The RSPB Community

When the north wind blows

Greg Morgan — Fri, 24 May 2013 16:31:00 GMT

My watch says 24 May but my numb head says 24 March! From shorts and t-shirts last weekend to the return of thermals mid week to hats and gloves today! A fierce NNW wind has blown all day, gale force at times. On the plus side it has been stunning. A cloudless sky meaning our solar hot water tank got up to 60c despite a wind chill making it feel like 6c!

Northerly winds are the worst direction for our harbour so no boats have run for 2 days. The forecast is encouraging for tomorrow and Sunday and despite the strength of the wind today the one good thing about northerlies is that they don't (usually!) leave much swell. I won't mention the forecast for bank holiday Monday at this point......

So here are a couple of pictures taken this evening showing Ramsey Sound on the flood tide plus the Bitches looking spectacular

View from Ramsey across the Sound to St Justinians lifeboat station in a strong northerly. The large waves in the middle of the photo are caused by the Horse Rock.

The spectacular sight of the Bitches in full flood. A lone kayaker braved the elements this evening to tackle these waves - fair play to him!

Flying rabbit or a map of NZ?!

Greg Morgan — Mon, 20 May 2013 16:12:35 GMT

One of our volunteers (the aptly named Pete Ramsey) took this photo of a strange cloud formation the other day. It started off looking like a map of NZ (sort of!) but as it drifted on the wind it turned into a rabbit!

On a more serious note.............

following the excitement of the Montagu's harrier a couple of weeks ago, Amy found another 'ring tail' harrier on Saturday. Fortunately this one was slightly easier to identify as a hen harrier. Quite a late record; most hen harriers are recorded on Ramsey in winter and early spring. This is most likely a wandering juvenile. We haven't checked the records yet but it might be the latest date on record for this species on the island.

Female or juvenile hen harrier on Ramsey (present 18th and 19th May). Told from other 'ring tail' harriers (i.e. female or juvenile Montagu's and Pallid harriers) by broader wings and having 4 larger primaries, instead of only 3 (primaries are the large feathers at the wing tips)

2 minutes of your time to help save our seabirds

Island Girl — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:15:43 GMT

Polyisobutene (PIB), the substance responsible for over 4,000 slow, lingering seabird deaths so far this year, in two separate incidents, is still legally allowed to be released at Sea.

You’ve probably seen it on the news, or even followed it on Facebook our blog or twitter – but did you know that it’s not just the RSPB and other NGOs calling for a change in the law?

The RSPB, along with other wildlife NGOs, have today joined forces with the UK Chamber of Shipping (supported by the wider industry association Maritime UK) to make a ground-breaking collective call on the UK Government to press ahead with an urgent review of PIB’s discharge status. Together we are calling for the UK to step up to lead a review, and then present it to a future meeting of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).

It may be a small change to ensure all PIB is removed from tanks while in port, but in the global world of shipping, it could make a real difference to seabirds and would be one less pressure on our marine environment in general

It’s a slow process, and as we’ve seen inaction risks further mortality of our already at threat seabirds.

You can show your support to ban this seabird killer by signing the online petitions at 38 degrees and Avaaz – we hope the more names they gather the quicker we can get the UK government to act.

After the storm

Greg Morgan — Thu, 09 May 2013 16:46:00 GMT

After a promising start to May it all went downhill yesterday, peaking this morning with a good force 9 blowing and a fair splash of some much needed rain. When the storm had gone through the sun came out but it was still blowing a force 7-8 and the sea was looking pretty impressive as the high tide approached. Below is a shot of The Bitches this evening (The Bitches and Whelps are a reef that run directly east from Ramsey harbour)

The Bitches this evening with the flood running as high tide approaches

Needless to say there have been no boats for a couple of days and probably none till Saturday or Sunday looking at the forecast. The number of days we can't land visitors varies greatly from year to year depending on weather but it is safe to say that without our harbour wall we would see a lot more cancellations!

I recently had some photos sent to me by Ann Lockley (daughter of R.M. Lockley, the pioneering naturalist who lived on Skokholm in the 1920's and 30's and carried out ground breaking work on many of it's seabirds). One of these was of Ramsey harbour in 1938 a year before the harbour wall was built. Ann visited Ramsey as a young girl with her family in August of that year. The two photos illustrate perfectly just what a difference the harbour wall makes. It would have changed the lives of those people trying to farm Ramsey back then and in later years made a huge difference to the ability to land visitors.

Ramsey harbour in 2013

Ramsey Harbour in 1938 (the year before the harbour wall was built)

This feat of engineering was carried out by the then owner of Ramsey, Captain Whitehead. Some of his family visited the island last year and kindly provided yet more historical photos. I'll try and pull them all together and put some more of both the Whitehead and Lockley photos on the blog in coming weeks.

Ann Lockley has a book out at the moment about her childhood spent on Skokholm. Is it a fascinating read and I thoroughly recommend it. Click here for more details

Tidying Up

Greg Morgan — Sat, 04 May 2013 08:24:00 GMT

We took advantage of the nice weather last week to have a bit of a sort out. Using Derek's amazing Robust Boat we ferried a year's supply of empty gas bottles off the island along with a load of junk and recycling. Having lowered it all in with our harbour crane we then had a pleasant trip round to Porth Clais (via the Bitches!) and, using the boats landing craft facilities, were able to deliver the bottles straight to the awaiting van (thanks to Clive from Mathias Hardware in St Davids for meeting us)

This boat has been a revalation and made life a lot easier for us. It can transport anything from gas to cattle to vehicles. I can thoroughly recommend them to anyone in need of a sturdy aluminium boat with a multitude of uses!

'Island Trader' loaded up in Ramsey Harbour

Heading to Porth Clais via The Bitches

Amy and Derek offloading the gas at Porth Clais (front of boat is lowered to ground level)

The curious tale of the wandering harriers!

Greg Morgan — Thu, 02 May 2013 09:44:13 GMT

Yesterday morning I had a call from one of the Skomer wardens (many thanks Eddie!) that their pallid harrier, present on Skomer for about 10 days, was heading our way! Typically I was on the boat with Derek and Amy doing a gas and recycling run. Lisa was out on the reserve doing a Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) but was up the north end. If the bird made land fall with us it was likely to hit our south end. After much 'power walking' Lisa got to the south end but there was no sign of the bird. We searched again in the middle of the day but still nothing.

I though it was worth another try in the evening and went out into the heathland where most of our harriers usually end up (we only usually get hen harriers out here and normally in winter). Amazingly a very narrow winged 'ring tail' harrier was quartering the heath! Unfortunately it was some distance from me, but from it's shape and after seeing it well enough to count the primaries I could see it was either a Pallid or a Montagu's (the two are very similar).

I quickly got on the phone to Lisa, Amy and our volunteers who came armed with cameras. Between us the biggest lens we had was only a 300mm but we managed to get a few record shots which I hoped would be good enought to clinch the ID.

Given the circumstantial evidence the likelihood was this was Skomer's pallid harrier. I was wrong! Skomer had also had a Montagu's harrier for the past 10 days too but I knew that this bird had been seen to head east in the afternoon towards the mainland local to Skomer. I sent the photos to Dave Boyle on Skomer (who had been watching and photographing both for the past 10 days) and also to a friend of mine who knows a thing or two about rarities, Steve Votier. Despite our pics not being great (see below) they were able to confirm it was the Montagu's and not the pallid harrier! Dave even managed to confirm it was the same Montagu's that had been on Skomer as it was in the same state of wing moult as his bird (he's a clever chap is Dave).

This taught us a valuable lesson. Never assume anything when it comes to birds! Amazingly both the Pallid and the Montagu's had chosen to leave Skomer on the same day and both had moved north. The Montagu's decided to drop in on us but the Pallid?......well there was one reported on Anglesey yesterday! Be interesting to look at the timings.

Thanks to Dave and Steve for sorting this one out and to Amy and the volunteers for providing far better cameras that we have!

Montagu's harrier on Ramsey showing a full crop! (photo: Lesley Silcock)

Montagu's harrier on Ramsey (photo: Paul Wright)

Lambing - final count down

Greg Morgan — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:40:00 GMT

A recent burst in activity which has seen staff doing 6am-10pm days have seen us reach 60 lambs born. 16 to go so we are hoping they don't hang about! In our first lambing season in 2008 we had a bottled reared molly lamb called Ruby. She turned into quite a character and has lambed most years since. Despite being tupped early on in the process last November, she kept us hanging around this year but eventually popped out the lamb below at dawn today. Ruby is a Welsh Mule (Welsh Mountain x Blue Faced Leicester) and her lamb retains the long years of the latter breed.

Ruby's lamb at 3 hours old - born Ramsey on 25/4/13

The weather over the past few days hasn't helped with near constant fog, rain and drizzle meaning the kitchen rayburn has been called into action on a few occasions to warm up new born lambs. The dog has been busy and never shirks his duties no matter how wet he gets!

Wet Dewi after a hard mornings work

The purpose of all this work of course is to benefit our important chough population by providing short grass and dung to aid feeding opportunities. The cold weather of early April caused issues with their timings but it now looks as if things are settling down but it will be a late season. 6 or 7 pairs look to have nest built but we are still monitoring some sights so final figures to follow. Slightly down from the usual 7 or 8 pairs but not bad considering how things were looking at one stage.

Lambing continues at pace!

Island Girl — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:32:00 GMT

We have had over 40 lambs born since we started 9 days ago; at all times of day and in all weathers. It means early starts and late finishes for island staff, but with our volunteers to help out during the day, things have gone smoothly. St Davids shepherd Derek is always at the end of the phone if we need advice on any unusual cases and Amy is learning fast. She even managed to jump on her first ewe last week and hold it until I got there to deliver a difficult breech lamb. Great effort.

Sheepdog Dewi has been an absolute hero. He is 4 years old now and has become a brave and clever addition to the team. In fact without him there would be no team! He can pick out a ewe in trouble and is gentle with newborn lambs. He works tirelessly and was unfazed by the Storm force winds we had last week and the poring rain, which is more than can be said for me!

Our barns have been used during lambing for many years and although our ewes lamb outside in the most natural way, occasionally they need help. These are quickly cornered by us and the dog, the lamb delivered and then the two are taken into a warm barn with plenty of straw to settle down and bond. After a few hours, if we are sure the lamb has suckled from its mother and she has had some food and water, the pair go back out onto grass. We have two in the barn this morning; they are the lucky ones that have been indoors during the heavy rain.

Ramsey lambing - Here we go again!

Island Girl — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 20:29:31 GMT

The first lambs of 2013 were born on the island yesterday, just one day earlier than scheduled.

This little ewe lamb had to be ‘pulled’ as it was presented with one leg forward and one leg back. The shoulder of the backward facing leg had caused the lamb to become stuck and its mother wasn’t able to deliver it without assistance. This is fairly common and the lamb and ewe are no worse for my intervention, in fact they got to spend the night in a warm, straw lined pen in the barn with food and water for the ewe.

With the terrible weather we had overnight and early this morning, they were definitely in the best place. When Amy and I went out to check the flock at 6am this morning it was blowing a southerly force 9 and raining hard. Luckily, our ewes had the sense to hold off in such extreme conditions and no lambs were born at all today.

Hawfinch

Island Girl — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 19:32:00 GMT

A stunning female Hawfinch was located in the farmhouse garden this morning, possibly grounded by the sudden heavy rain overnight. The bird stayed all day, feeding with Chaffinches under our seed feeder.

I need to double check, but this could be a first for Ramsey. It is certainly the first since 1992.

I managed to get a couple of photos through the willows, but Amy should have some better shots after lying flat on the floor for an hour at the bottom of the garden! To follow......

Project Puffin

Island Girl — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:30:46 GMT

Our new Reserve Assistant Amy Cooper joined us over the Easter weekend and will be with us through until the end of the summer. It has been a busy few days for Amy, learning the ropes and aclimatising to the very cold accomodation on Ramsey! The wind dropped briefly yesterday, just long enough for us to 'release' our decoy puffins back into the wild, having spent the winter tucked up in the island's workshop.

Amy takes up the story.....

"Yesterday we deployed 200 decoy puffins soon to be complete with corresponding puffin call on some of Ramsey’s western cliffs in an exciting bid to entice the real thing back to the island. Puffins were last recorded breeding here in 1894 but became extinct as a breeding bird when brown rats arrived and found the burrowing birds and their young easy prey.

In the winter of 1999/2000 the RSPB embarked on a challenging but successful mission to rid the island of rats and as a result many burrow and ground nesting birds such as Manx shearwater and Northern wheatear have seen an encouraging population rise. ‘Project Puffin’, if successful, may take several years to work but has been effective in other areas such as on Ailsa Craig off Scotland and on Eastern Egg Island off Maine in the USA. Puffins are frequently spotted offshore and just last week one was seen by our skipper Mike, only 50 metres off one of Ramsey's western beaches.

Loud speakers will soon be in position among the decoys, which will broadcast the puffins’ distinctive call out to sea. So keep your fingers crossed and hopefully one day puffins will make the leap back onto Ramsey Island to complete our rat eradication success story."

Mammal Mayhem!

Island Girl — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 16:45:00 GMT

Following on from yesterday's blog about some of our wild mammalian residents, here's a silly video featuring some of our most domesticated.

With under ten days until we start lambing and with the cold and dry conditions making foraging tough, our sheep are getting a little helping hand. I have been feeding them with sheep nuts for a week now and they are becoming quite accustomed to their daily snack. As soon as they hear the quad bike they start running!

(Please visit the site to view this video)

Mammal Matters

Island Girl — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 14:09:48 GMT

Our birds may be keeping a low profile in the bitter northerly wind but our mammals are out in force.

170 Grey seals were hauled-out on the islands' beaches today, the majority are mature males finishing their annual moult. Those on the pebble beach at Porth Lleuog can be seen clearly from the visitor trail, giving people a great chance to sit and watch some interesting seal behaviour. Thanks to all our visitors who have been counting them for me!

Our red deer stags are yet to cast their antlers and are still showing off their impressive headgear. The males will drop their antlers naturally in April as their testosterone levels drop. They then re-grow them at astonishing speed over the coming months; shedding the velvet and hardening them up ready for the rut in October.

One mammal that hasn’t faired so well in the cold conditions is this unfortunate Horseshoe bat. We found this dead adult hanging on the outside of one of our farm buildings today. They do use coastal caves for hibernation, so finding one on Ramsey isn’t surprising, although this is the first confirmed record for the island.

As our local mammal expert Annie said today ‘ Bats are under physiological stress at this time of year, as they come out of hibernation feeling rather hungry, and this year in particular there isn’t anything for them to eat yet.’ How true. It’s not really the weather for insects or bats.

Anyone visiting Ramsey Island this weekend.....

Greg Morgan — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:28:00 GMT

.......wrap up warm!!

At the moment the forecast looks as if the cold weather will extend into this coming weekend so if you are planning to spend the day (or even half a day) walking around the island please make sure you are well wrapped up. It is 'brass monkeys' out here as they say! The photo above shows us sitting amongst the daffodils that have been decimated by the relentless easterly winds. We gathered up all the severed heads and they are residing in our kitchen in a vase. Compare this same patch of daffs with how they looked around this date last March. What a difference a year makes!.......

Video of chough feeding on Ramsey Island

Greg Morgan — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 20:16:49 GMT

By this time last year 7 pairs of chough had started nest building on Ramsey. But this time last year it was wall to wall sunshine and 20 degress on the island. Contrast this to 1.5 degress today and so far only 3 pairs of chough have started nest building! Usual numbers are present, there were a minimum of 24 birds on the island today, but most are too busy feeding to keep energy levels up to think about nest building. A flock of 15-20 birds spent 3 hours this morning feeding non stop in short grass in the fields leading up to Aber Mawr.

We manage a small flock of hardy Welsh mountain sheep to help keep the grass short but in conditions such as this even they need a helping hand. With them expecting lambs in 3 weeks we started feeding them today. The lambs do most of their growing in the last 2-3 weeks of pregnancy so to keep the ewes in good condition we will be feeding them pellets from now though to the end of lambing.

(Please visit the site to view this video)

Launching Gower Ranger

Greg Morgan — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 11:19:00 GMT

Click here to see Thousand Islands launching the Gower Ranger yesterday. This is the boat that lands day visitors on Ramsey. The video starts off at Porth Clais and ends up at St Justinians. Derek is featured too bringing over our shop supplies for the start of the season! Fair play to Clive for getting in the water to check the moorings - it was baltic here yesterday! (and today.....)

So in theory we will be landing people from Good Friday onwards but as ever please check with Thousand Islands in advance, the forecast is a bit 'uncertain' for the weekend at the moment. Their number is 01437 721721

Another wild one.....

Greg Morgan — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 17:33:00 GMT

Today the wind was stronger than yesterday with storm force 10 recorded. 30mm of rain in under 12 hours (not including what fell today) made up for what had been a dry month up to now. Once again we had to hunker down and get on with indoor jobs. The volunteers bungalow is almost ready as a result. The first of our hard working volunteers will be making their way across to us next weekend (weather permitting!) and we will, hopefully, be opening our doors to the public a day before on Good Friday (29th March). To book a place on the boat call Thousand Islands Expeditions on 01437 721721. At this time of year it is always worth keeping in touch with the boat company as the weather can be very unpredictable

The living room in the volunteers bungalow looking much better than it did 48 hours ago!

Given how wild it has been we have, so far(!), escaped remarkably lightly on the storm damage front. Guttering and down pipes were scattered around the volunteers accommodation but they won't take long to fix and at least all the roofs and slates are still in place. At times today It didn't always sound like that was going to be the case!

Relatively minor storm damage at the bungalow following today's storm force winds

Where did spring go?!

Greg Morgan — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 19:39:18 GMT

After a nice couple of days on Ramsey, the first official day of spring was heralded by a screaming gale from the south east! Lisa and I spent the day tucked away working on the volunteers bungalow in readiness for our first arrivals in just over a weeks time.

Apparently we now have a Ramsey You Tube channel so as a test I've uploaded this very short video to give an idea of conditions out here today (hopefully some higher quality videos to follow if this works!)

.(Please visit the site to view this video)

Flying the flag!

Island Girl — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 15:37:00 GMT

When I heard Greg and Dewi sneaking out of the house at the crack of dawn this morning I didn't think much of it. About an hour later I got a message telling me to look at the summit of Carn Llundain (our highest peak at 136m). To commemorate a stunning Welsh victory in the 6 Nations yesterday he had decided to cart a 2 meter pole to the top of the hill and fly the flag! Given it was such a fantastic morning I followed them up with the camera!

I'm always torn between supporting the land of my mother and the land where I live, (Wales) or the land of my father where I was born (England). But I have to admit to cheering Cuthbert over yesterday for his two tries! Much to Greg's delight!

Welsh flag on top of Carn Llundain looking north to Carn Ysgubor

GM and Dewi after hoisting the flag!

After this they actually got on and did some work, finding a pair of chough nest building, the first of the season. Might be time to lose that winter beard Greg?!

Chiffchaff taking refuge

Greg Morgan — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:14:10 GMT

Like the rest of the UK, Ramsey has experienced some pretty cold weather these last couple of days. Frost and ice, although not as common as the mainland, is still found out here through December and January but by March it is usually beginning to become a distant memory. Sub zero night time temperatures for the past 2 days are a new Ramsey record for March in the past 8 years (since year round records began) and the ponds and feeding troughs have frozen over. Snow showers, blizzard like at times in the biting north easterly gale, were a feature of yesterday.

frozen stream on Ramsey

Following our first wheatear of the year on 9th plus a couple more later than day and on the 10th, migration has largely been put on hold. Although yesterday, in the thick of the worst weather, our first migrant chiffchaff of the year appeared......in our bedroom! Having probably spent the winter in the southern Med or north Africa it was no doubt a shock to the system to turn up on frozen Ramsey! Some chiffchaffs overwinter in the UK but I am pretty confident this is a genuine migrant thanks to something I learned just a few days ago from reading the excellent Skokholm Island and Bardsey Island blogs (every day is a school day!). If you get a really good look at these birds (both Bardsey and Skokholm are ringing stations so this is easier) then you can see 'pollen horns' on some migrant birds. These are matted areas of feathers at the base of the bill caused by pollen acquired through birds feeding on insects in flowers. As the Skokholm blog says, not much in the way of flowering plants out here at the moment so a good indicator that these are probably genuine migrant birds.

After a bit of leaping around the room I managed to catch the chiffchaff and safely release it outside (not that he/she thanked me for it!)

Chiffchaff in bedroom (pollen horns just about visible in this shot)

Close up of the chiffchaff in the hand where the pollen horns are more visible

First Wheatear of the year

Greg Morgan — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 13:58:10 GMT

Today saw the arrival of the first wheatear of the year on Ramsey. It is the 3rd earliest record in the past 20 years, the earliest being 3rd March in 2007. This bird is probably on it's way north with our breeding birds arriving slightly later. 109 pairs nested on Ramsey last year making the island one of the (if not the) most densley populated sites in Wales for this species.

This species is one of many that have benefited from the removal of rats from the island. They have also benefited from the sterling efforts of Derek Rees and his team who restored over 8km of drystone wall between 1998-2008 thanks to an ESA funded scheme. Over 80% of our wheatears nest in these walls. Numbers have steadily increased from around 60 pairs in 1999 to a record of 115 pairs in 2010.

Male northern wheatear on Ramsey in 2012 (photo: M Hoffman)

Gannet research on Grassholm

Greg Morgan — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 19:08:00 GMT

Dr Stephen Votier and his team have been carrying out research on our RSPB reserve of Grassholm for the past 7 years. Their work has focused on foraging and migration strategies of northern gannets. Click here for a link to their latest paper looking at potential impacts of a discard ban

Marine Art

Island Girl — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 13:43:51 GMT

You will remember that last summer we celebrated 20 years since the RSPB purchased Ramsey Island and we commissioned local artist Rhian Field to produce12 original oil paintings depicting the island’s iconic wildlife and landscape. Rhian is a scientist and self-taught artist whos work allows her to convey important messages about the vulnerability and complexity of the marine environment and our influence upon it. She has been supporting the RSPB’s marine campaign for better protection at sea.

Her stunning images were revealed at Oriel Y Parc in St Davids last July and have been to several other RSPB Cymru reserves since then, helping to attract visitors to Ramsey and highlight important marine issues.

If you missed the exhibition first time around The Torch Theatre in Milford Haven will be hosting an exhibition of Rhian’s work from 4th March until 26th April 2013. Rhian is hoping that it will be an ideal opportunity for families, groups, communities and organisations, to visit and enjoy the exhibition.

The Ramsey Island Collection will be exhibited alongside Rhian’s Deepwater collection, which features evocative paintings of seabirds fishing underwater. Both original paintings and Limited Edition Prints are available to buy at the exhibition or through Rhian’s website. A percentage of the proceeds from sales will be donated to RSPB Cymru to help directly with our conservation work on Ramsey and Grassholm Islands.

Bug Hunt with Dr Sarah Beynon

Greg Morgan — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 13:37:00 GMT

This year Dr Sarah Beynon is running a series of insect walks on Ramsey Island. If you want to learn more about the fascinating insect life to be found here we would thoroughly recommend one of her walks to anyone of all ages and experience. For more info see poster below and to book a place contact Thousand Islands Expeditions on 01437 721721 or info@thousandislands.co.uk or contact Sarah directly at sarah@allaboutbeetles.co.uk

Links to recent seabird news stories

Greg Morgan — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 12:41:14 GMT

Lisa and I were fortunate to spend some of our winter working on Hutton's shearwaters in New Zealand. This was thanks to the Hutton's shearwater charitable trust (also here on Facebook - they could do with a few more 'likes' please!) and Wildlife Management International - the company who eradicated Ramsey's rats 13 years ago. While there we went on a boat trip to try and see New Zealand storm petrel (we saw about 10 in the end). This species was though to be extinct for 150 years until they were rediscovered at sea in the Hauraki Gulf, just off Auckland, in 2003. No one knew where they were breeding though, until now. See here for full account of this amazing story.

Closer to home and the Skokholm Island blog has a post about a record breaking European storm petrel. Skokholm supports the largest population of this tiny seabird in Pembrokeshire with up to 2,000 pairs. Skomer is next with around 300 pairs. On Ramsey we have a small colony of around 10 pairs that established in 2008 following rat eradication, plus around 150 pairs nesting on the RSPB owned Bishops and Clerks, just off Ramsey.

Unfortunately marine debris continues to be a threat to our seabirds and marine mammals. Graphically illulstrated by this video on the plight of Laysan albatross on Midway Atoll. This is a global problem including here in the UK. We know too well the impact of discarded rope and netting on our gannets on Grassholm but plastic ingestion has also been shown in Northern Fulmars.

Hutton's shearwater at colony - Kaikoura