Ian had made the journey to release a Gannet that had blown off course in last week's high winds and ended up in Buxton, Derbyshire! Alongside the Gannet were two juvenile Herring Gulls which had been hand-reared before being collected by the Wildlife Hospital for release.

I was lucky enough to…