Ramsey Island

November Rain

Greg Morgan — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:36:00 GMT

Like the rest of the country we are currently riding out the storms here on Ramsey. We have had over 2 inches of rain in two days and the ground is saturated. With more rain forecast for this week we could see some flooding of the fields. Winds have been a feature too. Gusts of 70mph recorded at Milford Haven on Friday night. Nothing exceptional for these parts at this time of year but you still need to be on your guard and make sure everything is tied down!

This weather has meant that work on the volunteers bungalow roof has had to be put on hold. Derek, our shepherd, island supplies man and roofer extraordinaire has been busy with his right hand man, Dai Bach, stripping the old, leaking roof off and fitting a brand new one. They just got the last sheets on before the first storm came! Just the concreting and facias to do once it calms down again. Its a good job Derek and Dai are flexible!

Derek brought our rams over on 11th. Three handsome Charollais rams were put straight to work with our 200 Welsh mountain ewes. We were very pleased with this cross last year so are trying it again. While we were at it we wormed all of this years lambs before turning them out again. There is so much grass here at the moment that it is a job to know when to sell them. We need to keep the grazing down for the choughs so it looks like they will be spending the winter with us. Our trainee sheepdogs, Dewi and Sweep (Derek's new pup) were given their first real farm job to do on this one and both came through with flying colours!

Seasons End

Greg Morgan — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:25:00 GMT

The end of October saw the end of our visitor season. It has been a good year overall with numbers holding up around the usual 4,000 mark despite the poor weather of July and August. The nice autumn certainly helped! Thanks to all those who came and we hope to see you and others again next year. The Gower Ranger, our passenger boat, was taken out of the water a few days ago for her winter overhaul and will be back in time for re-opening in 2010 on April 1st.

After the calm spell, November arrived with a bang! 30mm of rain on the night of 1st plus winds gusting in excess of 50mph made for a very rough Ramsey Sound and left the boat owners thankful they had acted swiftly in taking their vessels out. Such weather makes us realise how well sited our buildings are. Damage is rarely sustained (he says!) in storms and even the volunteers bungalow which is halfway through the process of having a new roof put on survived!

So it is just Lisa, myself and Dewi on the island now. Our thoughts turn to winter tasks - paperwork, report writing, livestock husbandry, getting the rams on and off, heather burning (if the weather allows), fencing and general building maintenance all ensure that we are kept busy (and warm!) through the winter months.

This morning saw the return of the fulmars to their breeding ledges for a few hours. We have just under 300 pairs nesting on Ramsey and following the breeding season they leave the cliffs (like all the other seabirds). They leave to moult their worn feathers in the relative safety of the open sea. Unlike other seabirds, they return once this process is complete and right through the winter we will see them for long spells on the cliff ledges, interspersed with days at a time spent out at sea. Fulmars spend the longest of any British seabird at their nest site.

Pembrokeshire is currently experiencing an influx of black redstarts with over 60 recorded last Saturday. Late autumn is a good time of year to see these birds on coastal sites as they move to, or arrive at, winter quarters. We have had up to 4 on Ramsey on some days this past week. Also of note here of late has been a juvenile hen harrier. These birds frequently turn up here at this time of year as small numbers head to Pembrokeshire for the winter. If you are visiting the County this winter take a look on the Pembrokeshire Bird Group Blog to see what birds are around and a list of local sites that are worth a visit.

Mercy mission

lisa morgan — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:38:00 GMT

Last Saturday we made our annual October visit to Grassholm. It was a relatively calm day but we still had a rough and very wet boat trip to the island. The inaccessibility of the island one of the reasons that Grassholm is home to a thriving 39,000 pairs of gannets.

The aim of our visit is to cut free gannet chicks that have become tethered to their nests and that, without our assistance, would soon be abandoned by their parents to a slow death by starvation.

This problem arises because when the adult male gannet builds and refurbishes his nest in the early spring, he will bring home natural materials like seaweed but unfortunately, he will also find large amounts of plastic debris. Monofilament fishing line and packaging tape floating on the water are a problem, the orange and blue colours seemingly make this potentially deadly string even more attractive to a gannet passing overhead. Crisp packets and even a plastic coat hanger were also seen incorporated into nests this year.

Monofilament fishing line is the main offender. It is so strong that that a bird caught by the leg has no chance of freeing itself. The nest, which should be a place of safety for the growing chick, can quite literally become a death trap. It takes a sturdy knife and a lot of careful patience to free each chick, which is then able to leave the island and fledge naturally.

This year we cut free 50 chicks in the short time we were on the island. Many adults were still in attendance and so our visit was brief to avoid undue disturbance. Greg and I were accompanied by three intrepid helpers, all experienced in the safe handing of large seabirds with extremely large and powerful bills!

Thank you!

lisa morgan — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:46:00 GMT

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!

Media Circus

Greg Morgan — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:53:00 GMT

It's been all go this week on the media front. On Tuesday we had S4C over filming for Ffermio (a Welsh language farming programme). The piece focused on our newly arrived Welsh Black cattle and our other farming interests on the island. I gave an interview along with our shepherd Derek Rees and Dana from our media department in Cardiff. Dewi our Border Collie seemed to be the star of the show though! It will be broadcast on S4C in the coming weeks sometime on a Monday night (S4C is the Welsh version of C4, also available on some digital services outside Wales)

Yesterday, BBC Radio Wales came over to carry out an interview with me on seal pups while today, BBC Wales filmed a piece for local news programmes in English and Welsh, again on seals.

Talking of seals, all is still going well. Plenty of new pups still being born and lots of large, healthy looking older pups in evidence too. With boats only running until the end of October this is the last chance to catch up with them on Ramsey this season. Phone our boat company on 01437 721721 to book a place.

Seal Pup Bonanza!

Greg Morgan — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:36:00 GMT

It's all go at the moment with our seal pups. We are well over the 100 mark now on our monitored sites with 40 visible on our longest beach, Aber Mawr. One cheeky individual decided to beach himself on our landing steps today! He refused to move when the boat came in so our visitors had to cautiously walk past him while we stood guard to make sure he didn't lunge at them! He was hissing and snarling and shattered the illusion many had of the "cute" white seal pup! He was recently weaned and fully independent so was not reliant on the cow anymore. As I type this the tide is rising and he will soon be washed off the steps and back in his natural environment!

The settled spell of weather continues and we have seen a slow trickle of migrants over the past few days. Willow warblers, chiffchaffs and blackcaps have moved through, as has a common sandpiper, golden plover and a little egret. The purple sandpiper roost is now up to 17. Swallow movement is well underway with the spectacular sight of at least 11,000 streaming through during the course of the morning on 11th, with at least 6,000 the next day.

Still Smiling!

Greg Morgan — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 16:39:00 GMT

Terrible weather this week with gales, severe at time and heavy rain. We had gone a whole week without any boats to the island, until we managed a half-day for visitors yesterday. However, no sailings again today and the unsettled spell, (if you can call 8 weeks a mere ‘spell’) looks set to continue for a few more days. Although for anyone thinking of visiting it does look to be settling down from around Wednesday onwards…..

We all began to run out of food, although the island’s tuck shop helped to sustain us. A run on chocolate and flapjacks kept the energy levels up but we now have the most enormous tabs to pay off. A more serious problem is that we also ran out of toothpaste, not great with the amount of sugary snacks we have been consuming. So please don’t be offended if next time you see us we don’t greet you with a big smile, it won’t be personal, it may just be that all our teeth have fallen out!

Luckily, supplies arrived in the shape of our new volunteers yesterday and the toothpaste crisis has been averted. We also had gifts of home-grown tomatoes (to ward of the scurvy) and a rather handsome Cheese plant, that although looks very statuesque in our kitchen window, apparently does not produce lumps of cheddar at regular intervals. Shame……

(by Lisa Morgan)

Grassholm Gannet Success Story

Greg Morgan — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:33:00 GMT

As well as looking after Ramsey Island, we also have responsibility for Grassholm Island, two of Pembrokeshire's finest islands, (not that I'm biased!)

Grassholm lies 7 miles south west of Ramsey off the Pembrokeshire coast and is home to the only colony of northern gannets in Wales. We carry out an aerial photographic survey every five years to establish the number of breeding pairs on the tiny island (a mere 9ha in size).

In 2004 the figure stood at 32,094 pairs. Following the 2009 survey this has increased to 39,292 pairs, an increase of 22%. This confirms Grassholm as the 3rd largest colony for this species of gannet in the world (behind St Kilda and Bass Rock (both in Scotland)) and accounts for 9.5% of the entire world population of this species! As a result Grassholm is designated as a National Nature Reserve and a Special Protection Area.

The question most commonly asked is "how to you count 39,292 pairs?!" The answer is, luckily, I don't! We employed an environmental consultant, Stuart Murray, an expert in this field, to carry out the task. He has counted the colony for the past 2 surveys (spanning 10 years) so this helped to keep the counting consistent. Firstly he had to hire a light aircraft, fly over the island (at a height of no less than 1000ft to avoid disturbing the birds) and then take hundreds of photographs on his state of the art digital camera. He then picked 8 of the best photos that gave 100% coverage of the island, enlarged them to A3 size and spent many...many..hours counting each individual bird on a nest!

So why the increase? Firstly, some of it is real. There are areas that have obviously increased when you compare previous photos. Over the past 10 years gannets have bred very successfully. Between 70 and 80% of nests have fledged a chick. A sufficient number of these have returned to breed and accounted for some of the increase. However, some of the increase, and it is impossible to say how much, is down to improved camera technology. In 4 years things have come a long way, the quality of image is now far superior and you can zoom in much further. What we can safely say is that this is the most accurate count of the colony that we have ever had.

The next survey is due in 6 years time. How much further can the colony increase?!

There are no public landings permitted on Grassholm due to the disturbance this would cause the breeding birds. However you can take a boat trip around the island to experience this amazing spectacle. Contact the RSPB contracted boat company, Thousand Island Expeditions, on 01437 721721 for more details. Due to the distance the island lies offshore, good weather conditions are required to get out there. As we head into autumn these become few and far between. Trips may run to the end of September if we get a calm spell, otherwise try again in spring or summer 2010.

Pups weather the storm

lisa morgan — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 09:56:00 GMT

Further to Greg’s last blog entry about the early start to the seal pupping season, I now have some figures to back up our observations.

Each year we follow the progress of pups born on 9 beaches around the island, basically sites that we can safely view from the cliff top. These beaches only account for around 50% of the total pups born on the island each year, the other half are born in Ramsey’s sea caves, where we have very little chance of seeing the pups inside.

However, the beach sites do give us an indication of pup production and the timing of the pupping season, which we can compare from year to year.

On 26 August last year, we had just five pups on our study beaches, whereas this year we already have a total of 21 as at the same date. It will now be interesting to see how the rest of the season pans out and whether the peak of pups born, which is usually around the third week in September, will be any earlier this year.

Our latest arrivals have already had to cope with the biggest tide of the year and the tail end of hurricane Bill, with no major casualties to report, so we could be on for a bumper year.

Remember, the island is open until the end of October and is the ideal place to get close up views of Atlantic Grey seals and their offspring.

Early Seal Pups

Greg Morgan — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:59:00 GMT

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.

Record numbers for Ramsey

lisa morgan — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:59:00 GMT

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.

Cattle return after 45 year absence

lisa morgan — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:27:00 GMT

The four Welsh black cattle that we introduced to the island at the end of June are all doing well, knee deep in grass and looking extremely pleased with their new home. Greg and I have been busy making friends with them over the last few weeks, which will enable to move them more easily when needed, over the coming months and years. Fortunately, they are proving to be both docile and affable, with huge appetites!

The 12-month-old steers arrived by boat on 28 June and have been grazing in the centre of the island, in what was an old arable field, ever since. In partnership with two local farmers, who purchased the animals and oversaw their transportation, these impressive animals will be used to graze the wet heath for the benefit of breeding lapwings and the grassland for the benefit of breeding choughs.

Lapwings prefer short tusocky sward, which cattle grazing provides and chough prefer a short sward for foraging. The cattle will complement the existing grazing programme of sheep and ponies in order to provide a varied sward. Cattle dung is sought after by chough as a valuable source of insects and they certainly produce it in large quantities. One steer can produce up to 4 tonnes of the stuff in one year, enough to support a quarter of their body weight in invertebrate life!

Cattle have been grazed on the island through the ages with one of the earliest accounts being from the St Davids church records of 1293. Our new arrivals are the first cattle on Ramsey since 1963. We chose Welsh Blacks as they are a hardy, native breed and will out-winter on the island without any problems.

Fire and Brimstone

lisa morgan — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:48:00 GMT

The most incredible thunder storm rolled up St Brides bay from the south of Ramsey on Thursday night, watched by hundreds of intrepid spectators on the Pembrokeshire beaches. Also watching the impending drama were island wardens and volunteers from the relative safety of the farmhouse garden.

The following storm was the most powerful we have ever seen with three forks of lightening discharging into the sea at any one time and sheets of lightening permanently illuminating the sky. New sheepdog Dewi had never experienced a thunderstorm before and had great fun barking at the lightning and then trying to chase the thunder!

Unknown to us in the farmhouse, two of our volunteers up at the bungalow were having a slightly more scary experience. A bolt of lightening had struck the top of Carn Ysgubor in a massive explosion of noise and light. They thought their days were numbered as it sounded as though the bungalow had itself been struck, (which wouldn’t be the first time!) The hill was ablaze, the dry heather succumbing to the intensity of a direct strike. People in St Davids could see the beacon of flames from across the water.

Thankfully, the torrential rain which followed doused the flames, but 24 hours later the burnt area, which is as large as the farmhouse garden was still smouldering. Copious water was applied and the danger is now passed.

Apparently, the island’s southern hill, Foel Fawr, was struck by lightening some years ago and it took a whole week to put the fire and embers out.

Successful spring for Ramsey choughs

lisa morgan — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:07:00 GMT

A quick update on what has been a really successful season for our breeding choughs. We have eight breeding pairs in 2009, most being at well-used, traditional sites around the island. But this year we also had one site near the harbour being used for the first time since 1975 and the other a brand new site in Aber Mawr.

As I write, six of the eight sites have fledged youngsters, each getting a healthy three or four chicks out of the nest. The new Aber Mawr nest and the harbour pair are still feeding chicks inside their caves, but it will only be a matter of days before they are also on the wing and if the deafening noise of hungry chicks coming from these dark crevices is anything to go by, they will also produce more than one juvenile.

It has also proved to be a very early year for these birds, with our first nest on the south coast, fledging young on 1 June, 16 days earlier than last year.

If you would like to see family groups of choughs, noisy and playful, as the youngsters learn how to fly and feed themselves, Ramsey is a great bet over the next month. These family parties will remain intact for up to five weeks and will then join larger groups of feeding choughs as we head into the summer and autumn months.

Puffin Power!

lisa morgan — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:20:00 GMT

Our puffin decoys are finally here and installed in suitable locations around the island! 150 lifesize and very realistic models were hand delivered by the sculptor and artist, Eddie Tycer, in early May and by the end of the month we had deployed them all.

Rats were accidentally introduced to the island in the late 1800’s. Following this, puffins became extinct as a breeding species on the island (the last confirmed record being 1894). Following a successful rat eradication project in 2000 by the RSPB, we have seen Manx shearwater numbers more than double (a small number managed to hang on during the “rat years”) and European storm petrel (re)colonise. Puffins are much harder to attract back as they are gregarious birds and prefer to see other birds already established at a site before making that all important first land fall. The decoys are our attempt to lure the puffins ashore!

On the back of previously successful projects of this nature on Alisa Craig (Scotland) and Eastern Egg Island (Maine, USA) we decided that we had nothing to lose! It is worth a try if it means we can attract puffin back as a breeding species on Ramsey where it rightly belongs.

It may take several years before we see any success, if at all. Puffins do not breed until they are 5 years old and return to their natal colony. However, not all birds can find room to breed at these colonies and these “overspill” birds must look elsewhere. With a large puffin population on nearby Skomer Island, (c. 8,000 pairs, the largest colony in southern Britain) it is hoped we can pinch a few! These younger, non-breeding birds return to the colonies in late June and July so we will be keeping our eyes peeled over the coming few months!

Breaking news: Our plastic puffins are already attracting attention, from our resident peregrines! One was seen last week to stoop over the decoys, land and then sit in the middle of them, looking slightly confused and somewhat disappointed.