Mega May

May 21, 2024

The sun has started to shine and the wildflowers have finally decided to burst into life, with Bluebells, Fox gloves and Thrift being the stars of the show. Time has flown the past few weeks, with plenty of fieldwork, maintenance and welcoming visitors to the island taking up the majority of our time.

Looking South across the East Coast on the 15th © Alys Perry.

Like many across Pembrokeshire we were treated to some fantastic Northern Lights on the 10th with beautiful views both from the Farmhouse and the Bungalow.

Northern Lights across Ramsey Sound © Chris Jones.

Northern Lights over St David's Head © Elis Ward.

Nia, Chris and I spent a big chunk of the beginning of the season clearing out the farm buildings of scrap metal and luckily on the 10th Derek, Steve & Tom helped us remove the majority of it off the island. This involved craning it down in ton bags onto Steve's barge and transporting it to a skip at Porthclais. It all went very smoothly so thank you to Elis and Mick our volunteers for lending a hand on their day off and of course Derek, Steve & Tom for making it happen.

Elis and I getting the crane ready to lower ton bags onto the barge 10th May © Mick Brown.

The barge almost full of scrap ready to be transported to Porthclais © Mick Brown.

Sarah and Phil the wonderful entomologists joined us for a couple of days from the 7th-11th May to conduct some invertebrate surveys. So it was a week filled of exciting discoveries. I have included some photos of Sarah & Phil's finds during the week.

Sarah and Phil in action catching a Bog Hoverfly 10th May © Alys Perry.

A Muslin Footman Larva found in the wall near the farm buildings © Sarah Loving.

A Bracken Sawfly near the Bungalow © Sarah Loving.

A Gorse Shield Bug on the Slopes of Carn Yscybor © Sarah Loving.

A Female Hairy Footed Flower Bee near the Farm Buildings © Sarah Loving.

Thanks so much to Sarah & Phil for all their hard work and invertebrate records, we are really looking forward to seeing you again later on in the season!

On the 11th of May we said goodbye to our volunteer Mick before welcoming our new volunteers for the week Sally & Russel. Thank you for all your hard work last week Mick we will hopefully see you on the island later in the season. Sally & Russel got stuck in as soon as they arrived and helped with the island rabbit count on the evening of the 11th.

Elis, Russel and I counting rabbits in the Northern Fields on the 11th © Sally Muddiman.

Sally counting the rabbits behind Abermawr © Alys Perry.

Sally, Nia, Elis, Russel and I on the 16th May © Russel Hollinshead.

During their time on the island, Sally, Russel and Elis got stuck in with Cetacean, Chough and Reptile surveys. Helping to welcome visitors to the island, painting and restoring some of the fences and gates and assisting with night time Manx Shearwater work. Thank you so much for all your help over the fast few weeks, we had great fun and are really looking forward to seeing you all again next year!

Weekly Wildlife Round- Up

Its been another good few weeks in terms of wildlife with 4 of our Chough pairs now at the chick feeding stage.

The biggest news of the week is that in our Manx Shearwater productivity plots we now have 12 incubating eggs!! We also had an exciting find during our night time re-trapping work at the colony with a discovery of a Manxie ringed as a fledgling in 2013. This is the first time that the bird has been recorded since and makes it 11 years old. Well done to Elis for the excellent find!

It's been another good week for migrants, with more Sedge Warblers, Whitethroat, Blackcaps, Pied Flycatcher and Spotted Flycatcher dropping in. Another Cuckoo was recorded on the North End by Sally last week and with both Hen and Marsh Harrier also making an appearance.