The 2024 season has begun!

We are now back for the 2024 season with the same island team but with a new site for the blog. After various technical difficulties with the blog last year we have decided to try blogspot instead.

Abermawr at sunset © Alys Perry.

Like the birds myself and Nia migrated to warmer climates over the winter. Nia spent her winter visiting the Seychelles where she previously worked and I spent several weeks in Ecuador helping with rainforest bird research in the Andes.

Although the island was uninhabited over the winter we still conducted our winter checks whenever we could and lucky we did as Derek discovered a large landslide just above the island harbour on the 7th of January. The landslide completely covered the track leading up the farmhouse, making it impassable and took out the harbour fencing. Thankfully the weather was settled so myself, Derek, Greg & Jack managed to transport a mini digger to the island to clear it. Jack & Derek did a great job of this and by the end of the day the landslip was completely cleared. Thank you so much to you both again!

The landslide on the 10th January © Alys Perry.

After Jack had cleared it with the mini digger on the 10th January © Alys Perry.

Once myself and Nia had refenced the harbour path © Nia Stephens.

Myself & Nia, a lot of boxes and bags of food, Saini the sheepdog and endless amounts of cake and chocolate officially arrived back to the island for the season on the 3rd March with a very calm and sunny crossing. Thank you so much to Derek and Tom for getting us over safely.

Loading the boat at Porthclais © David Perry.

The past week has completely flown by as time always does on Ramsey. We have spent the week checking on all the infrastructure, re fencing the harbour, checking on our Chough and Raven pairs, catching up on admin and of course planning for the busy season ahead.

Weekly Wildlife Round-Up

All 10 of our Chough pairs seem to be on territory at their nesting sites which is great news! We have recorded a flock of 32 feeding in the Northern Fields and 40 individuals going in to roost at Abermawr.

Chough feeding along the East Coast © Alys Perry.

We have recorded large numbers of seals hauling out at Porth Lleuog with our max count being 71 since we've returned.

Grey Seal © Nia Stephens.

The fulmars are already back on their ledges ready for the breeding season ahead and our Raven pairs seem to be busy settling down to nest.

We had our first Chiffchaff record for the season on the 10th which is 7 days earlier than last year.

Chiffchaff © Alys Perry.

Our first Blue Tit, Great Tit and Red Kite also made an appearance on the 10th. Along with our first records of Goldfinch and Goldcrests on the 11th.

Goldfinch © Alys Perry.

Pied Wagtails returned to the island on 7th along with a nice record of a Hen Harrier soaring over the Northern fields.

Hen Harrier © Alys Perry.

Since returning to the Island we have also had sightings of Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Meadow Pipit, Rock Pipit, Wren, Song Thrush, Fieldfare, Stonechat, Crow, Curlew, Oystercatcher, Snipe, Canada Goose, Mallard, Grey Heron, Peregrine, Buzzards, Kestrel, Woodpigeon, Cormorant, Shag, Fulmars, Gannet, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Greater Black-backed Gull, Guillemot and Kittiwake. However, we are still waiting in suspense for our first wheatear of the season.

Pair of Oystercatcher in the harbour © Nia Stephens.

We also had our first record of a peacock butterfly for the season on the 6th.

Ramsey has one of the largest tidal ranges in the UK and yesterday saw the lowest tides of the year of 0.09m. So we decided to take the opportunity to explore the harbour at low tide and see what other marine life we could add to our island species list. As always the harbour was teeming with life and we managed to add European Eel, Jewel Anemone, Arctic Cowrie, and Straight-nosed pipefish to our island records.