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2025 Season Over & Out

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 It feels quite strange to write the final blog of the year from the mainland. We had a fairly quick departure last week as the storm began to build and everyone was removing their boats from the water. Nia and I weren't quite ready to leave for the season, but we were rewarded with a very beautiful sunrise on our last morning as we packed up our respective homes.  Sunrise over the sound on the 22nd © Alys Perry.  The island looking very autumnal out West on the 21st © Nia Stephens.  The past few weeks have involved the usual end-of-season tasks such as packing up the shop, taking in the signs, painting, cleaning, general maintenance, and preparing all the buildings for winter. Alongside monitoring the end of the seal pupping season, we also managed a final trip to Grassholm to land, swap camera trap batteries, and free any entangled gannet chicks while we were there. We are pleased to say that only 2 chicks needed to be cut free, and many had already successfully fl...
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Autumn is here!

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 The past few weeks have started to feel very autumnal, with the bracken dying off, robins singing away, and the seals starting to pup. Not to mention the turn in the weather from glorious summer sunshine to Storm Erin.  The heather in bloom on the West Coast © Alys Perry.  August sunrises over St David's & Carn Lidl © Alys Perry.  August has been another busy month for us on the island, with more fieldwork on Grassholm, the start of the seal pupping season, Manx shearwater nightwork, habitat management, fulmar productivity surveys and the usual admin and maintenance tasks. Nia & Chris ringing manxies under a star-filled sky © Alys Perry.  We have now finished counting the gannets on Grassholm from the July drone survey, and our population count for this year is 17,045 AOS, compared to 19,1999 in 2024 and 16,482 in 2023 post-HPAI outbreak.  Wildlife Round Up  Large groups of chough are still being recorded on the island, with a flock of 40 seen...
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Seabird Numbers and Island Updates

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It is time for a blog update after a hectic couple of weeks on the island for Nia and I.  We can't quite believe it is August and that we are already halfway through the season! Looking back at Ramsey from the North Bishop, 31st June  ©  Alys Perry. June and July were packed full of monitoring and fieldwork, and we were lucky enough to have beautiful weather to land on the Bishops & Clarks to conduct the Storm Petrel population census (this is completed every five years, but this was the first time since 2017 as the weather isn't usually calm enough to land) and stay the night on Grassholm to do Gannet productivity surveys, lichen monitoring, insect and marine surveys, and  the population census of Storm Petrels. In between seabird survey work, we have spent our time doing various maintenance tasks, clearing visitor paths (which get overgrown quickly with less foot traffic), monitoring plants and lichen, moth trapping, monitoring the nesting Chough and Peregrines...
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Survey Season

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It has been another beautiful few weeks on Ramsey. We have had some torrential rain for parts but also warm sunny weather which has been reminding us that summer is not far away. Low tide and calm seas on the 30th  © Alys Perry. April has brought a variety of jobs, including assisting with bringing materials and equipment across from the mainland for work on the harbour wall later on in the season. It has also brought the start of the breeding bird surveys across the island, continued monitoring of the breeding chough, and plant monitoring, as well as the usual reserve and maintenance jobs.  Derek brought across tons of aggregate on the 10th  ©  Nia Stephens. The view from Llundain looking north during a breeding bird survey on the 17th  ©  Nia Stephens. We also managed to tag along on a Thousand Islands boat trip to count Oystercatcher and rock pipit pairs that we could not view from the island. Thanks again to Thousand Island for letting us join a tr...
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