This was another weather interrupted week with only the full timetable of boats on three days and most disappointing of all, there were no boats on Thursday meaning my final guided tour was cancelled. This being said, we also had the first properly hot day of my stay; we didn’t get the very hot temperatures of the rest of the UK but it was enough to make life a little more lethargic. I also think for the first time the inside of the Bungalow was actually very warm, with a hot wind blowing in through the door; I haven’t been able to say that before. All this warm weather meant that I could do one of my very favourite things; sitting on the doorstep in the evening simply looking at the view. I was even accompanied by some bats which flitted above my head.

With the vast majority of survey work finished, the workload is quieter at the moment, especially when the boats don’t run. I gathered up all the marker pegs from my shearwater plots but that’s not the end of the shearwater work. The birds are now hatching their eggs and we went down to the nest boxes on the north-eastern side of the island and to check on the progress of the 11 occupied boxes. Of those, two had already hatched chicks and they were the first very small shearwater chicks I’ve seen. Over the next few weeks, someone will have the job of visiting the chicks to see how they develop. There are around 100 nest boxes dug into the sloping side of the island just above the sea and I put together and dug in a few of them, so it’s good to see them being used.

One of the major farming events on the island happened this week – the sheep shearing. I’ve seen and helped out with the shearing before but this time I had little to do. It’s quite a fascinating operation and I’m always amazed at how quickly the shearers get through the nearly 100 sheep. A few years ago when I was here for a two-week period in June, I made this short video of the shearing.

Whilst young birds have been popping up all over the island for some time, this week saw the fledging from two bird of prey nests; buzzards and peregrines. We’ve been keeping an eye on both nests as the season has progressed. We have been particularly watching the peregrines as they are a Schedule 1 species and it is illegal to disturb them on their nests. After looking at them one evening, by the following afternoon the nest was empty and the fledglings could be heard calling from the nearby cliffs. The buzzard chicks have looked ready to fledge for some time but we only found them out of the nest when we went to do some shearwater work. The local bird and rabbit populations will now be getting a lot more trouble from the birds of prey as this lot learn their trade. 

My biggest surprise of the week was finally being persuaded to go for a swim in the waters around the island. I’m not afraid of swimming or water and have done quite a lot of canoeing over the years as well as a very small amount of water-skiing. However, swimming has never really appealed to me, particularly as I live in a very landlocked area, albeit with canals and rivers nearby. So, after two refusals, I couldn’t really decline a third time and took the plunge, metaphorically and actually. There are two good spots for swimming on the island, the harbour and the little bay on the other side of the track to the farmhouse. The latter was more sheltered from the waves and wind, so we went in there. To my surprise, I found I could actually swim, despite it being over 25 years since I last tried. Okay, I’m not going to swim around the island or across Ramsey Sound any time soon but it was a start and, maybe, I might even try it a bit more when I finally get home (after a bit more practice here!).