RSPB Ramsey & Grassholm Islands Blog

  Please follow the link to the Thousand Islands page for booking information.  Thousand Islands

 We arrived back on the Island for the 2025 season on March 1st with endless amounts of bags and food for another busy season ahead. We weren't sure who was more excited to return to the island, us or the sheepdogs!  The boat ride across the Sound on the 1st March © Alys Perry. Since our return, we have been treated to glorious weather. March has been predominantly dry with lots of sunshine, which we have been making the most of.  Beautiful evening light at Abermawr on the 2nd © Alys Perry. Sunset over the Bishops & Clerks on the 9th © Alys Perry. The past few weeks since our return have been quite busy, as usual. We’ve had a lot of administrative tasks to catch up on, as well as checking Chough nest sites, strimming the paths, painting the buildings, replacing old Manx Shearwater nest boxes, digging out the compost toilets, and fixing various issues such as the bungalow guttering and the loft roof. We have also tried to fix anything else that didn't hold up during th...

  The RSPB have recently been informed that due to health and safety concerns the RNLI have taken the decision to close all access to the old lifeboat station at St Justinians. This slipway provides the only access for boats bringing people to and from Ramsey Island. We hope that this issue can be resolved as soon as possible, or that alternative arrangements can be made. However, as it stands, we are currently in the unfortunate situation where Ramsey will be closed to the public until further notice. We will update on this as soon as we know more.    

 It has been another week of mixed weather, including glorious sunshine, strong northerly winds, and plenty of rain, meaning we have only had 3 visitor boats since our last blog post. A fiery sunset over Abermawr on the 19th  © Alys Perry. Beautiful sunshine and calm conditions on the 17th  ©  Alys Perry. A double rainbow over Ramsey Sound after a rain shower on the 11th  ©  Alys Perry. Our main tasks over the last week have been admin and maintenance. Nia, Scarlett, and I have removed large amounts of old chicken wire from the arable plot, fenced the path below the farmhouse, undertook some stonewalling, and angled grided the rust off the bungalow roof before re-painting the panels. Removing the rust from the bungalow roof panels on the 18th  © Nia Stephens . We were treated to a visit on the 14th by Rick our favourite Thousand Islands Slip Master and his wife Moira. We would like to wish Rick the best of luck for the coming weeks and we are very much...

 The last few weeks on Ramsey have felt more autumnal by the day and a stark reminder that we don't have long left of this season!  Siani the sheepdog enjoying the sunset over Abermawr on the 29th of August  © Alys Perry. The septic tank and pipework around the Farmhouse have now been completed thanks to Derek & Jack who dug in the pipes with a mini digger last week. Thank you so much both for all your hard work! We've had more lovely volunteers over the past 2 weeks including, Steve, Joe, Ali, Alisha, and Matt. Who have all chipped in to help with visitors, maintenance work, and undertaking biological surveys. Thank you all for your hard work and enthusiasm over the past few weeks!  Our fantastic volunteer Steve fixing the gate and fence at Carn Ysgbor on the 21st of August  ©  Alys Perry. We also said goodbye to Duran the entomologist who has spent 6 weeks of her summer surveying for dung beetles and various other insects on the island. Thank you so ...