As we move into October, we say goodbye to our last residential volunteers of the season and what a busy, productive and fun 7 months it has been! We take volunteers on the island from April to the end of September and the scheme goes from strength to strength. In 2009, we welcomed 45 separate individuals to the island, giving up a total of 75 weeks of their time to help on the reserve, which would not function without them.
Volunteer jobs on the island are always varied, depending on the time of year and the weather conditions. In April and May, we are all busy lambing from our flock of 200 ewes. Special mention has to go to all those who started work at 6am and finished at 11pm, without a grumble, in order to bottle feed our 4 orphaned lambs.
In the spring, many hours were spent sitting out of the cliff tops, regardless of the weather, watching caves for signs of chough activity and many miles were walked helping to map the every increasing wheatear population.
Summer was busy with day visitors to the island and all volunteers help with meeting and greeting, giving information and some assist with guided walks and introductory talks. And of course no Ramsey summer would be complete without the compulsory bracken bashing, ragwort pulling and thistle topping, tough going but a necessary evil.
More unusual tasks this year included looking for beetles in cow pats, positioning plastic puffins on the islands cliff tops, catching sheep and chickens, emptying the composting toilet and counting rabbits! All genuine jobs I should add, not just created to amuse the island wardens!
Furthermore, not only have people donated their precious time, but many have also given many fantastic items for use on the reserve this year. Further improvements to the volunteers’ bungalow are now possible thanks to new curtains for every window, light shades and a new sewing machine (which I have now learnt to use).
Our evenings are now even more entertaining with Trivial Pursuit, a personalised Dartboard and loads of new music to bring the wardens collection up to date. A new voice recorder will enable us to survey our Manx shearwater population more accurately and make our guided walks more interactive. Gifts of vegetables, strawberries and cream, chocolate, whisky and dog treats were all much appreciated by island staff.
So a massive Thank you from Greg and myself for all your hard work in 2009, we are grateful for all your efforts and good company and hope to see you again next year. And of course there is always room for new recruits!