RSPB Ramsey & Grassholm Islands Blog

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...

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...

  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...