I’m home now after (nearly) two weeks on Ramsey Island and it’s always a wrench to leave the place behind – especially yesterday as it was bathed in warm sunshine when I left.

At the beginning of each of my previous stays on Ramsey, I have thought that my next stint of residential volunteering should be on a different RSPB reserve. During the course of each stay, this usually changes to deciding to return to Ramsey, but only for one week, and eventually deciding to return the next year for another whole two weeks. This again happened this time and on the long five hour journey home, I started to think about exactly what it is about the place that draws me back each time. There are so many things that make Ramsey Island so special:

The People – The only place I can start is with the Ramsey Island staff – Greg, Lisa and Amy; they couldn’t be more friendly, welcoming, helpful, informative, understanding and patient. They all have a real passion for the island and its wildlife and this is passed on to the volunteers. Without them, the island, and volunteering there, wouldn’t be the same.

Volunteering on the island also wouldn’t be the same without the other volunteers. I have made some true friends during my stays and I’m sure I will make more during future visits.

I also have to mention Dewi, the island’s border collie – perhaps the best dog in the world!

Community – For a brief one or two week period, volunteers are part of a real, thriving and vibrant community, and not just on the island itself. Ramsey is just a small part of the wider community that also includes the boat crews and staff, scientists, locals, visitors and, of course, Derek, the local farmer who does so much to support the management of the island. However, while physically part of the community for only a brief period, with the island’s Twitter and blog posts it is now possible to be part of the ‘virtual’ community all year round.

The Work – Volunteering on an island and spending most days working on a range of tasks may seem like an odd way to spend annual leave to many people but beach holidays just aren’t for me. The work volunteers are given is so varied that few days are the same, with tasks ranging from helping with the boats and serving in the small island shop, to wildlife surveys, building maintenance, through to bracken bashing and talking to visitors (or is that bashing visitors and talking to bracken?). I have to say that the surveys and physical land management tasks may be where my real interest lies at the moment but I also really enjoy the other tasks and I find something very inspiring and energising about talking to visitors about the wildlife, the island and volunteering.

Wildlife – Well, we all volunteer on Ramsey for the wildlife and it’s a pretty special place where nature is concerned. However, it’s not just the obvious elements of the natural world, the birds and mammals, that make Ramsey an interesting location to spend some time. Through volunteering there my appreciation of the commonly overlooked aspects of the natural world has increased – from collecting dung beetles to being enthusiastically shown tiny spiders. During this stay the wild flowers also came into full bloom, transforming large parts of the island, with swathes of bluebells around the Bungalow and the base of Carn Llundain.

The Island – Finally, there’s the island itself, which seems to draw me further under its spell with every visit. I have to honestly say that I’m hooked and it has had quite a profound effect on me. It’s difficult to put my finger on it but it certainly has something, an essence, that I’ve found nowhere else. The fact that so many volunteers return year after year, shows that others have the same, or even stronger, feelings for the place.

Maybe that essence is the scenery. The island is truly beautiful and I never get tired of the views; I love sitting on the bungalow doorstep each morning (weather permitting) and staring out over the sheep fields and Ramsey Sound, towards Whitesands Bay and Carn Llidi. However, the island’s scenery changes as you walk around it and also through the seasons and different weather conditions – it is a stunningly beautiful place and I don’t think I could ever get tired of gazing across it.

Maybe the essence is related to the feeling of isolation, perhaps made stronger by the fact that the mainland and ‘civilisation’ are within sight and almost within touching distance. When on the island, the outside world seems so far away, yet it can be heard on the wind, when it’s in the right direction.

Maybe the essence is some mystical power the island holds; it certainly has a long spiritual history and many people have visited the island over the centuries for religious and spiritual reasons.

Maybe the essence is everything above all wrapped up together – the people, the community, the work, the wildlife and the island itself. In some ways, I hope I never work it out; I think it may be best left unexplained – helping to ensure I keep being drawn back!

The weather has a huge influence on everything that happens on Ramsey Island and all the staff and volunteers keep a close eye on the forecasts.  The internet is the usual source of weather information but when the connection fails we have to rely on the ‘Forecasting Stone’, which is usually very accurate but it does require a trip down to the farm buildings to check.

With strong winds still blowing across the island, following yesterday’s gale, there were no visitor boats again today.  When we volunteers went down to the farmhouse this morning for today’s instructions, there was a long list of tasks to be done.  While Steve chopped kindling and then did some maintenance around the Bungalow, Nicola made some insect homes from clay pipes and heather and did some painting.  I went down to the south of the island and cleared heather which was starting to encroach on the path.

I had lunch down in the amphitheatre-like bowl of Aber Myharan, sitting amongst the bluebells on the cliff top in the bright sunshine, watching the gannets fly past above Ramsey Sound – a pretty perfect spot.

There were some interesting patterns in the clouds in the afternoon as I finished off cutting back the heather…

The sunrise this morning was fantastic and not being a good sleeper at the moment enabled me to witness it.

Another day without boats meant that we continued with painting the island’s shop in the morning and then we spent some time looking for potential breeding pairs of chough on the eastern side of the island.  I went to the very south of the island and watched a pair for about an hour; they seemed very interested in possible nest sites and chased off other chough but there were no signs that they had young – perhaps next year.

The weather looks interesting tomorrow with heavy rain and up to 50mph gusts of wind – might be a day for more inside work.

With the weather still not up to allowing the boat to run, bringing visitors to Ramsey Island, we started on redecorating the island’s shop. We began by clearing all the contents out into the storeroom next door but took a photo first to ensure we put everything back in the same place.

We completed one coat and it needs another but with the cool and damp conditions on the island, the first coat will take a night to dry.

In the afternoon, we did a range of tasks and I chopped four crates of wood for the Bungalow’s fire (managing not to crush the tendons in my hand like I have previously – not on Ramsey) and then Steve and I repaired the dam in the small pond above the farmhouse – I know those years of practice in my childhood would come in handy one day!

As it does frequently, the weather changed from cloudy and wet to sunny and dry in the afternoon but the wind is still brisk and it looks like we won’t get boats again for a few days yet.

Volunteers on Ramsey Island have one day off a week, and today was it. I think we were all glad of it too, after having the Wardens up to the Bungalow for Dinner last night – I was certainly a little fuzzy this morning.

Unexpectedly the weather was great again although the wind was still too strong for the boats to bring visitors across and it may stay like this for the rest of the week.

I spent the middle of the day doing an hour long chough watch at the south of the island (watching for activity around a chough nest site) and then took some photos of the flowers – the example below being the best of them (I think I need to put a bit more effort in!)

This is the first time I’ve been on Ramsey when the Spring flowers have been coming out.  Whilst I was on the island for the same two weeks last year, the late Spring of 2013 meant that most of the flowers hadn’t appeared by the time I left.  Hopefully, they will all be in full bloom before I leave.

Some of the birds on the island are very obliging when it comes to taking their photos with the female stonechat below proving the point.