Blogs

We have had a flurry of early seal pups born on Ramsey this year. Usually we get a few born between now and the end of the month but in the first half of August we have seen over 20 being born on the beaches and caves.

This has been a real bonus to our summer holiday visitors who normally only catch the first few as the holidays draw to a close. Traditionally the 3rd week of September is the peak time for births so it will be interesting to see if this occurs earlier this year. Why have we seen these early births? It could be that the cows are in good condition having fed well over the summer, which is an encouraging indicator fish stocks in the area. By the end of October we would expect somewhere in the region of 300-400 to have been born, making Ramsey the largest grey seal colony in southern Britain. Weather permitting boats run until the end of October so you can try and witness this spectacle for yourself.

If you are in the area trying to observe seals, be it from land, boat or kayak, take a look at the Pembrokeshire Marine Code website for a set of guidelines to avoid unnecessary disturbance.

The other "pup" on the island, our 11 month old Border Collie called Dewi had his first official sheepdog lesson today. I was as excited as he was as led him to the sheep for the first time and was delighted with how things went! He is a natural and if he carries on like this I'll be very happy. I started slowly with 5 sheep in a round pen and will build from there.

Today is the 3rd day in succession without visitors being able to get to Ramsey. Winds touched gale force yesterday and although today was much improved the swell left behind from the blow of the last few days meant that the boat couldn't unload passengers safely and was forced to cancel landings once again.

 Migrant birds are few and far between at the moment but we did see signs of movement today with a few willow warblers and whitethroats passing through. Plenty of resident specialities to keep us entertained though with flocks of post breeding chough building to around 20 birds and the peregrine family still active.

Hopefully the weather will settle down next week and we will see a few more visitors in the run up to the bank holiday.

This morning, Greg finally emerged from beneath a pile of paper and notebooks with the 2009 breeding bird figures in hand.  Three species jump out of the list as deserving a mention;

Wheatear - Smart birds that winter in Africa and then return to the UK in March for our summer. The breeding numbers of this species have increased steadily over the last 9 years since we rid the island of brown rats. Nesting in rabbit burrows and crevices in our stonewalls, they were vulnerable to predation by the rats. They have now increased to a massive 115 pairs, an island record and with the reserve covering just 261 hectares; we must surely be one of the densest breeding sites in Wales.

Stonechat – Another Ramsey record, with 25 pairs confirmed breeding. Despite the relatively cold winter, these heath land birds had a successful season with many family groups seen and many second broods. This increase, in some small way, mirrors the massive 287% increase in this species throughout Wales since 1994.

Linnet – 46 confirmed breeding pairs is again the highest on record. Many young families were seen and the seeding grass heads are now attracting large flocks of up to 60 birds onto the island to feed. This species is Amber listed in Wales as a bird of conservation concern and is a UK Biodiversity Action Plan species.