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Seal Pup Peak

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 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 looking forward to catching up wi
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Super seals and sea life!!

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 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 much for all your har
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The last few weeks.....

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The last couple of weeks have flown by on Ramsey. Nia and I took time off in July for some holiday time and also took part in an RSPB lead heathland management course in Anglesey. Thank you to Greg and our wonderful volunteers for covering for us during that time.  Abermawr at sunset on the 13th August  © Alys Perry. There have been quite a few relatively big jobs taking place on the island over the past few weeks including re-painting the Farmhouse. The Farmhouse gets repainted every 10 years and it was definitely in need of a fresh lick of paint. So Derek focused on the higher sections whilst we and the volunteers did the lower walls.  Nia, Griff and I painting the farmhouse on the 30th of June  ©  Alys Perry. Katie and Renata finishing painting the Eastern walls of the Farmhouse on the 30th of June  ©  Alys Perry. The septic tank at the Farmhouse also needed some work, with new walls and pipes being put in. This involved Derek using the island JCB to dig out the sections of soil to
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Seabirds, Seals & Chough Updates

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 Unfortunately it has been a little longer than I expected before posting this blog, the seabird season and chough monitoring have certainly got away with us. A shot from the Western cliffs during one of our last Auk counts of the season on the 11th June © Alys Perry.  The past few weeks have been dedicated to seabird counts with all seabirds on Ramsey, the Bishops & Clarks and Grassholm being counted. This involved a series of boat surveys, cliff counts and drone surveys. Thank you very much to the Thousand Islands staff for bearing with us and the boat team for accommodating us on all our boat based surveys.  The view of some of Guillemots through the scope on the Western Cliffs on the 9th June © Alys Perry.  The table above is the results of our seabird counts from Ramsey and the Bishops & Clarks this year. Most of our seabird numbers are pretty similar to last year apart from a few being slightly down. The fulmars are exactly the same as the 267 AOS counted in 2023. Shags a
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