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As part of the Darwin funded project to assess the biodiversity of Ascension Island, several species are being tagged with satellite transmitters so that we can learn where they roam out at sea. You can catch up with three of the tagged frigatebirds here (frigatebird number 2 is probably the most...

Back on 16 th March 2011, the MV Olivia ran aground on Nightingale, part of the Tristan da Cunha group of islands in the South Atlantic. This was the start of an environmental disaster, as 1,600 tonnes of fuel and 65,000 tonnes of soya beans polluted the waters and threatened wildlife on and around Inaccessible...

Rarely has a morning been so exciting - we learned yesterday that one of the Ascension Island frigatebird eggs is hatching! While not out of the wood yet (the chick still needs to survive to fledging), this will be the first time in 180 years that the species has been able to breed successfully on...

I don't think we've brought you any news on our blogs before from the tiny islands of the British Indian Ocean Territory, or Chagos Archipelago, some 400 miles south of the Maldives. This UK Overseas Territory is made up of 55 islands, the largest being Diego Garcia, with most of the land no...

We've written many blogs about the wonderful work ongoing in Ascension, and at last we have the news we've been waiting for – the Ascension frigatebird is back breeding on the main island! After six years of being pronounced free of feral cats because of an extensive eradication programme...

[Viv Booth updates us on her work with the Ascension Island Government Conservation Department] Three weeks on Ascension Island and I’ve seen my first sooty tern at last! When I arrived, I was disappointed to learn that the terns had departed just days before. Five key species are monitored...

Some good news recently in from the Falkland Islands – the population of black-browed albatross is increasing. It is likely to be down-listed from Endangered next year as the islands hold over two-thirds of the global breeding population. The reasons for the increase are partly due to incredible...

[Steffen Oppel, our intrepid Montserrat oriole researcher, has recently returned from conducting the latest census of this Critically Endangered species...so, how many are there, Steffen?] Between the 22nd of March and 26th of April a team of volunteers and fieldworkers from the RSPB and Montserrat...

[James Robinson, Director of our Northern Ireland Office, spend a month and a half carrying out research on penguins to help our BirdLife Partner Falklands Conservation – here he and his wife Lorraine update us on the project] I've travelled from the RSPB's base in Belfast today to tell...

For the rest of this week I'll post updates from several projects on UK Overseas Territories. First up are the Northern rockhoppers that were affected by the oil spill last year (and you'll hear about their southern cousins tomorrow). When the bulk carrier MS Oliva ran aground on 16 March...

It's a special time of year for the birds of the Centre Hills, Montserrat – it's time for the annual monitoring survey. Steffen Oppel tells us more. Once a year, the RSPB helps our Partner on Montserrat, the Department of Environment, carry out the forest bird monitoring on the island...

[Posted on behalf of Sheila and Chris Hillman, and Kevin George – St Helena National Trust Wirebird Conservation Programme] Continuing the exciting story of the St Helena plover or wirebird...(see here for previous post). There is a school up the valley with nice level playing fields –...

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands are a long way from the daily consciousness of most UK citizens, but this Overseas Territory in the far south of the Atlantic is home to a remarkable project that aims to restore the populations of our birds on the islands – they may be thousands of...

[Posted on behalf of Steffen Oppel, Senior Conservation Scientist overseeing research on Montserrat] Montserrat is a small island in the Eastern Caribbean, and would be a lovely tranquil paradise with lush green rainforests and golden sandy beaches if it wasn't for the active Soufriere Hills volcano...

[Posted on behalf of Steffen Oppel, Senior Conservation Scientist overseeing research on St Helena] If you had to find a place that is 'at the end of the world', St Helena would fit the bill quite nicely. In the middle of the South Atlantic, this rocky island is more than 1000 miles from both...

Latest news from Nathan and Dane on Ascension Island... At the end of last year we installed two sets of Ascension Island frigatebird decoys on the main island to see if we could attract breeding birds back (read more here ). Just in today, juvenile birds have been seen landing among out plastic friends...

As promised, a brief update now that we have downloaded some of the tracking data. Liz, Richard and Catherine managed an amazing 15 out of 15 retrievals with the data loggers! After a long afternoon and evening re-trapping our masked boobies, they had a night walk back out from Letterbox and arrived...

I'm on my way home today, so I asked Catherine Supple to provide us with some details of the OTEP (Overseas Territories Environment Programme) project that is studying restoration of native and endemic plant communities on Ascension Island. Catherine has only been here a few weeks, and will be on...

The problem with understanding databases is that you end up being the one left in the office to sort them out while everyone else is in the field having fun. So here I am staring at the computer again. Stedson Stroud, the boss, is showing the new Island Administrator around some of the key conservation...

Today we went back down to Letterbox to attach data loggers to masked boobies to find out where they go when not sitting on their eggs – we have very little idea where they forage, or how far afield they travel. (In case you are wondering, the area is called Letterbox because, well, there is a...

A less strenuous weekend, Saturday we met Drew, a volunteer from the American Air Base, and headed out to North West Point. In a landscape of tortured lava, yellow-billed tropicbirds make their scrapes in protected cracks near the sea, while brown boobies have turned the offshore islets white with guano...

(Written yesterday, but I managed to lock up the computer by forgetting the password - not that smart!) We're back from Letterbox and a successful deployment of the first batch of frigatebirds. What looks like a great tan is really a layer of Ascension Island dust, stuck fast with suntan lotion...

The pilot announced our descent into Ascension and all I could see out of either window was ocean all the way to the horizon. Were the white-caps ripples on a calm ocean, or the tips of angry rollers? There was no frame of reference, and then suddenly we were over land and down. My first thought on arrival...

Just below the Equator, Ascension Island is a tiny dot on the map halfway between Africa and South America. At 11pm tonight, I'm setting off with colleague Liz and volunteer Richard for a nine hour flight to one of the longest runways in the world. While the military passengers have a quick cuppa...

Here’s the second instalment of our posts from Tristan da Cuhna bring to life the hard slog involved in monitoring the wildlife of the archipelago - you can catch up with the first post here . Hit had by an oil spill from the wreck of the MV Oliva, back in March, the team are carrying out the vital...