My sixth week has been quite quiet on the island with boats bringing visitors running full services on two days and only one service on another. Much of my time has been spent continuing with my Manx shearwater survey, with another two weeks or so to go, and the odd chough watch. There was some more practical work too with one of the other volunteers and I replacing an old rickety stile at the north end of the island – we found the soil doesn’t go down very far!

I also had a return to office work this week with a morning spent writing blog posts for the RSPB website and writing appraisals of the short-term volunteers. The second post I have written is about the Myrtle warbler spotted on the island last week. The photos of the bird I took are now to appear in Birdwatch Magazine and a Dutch equivalent! 

The highlight of the week for me was Thursday’s guided walk. The day was lovely, sunny and warm with very little wind – perfect for showing off the island to visitors. I really enjoyed the three hours I spent guiding the group of 16 around the southern part of Ramsey. The wildlife really helped with the little owl showing well, the chough appearing at the right points and the shearwaters calling back immediately as I played calls down their burrows.

Unfortunately, the bad weather has meant that my four housemates, Dave & Sonia and Peter & Linda, has to leave two days early on Thursday. This left the Bungalow very quiet and I had to wait until Sunday for the next short-term volunteer to arrive.

I’m hoping that the weather for the next week will be much better, as apart from Thursday, the conditions have often felt more like autumn than summer!