Below is a list of all of the bird species that I have seen whilst I was on the Farnes. This way people can just look at the list, rather than asking me all the time! In total, I saw 69 different species, 51 of which I saw for the first time, and 24 of which breed on the islands (if I’ve remembered correctly!).
B = Breeds on the islands
* = the first time I saw that species was on the islands
Shelduck B
Mallard B
Teal
Eider B *
Red-breasted Merganser B *
Fulmar B *
Sooty Shearwater *
Manx Shearwater *
Storm Petrel *
Cormorant B
Shag B *
Gannet *
Grey Heron
Black Kite *
White-tailed Eagle *
Sparrowhawk
Water Rail *
Oystercatcher B
Ringed Plover B
Golden Plover *
Dunlin *
Knot *
Purple Sandpiper *
Snipe * (one flew over whilst ringing in Birmingham, but it was 6am in the winter so I didn’t see it properly)
Turnstone *
Whimbrel *
Curlew *
Redshank *
Green Sandpiper *
Wood Sandpiper *
Arctic Skua *
Great Skua *
Little Gull *
Black-headed Gull B
Herring Gull B
Lesser Black-backed Gull B
Great Black-backed Gull B
Kittiwake B *
Sandwich Tern B *
Roseate Tern *
Common Tern B *
Arctic Tern B *
Little Tern *
Guillemot B *
Razorbill B *
Puffin B *
Feral Pigeon B
Turtle Dove *
Long-eared Owl *
Swift
Swallow B
Pied Wagtail B
Ashy-headed Wagtail *
Tree Pipit *
Meadow Pipit *
Rock Pipit B *
Robin
Whinchat *
Thrush Nightingale *
Wheatear *
Icterine Warbler *
Melodious Warbler *
Barred Warbler *
Whitethroat *
Garden Warbler *
Willow Warbler *
Wood Warbler *
Pied Flycatcher *
Starling
Sunday, 5 September 2010
Thursday, 2 September 2010
Return to the Real World
So that’s it now, I have returned to the real world, where it is not acceptable to walk around in clothes covered in bird poo/paint/glue/lots of dirt, with bird poo in your very greasy unwashed hair, smelling of birds and poo and fish, and just generally looking like a dirty tramp. Now I go back to regular showers, central heating, poo-free, paint-free, smell-free, regularly washed clothes! But I don’t want to!! I want to stay on the Farnes! Despite the fact that it makes me an actual tramp! But alas, I cannot afford it. I need to find some paid work or this trip to Mauritius is likely to bankrupt me. But all is good; I have more money than I originally thought, so I have a bit of time to find a nice job to do for when I come back from my holiday. Until then, looks like I’m going to have to go back to horribly boring office work, spending my time daydreaming about the Farnes…
But I have promised to go back in November to look at the cute little fluffy little awesome little cute seal pups! Which I’m already looking forward to! And hopefully I’ll be able to come back next year for the full 6 months, which would be awesome! But until then, Hemel it is! I’ll miss everybody on the Farnes very much L but hopefully I will get to meet up with lots of them! I’ve started making plans with some of them already (you know who you are) and I expect these plans to happen!! And I’m still waiting for my wellies from Steely! I will not forget!!! I will try to keep birding (coz I’ve really enjoyed it) and I may even have a look at some butterflies (coz they are kinda pretty, despite being evil). I really enjoyed my little beach party bbq thing and I hope all the guys did too! I will miss everyone and island life and the birds lots and lots and lots!
In other news, we've had a juvenile White-tailed Eagle on the Farnes for the past few days, which is awesome! He's so massive! He's one that's been released from up in Scotland, so he's got big yellow tags on his wings and a radio tracker and stuff, so not entirely wild unfortuntely, but still awesome! There was also a leucistic (albino) Shag found on Brownsman, which was pretty mental! But it didn't hang around for long unfortunately. For awesome photos and lots of info on all the birds seen on the islands, and for details on the general everyday life of the wardens, check out the Farne Islands official blog at http://farnephoto.blogspot.com/
Hope everyone enjoys their time left on the islands! xx
But I have promised to go back in November to look at the cute little fluffy little awesome little cute seal pups! Which I’m already looking forward to! And hopefully I’ll be able to come back next year for the full 6 months, which would be awesome! But until then, Hemel it is! I’ll miss everybody on the Farnes very much L but hopefully I will get to meet up with lots of them! I’ve started making plans with some of them already (you know who you are) and I expect these plans to happen!! And I’m still waiting for my wellies from Steely! I will not forget!!! I will try to keep birding (coz I’ve really enjoyed it) and I may even have a look at some butterflies (coz they are kinda pretty, despite being evil). I really enjoyed my little beach party bbq thing and I hope all the guys did too! I will miss everyone and island life and the birds lots and lots and lots!
In other news, we've had a juvenile White-tailed Eagle on the Farnes for the past few days, which is awesome! He's so massive! He's one that's been released from up in Scotland, so he's got big yellow tags on his wings and a radio tracker and stuff, so not entirely wild unfortuntely, but still awesome! There was also a leucistic (albino) Shag found on Brownsman, which was pretty mental! But it didn't hang around for long unfortunately. For awesome photos and lots of info on all the birds seen on the islands, and for details on the general everyday life of the wardens, check out the Farne Islands official blog at http://farnephoto.blogspot.com/
Hope everyone enjoys their time left on the islands! xx
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
August - Part 1
I realised today that I haven’t updated the blog for quite a while now! So much has happened in the past few weeks that I’m never going to be able to remember it all, but I’ll try my best to remember all the important information.
So, first things first – where am I? Still on the Farnes! Steely was happy for me to stay on during August as a volunteer, so I’m here till the end of August, or until I find a paid job, which will hopefully happen – I need a job to do over the winter so I can have money! Which is the downside of being a volunteer really - I’m doing all the same work as I was doing before, but now I’m not paid, so I’m spending all the money I’ve saved from my wages! But I’m still spending less money here than I would be at home, and I’m gaining valuable experience, so it’s all good!
So what about the seal contract? At the end of July, Steely told each of us individually whether or not we were successful in getting the seal contract. There were 5 places in total, so it was obvious that Steely and the 2 Senior Wardens (Jason and David) were going to get places. That left only 2 spots and 8 Wardens wanting to work with the seals! Unfortunately, I was not one of those 2, simply because there were other Wardens that are better than me at the job! In the end it was Jamie and Graeme who got the places, so congratulations to them! I’m incredibly jealous, but I hope they really enjoy it.
So what am I doing over the winter? Well, I’m going to Mauritius! For three weeks! In October! With Tahnia! And it’s going to be awesome! The flights are all booked and paid for, so now I just need to figure out where I want to go, and buy a book on Mauritian birds so I actually know what I’m looking at! I’m incredibly excited about it all and really looking forward to it, despite how poor it’s making me! Apart from that, I don’t have any plans for the winter time. I really hope I can find a job, preferably one in conservation (that way I’ll actually enjoy it) and preferably one that’s paid, so I can afford this holiday! Unfortunately, jobs like these seem to be few and far between, but I’m applying for the ones I find, so I’m hopeful.
So what’s been going on on the Farnes? Not a lot. Apart from a few Shags and the odd Kittiwake, all of the breeding birds and their offspring have left the islands (excluding Mallards and Pigeons, which are still breeding, but nobody’s too interested in seeing them for some reason). However, we are getting lots of other birds passing through, especially lots of warblers, as well as a few rarities as well! We recently had a Melodious Warbler on Brownsman (the first one to be seen on the Farnes, and in Northumberland!) and a Thrush Nightingale on Longstone (only the 2nd record for the Farnes). So everybody here was very happy (whereas I didn’t really know what I was looking at)! Steely’s a bit annoyed though as he’s been on holiday for the past couple of weeks and didn’t get to see either of the birds!
Think that’s about all for now, see you all soon!
So, first things first – where am I? Still on the Farnes! Steely was happy for me to stay on during August as a volunteer, so I’m here till the end of August, or until I find a paid job, which will hopefully happen – I need a job to do over the winter so I can have money! Which is the downside of being a volunteer really - I’m doing all the same work as I was doing before, but now I’m not paid, so I’m spending all the money I’ve saved from my wages! But I’m still spending less money here than I would be at home, and I’m gaining valuable experience, so it’s all good!
So what about the seal contract? At the end of July, Steely told each of us individually whether or not we were successful in getting the seal contract. There were 5 places in total, so it was obvious that Steely and the 2 Senior Wardens (Jason and David) were going to get places. That left only 2 spots and 8 Wardens wanting to work with the seals! Unfortunately, I was not one of those 2, simply because there were other Wardens that are better than me at the job! In the end it was Jamie and Graeme who got the places, so congratulations to them! I’m incredibly jealous, but I hope they really enjoy it.
So what am I doing over the winter? Well, I’m going to Mauritius! For three weeks! In October! With Tahnia! And it’s going to be awesome! The flights are all booked and paid for, so now I just need to figure out where I want to go, and buy a book on Mauritian birds so I actually know what I’m looking at! I’m incredibly excited about it all and really looking forward to it, despite how poor it’s making me! Apart from that, I don’t have any plans for the winter time. I really hope I can find a job, preferably one in conservation (that way I’ll actually enjoy it) and preferably one that’s paid, so I can afford this holiday! Unfortunately, jobs like these seem to be few and far between, but I’m applying for the ones I find, so I’m hopeful.
So what’s been going on on the Farnes? Not a lot. Apart from a few Shags and the odd Kittiwake, all of the breeding birds and their offspring have left the islands (excluding Mallards and Pigeons, which are still breeding, but nobody’s too interested in seeing them for some reason). However, we are getting lots of other birds passing through, especially lots of warblers, as well as a few rarities as well! We recently had a Melodious Warbler on Brownsman (the first one to be seen on the Farnes, and in Northumberland!) and a Thrush Nightingale on Longstone (only the 2nd record for the Farnes). So everybody here was very happy (whereas I didn’t really know what I was looking at)! Steely’s a bit annoyed though as he’s been on holiday for the past couple of weeks and didn’t get to see either of the birds!
Think that’s about all for now, see you all soon!
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
More photos!
Here are some of the photos from the new camera that my dad bought me so that I could get some good photos while I was here. I haven't put very many on here, as the photo uploader is quite slow, but here is a selection!
Countryfile filming on Inner Farne
A view of the National Trust Little Tern colony at Low Newton
The Farnes team at the Little Tern colony with 2 of the 3 wardens that live and work there
Guillemots with their chicks at the Quarry cliff on Inner Farne
Waves coming over the top of the Quarry cliff during a big storm
All of us and the boatmen on the fishing trip
Razorbills (my favourites!) at Lighthouse cliff on Inner Farne
2 adult Common Terns in flight about to attack me for getting too close to their nest (which is next to the path!)
Matt, Graeme, Michael and me holding Puffin chicks that got trapped in one of the buildings
A female Red-Breasted Merganser on her nest - she had 8 chicks!
Jason, Me, Mark and Graeme at the top of Longstone lighthouse (it was sheer chance that we got to go up it!)
That's all of the photos that I'm putting on here for now (it really is a lot of effort) but there are many more on my Facebook page, if you can access it (not sure if you'll be able to). Here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/album.php?aid=172659&id=517753245
Me holding an adult Puffin on nest count day
A Puffin on the roof with a massive Sandeel in it's mouth!
Countryfile filming on Inner Farne
A view of the National Trust Little Tern colony at Low Newton
The Farnes team at the Little Tern colony with 2 of the 3 wardens that live and work there
Guillemots with their chicks at the Quarry cliff on Inner Farne
Waves coming over the top of the Quarry cliff during a big storm
All of us and the boatmen on the fishing trip
Razorbills (my favourites!) at Lighthouse cliff on Inner Farne
2 adult Common Terns in flight about to attack me for getting too close to their nest (which is next to the path!)
Matt, Graeme, Michael and me holding Puffin chicks that got trapped in one of the buildings
A female Red-Breasted Merganser on her nest - she had 8 chicks!
Longstone lighthouse (where Grace Darling lived)
The view from the top of the lighthouse looking out over Brownsman and Inner Farne
Jason, Me, Mark and Graeme at the top of Longstone lighthouse (it was sheer chance that we got to go up it!)
That's all of the photos that I'm putting on here for now (it really is a lot of effort) but there are many more on my Facebook page, if you can access it (not sure if you'll be able to). Here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/album.php?aid=172659&id=517753245The top 5 stories from the past few weeks
Here are the top 5 stories from the past few weeks. I've almost certainly forgotten lots of stuff, but there's not much I can do about that really, so enjoy!
Brownsman
Last year, Steely switched 2 Inner Farne wardens for 2 Brownsman wardens, in order to mix up the teams a bit, and to give people experience working on both islands. It worked really well last year, so Steely decided to give it a go again this year. So last week me and Graeme from Inner Farne switched with Wez and Matt from Brownsman. There are many differences between the 2 islands, the key ones being that there are only 5 of us here (when all of us are here), as opposed to the 7 of us on Inner Farne (including the 2 research students). So it’s a lot quieter and there is a much more relaxed atmosphere, which is a nice change, although I do miss the lifestyle on Inner Farne sometimes! But less people doesn’t mean less fun! Also, this island is a lot more birdy. Jason (the Senior Warden on this island) is a big birdwatcher. He was here last year so he knows a lot about all of the birds here, and he got a restricted C bird ringing permit, which means he can ring all the seabirds he likes. Then there’s Mark, who is also an awesome bird watcher and who has a full C permit, so he can ring everything but seabirds (and has done some cool things, like ringing hummingbirds!). So I get to do lots of bird ringing on this island, which I really enjoy, and I also get the opportunity to learn lots about birds from their big juicy brains!! At the moment, I’m trying to learn to identify waders, which is proving to be very difficult. I can ID them when they’re close by, but that rarely happens. Most of the time we see waders it’s from afar, so I need to learn to ID them by size, shape etc. and I need all the help I can get! Another good point about living on Brownsman is that you work on a different island. We live on Brownsman, but we work on Staple Island, and we do visitor work in the morning rather than the afternoon, which I quite like!
August
Unfortunately for me, my time here is almost up. My contract runs out at the end of July, and I haven’t found another job for when I finish here. There is a chance that I’ll be asked to stay on and work with the Grey Seals, which I would really love to do but I feel that it’s unlikely to happen, as I think that the people here on the 6 month contract will be offered the position first and I don’t see why anyone would turn down an opportunity like that! But we should be finding out soon who’s going to be staying on for that and I will blog about it as soon as I find out! However, as August and the time for me to leave the best job I’ve had draws ever closer, I came up with a brilliant idea! Why don’t I stay here! I’ve asked Steely if it would be ok for me to stay on here in August. I wouldn’t be paid during August if I were to stay on but it would give me more time to look for a job over the winter, and I would be gaining more experience as I do so! I need to talk to Steely about it as nothing is official yet, but I’m hoping that I’ll be able to stay here. Either way, I want to come back next year, so I only need to find a job until March 2011. Wish me luck!
Birds
Most of the birds here are leaving as you read this! The Eiders were the first to go. No more left now, but we see them all quite frequently whenever we go to Seahouses, as they all hang around in the harbour there. There are no more Guillemots around anymore apart from the odd one or two hanging around on the cliffs, but for the most part, they’re long gone. The Razorbills too have mostly disappeared, which upsets me quite a bit, as they were my favourite! There are still a couple left with chicks though, which is good! There are still a good number of Kittiwake chicks hanging around, although they’re all ready to fledge now really, so in the next couple of weeks they’ll all be gone too. Same story with the Shags really, although they might be around a little bit longer and some chicks are still quite fluffy. The Arctic, Common and Sandwich Terns all have big chicks now, which are getting ready to fledge soon as well! Most of them can fly so I reckon they’ll be gone in the next few weeks as well. The Puffins are already mostly gone! Almost all of the Puffins have chicks now, which are either ready to fledge, or have already fledged. There are still some young chicks, so the Puffins will be around a bit longer, but again in the next couple of weeks they’ll have gone too. Pretty soon there’s going to be nothing left! But we’ll get a lot more birds coming through here on their migrations, which is why I want to stay on really! It also means I’ll get to see the last few birds leave!
Recreation
There have been quite a few recreational activities happening of late! All of the wardens (apart from Steely) and the 2 research students went on a trip out to Newcastle one night last week to celebrate several people’s birthdays, which was really fun! It’s been quite a while since any of us went out anywhere, so I think it was a very enjoyable night for all involved! The only part that wasn’t fun was the next day! We all stayed over at Jamie’s house in Newcastle (as he still has his University house), which involved sleeping on sofas and floors…not so comfortable! Luckily for me, it was my day off the next day, so I didn’t have to get up too early to get back for work. However, it did mean that me and Tom (it was his day off as well) had to get the bus back from Newcastle to Seahouses (a 2 and a half hour journey) as there weren’t enough spaces in the cars for all of us. Tomorrow, we are all (possibly) going bowling for another birthday celebration, but this is not yet confirmed, we might just go to the pub instead I think. Also, on the 28th July we are all going paintballing with the boatmen! I’m really looking forward to it as I’ve never been before, but I’m also scared as I’m told it hurts quite a bit! It’s going to be really fun though! Unfortunately though, the research students will have left by then, which is bad because Anna goes shooting, so she would have been an awesome person to stick with! Also, due to weather conditions, the Brownsman team (which in this case includes me) went over to Inner Farne to have a more lively evening, and got stuck on the island for a few days! It was really good fun though, we played rounder’s and quick cricket (both of which I was terrible at) and did foolish things like making a human pyramid!! So again, lots of fun was had by all. But (again) this involved sleeping on the floor. This time at least we had mattresses to sleep on, including me, as I had to give someone else my bed when I moved over to Brownsman.
Weather
The weather has generally been crap for the past week or so, with strong winds and spring tides causing problems once again. We’ve also seen a lot more rain recently than we have the rest of the time that I’ve been here really! We keep getting massive downpours of rain, which has good and bad points really. It means we can’t really get off the islands, as it’s very hard to see where you’re going in the rain, but the rain has started to re-fill the ponds on both islands, so hopefully, we’ll see more birds around them now! The rain is quite bad for the Puffins though, as too much will flood their burrows, but we haven’t had a lot of that yet, so we’re hoping the rain doesn’t continue in this way. Had some sunshine, but not as much as I would like! Let’s hope that we get more!
Thanks for reading, hopefully I’ll see you all soon!
Brownsman
Last year, Steely switched 2 Inner Farne wardens for 2 Brownsman wardens, in order to mix up the teams a bit, and to give people experience working on both islands. It worked really well last year, so Steely decided to give it a go again this year. So last week me and Graeme from Inner Farne switched with Wez and Matt from Brownsman. There are many differences between the 2 islands, the key ones being that there are only 5 of us here (when all of us are here), as opposed to the 7 of us on Inner Farne (including the 2 research students). So it’s a lot quieter and there is a much more relaxed atmosphere, which is a nice change, although I do miss the lifestyle on Inner Farne sometimes! But less people doesn’t mean less fun! Also, this island is a lot more birdy. Jason (the Senior Warden on this island) is a big birdwatcher. He was here last year so he knows a lot about all of the birds here, and he got a restricted C bird ringing permit, which means he can ring all the seabirds he likes. Then there’s Mark, who is also an awesome bird watcher and who has a full C permit, so he can ring everything but seabirds (and has done some cool things, like ringing hummingbirds!). So I get to do lots of bird ringing on this island, which I really enjoy, and I also get the opportunity to learn lots about birds from their big juicy brains!! At the moment, I’m trying to learn to identify waders, which is proving to be very difficult. I can ID them when they’re close by, but that rarely happens. Most of the time we see waders it’s from afar, so I need to learn to ID them by size, shape etc. and I need all the help I can get! Another good point about living on Brownsman is that you work on a different island. We live on Brownsman, but we work on Staple Island, and we do visitor work in the morning rather than the afternoon, which I quite like!
August
Unfortunately for me, my time here is almost up. My contract runs out at the end of July, and I haven’t found another job for when I finish here. There is a chance that I’ll be asked to stay on and work with the Grey Seals, which I would really love to do but I feel that it’s unlikely to happen, as I think that the people here on the 6 month contract will be offered the position first and I don’t see why anyone would turn down an opportunity like that! But we should be finding out soon who’s going to be staying on for that and I will blog about it as soon as I find out! However, as August and the time for me to leave the best job I’ve had draws ever closer, I came up with a brilliant idea! Why don’t I stay here! I’ve asked Steely if it would be ok for me to stay on here in August. I wouldn’t be paid during August if I were to stay on but it would give me more time to look for a job over the winter, and I would be gaining more experience as I do so! I need to talk to Steely about it as nothing is official yet, but I’m hoping that I’ll be able to stay here. Either way, I want to come back next year, so I only need to find a job until March 2011. Wish me luck!
Birds
Most of the birds here are leaving as you read this! The Eiders were the first to go. No more left now, but we see them all quite frequently whenever we go to Seahouses, as they all hang around in the harbour there. There are no more Guillemots around anymore apart from the odd one or two hanging around on the cliffs, but for the most part, they’re long gone. The Razorbills too have mostly disappeared, which upsets me quite a bit, as they were my favourite! There are still a couple left with chicks though, which is good! There are still a good number of Kittiwake chicks hanging around, although they’re all ready to fledge now really, so in the next couple of weeks they’ll all be gone too. Same story with the Shags really, although they might be around a little bit longer and some chicks are still quite fluffy. The Arctic, Common and Sandwich Terns all have big chicks now, which are getting ready to fledge soon as well! Most of them can fly so I reckon they’ll be gone in the next few weeks as well. The Puffins are already mostly gone! Almost all of the Puffins have chicks now, which are either ready to fledge, or have already fledged. There are still some young chicks, so the Puffins will be around a bit longer, but again in the next couple of weeks they’ll have gone too. Pretty soon there’s going to be nothing left! But we’ll get a lot more birds coming through here on their migrations, which is why I want to stay on really! It also means I’ll get to see the last few birds leave!
Recreation
There have been quite a few recreational activities happening of late! All of the wardens (apart from Steely) and the 2 research students went on a trip out to Newcastle one night last week to celebrate several people’s birthdays, which was really fun! It’s been quite a while since any of us went out anywhere, so I think it was a very enjoyable night for all involved! The only part that wasn’t fun was the next day! We all stayed over at Jamie’s house in Newcastle (as he still has his University house), which involved sleeping on sofas and floors…not so comfortable! Luckily for me, it was my day off the next day, so I didn’t have to get up too early to get back for work. However, it did mean that me and Tom (it was his day off as well) had to get the bus back from Newcastle to Seahouses (a 2 and a half hour journey) as there weren’t enough spaces in the cars for all of us. Tomorrow, we are all (possibly) going bowling for another birthday celebration, but this is not yet confirmed, we might just go to the pub instead I think. Also, on the 28th July we are all going paintballing with the boatmen! I’m really looking forward to it as I’ve never been before, but I’m also scared as I’m told it hurts quite a bit! It’s going to be really fun though! Unfortunately though, the research students will have left by then, which is bad because Anna goes shooting, so she would have been an awesome person to stick with! Also, due to weather conditions, the Brownsman team (which in this case includes me) went over to Inner Farne to have a more lively evening, and got stuck on the island for a few days! It was really good fun though, we played rounder’s and quick cricket (both of which I was terrible at) and did foolish things like making a human pyramid!! So again, lots of fun was had by all. But (again) this involved sleeping on the floor. This time at least we had mattresses to sleep on, including me, as I had to give someone else my bed when I moved over to Brownsman.
Weather
The weather has generally been crap for the past week or so, with strong winds and spring tides causing problems once again. We’ve also seen a lot more rain recently than we have the rest of the time that I’ve been here really! We keep getting massive downpours of rain, which has good and bad points really. It means we can’t really get off the islands, as it’s very hard to see where you’re going in the rain, but the rain has started to re-fill the ponds on both islands, so hopefully, we’ll see more birds around them now! The rain is quite bad for the Puffins though, as too much will flood their burrows, but we haven’t had a lot of that yet, so we’re hoping the rain doesn’t continue in this way. Had some sunshine, but not as much as I would like! Let’s hope that we get more!
Thanks for reading, hopefully I’ll see you all soon!
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
The News in Brief
I realised a couple of days ago that I haven't written a blog entry for quite a while now. Not too sure how long its been, as time moves really strangely here and I'm never quite sure what day it is or what the date is, but I know its been a while. Therefore, I have decided to list some of the more recent happenings of the Farne Islands. So here is the News in Brief... (in no particular order).
Nest Counts
We finished the nest count on Inner Farne a short time ago. It took us much longer than it has in previous years as we started much later and were kind of slow whilst doing it, and so we couldn't get it all done in one day. The weather then prevented us from finishing it for quite while, but eventually we managed to do it! So we have now counted all of the nests of all of the ground-nesting birds on the island. Not sure of the results yet though.
Cliff Counts
Cliff counts have also taken a very long time. But this is really because our boat engine was broken for a long time so we couldn't go out and count the cliff nesting birds. When the engine was fixed, bad weather struck, so again we couldn't do them. But more recently the weathers been ok! Therefore, we now only have one more cliff count to do, which will take place tommorow morning if the weather remains good!
'Jumpers'
The only problem with doing cliff counts so late in the year (about 2 weeks later than we should have done them) is that many of the Guillemot chicks are no longer there. When the chicks are old enough the parents fly to the sea, leaving their chick on top of the cliff on its own. They then stay in the water below the cliff and call to the chick until it jumps off! Most of the time they hit the water, but the occasional one hits a ledge of rock and has to jump from ledge to ledge (it's pretty funny!). This means that many of the Guillemots we should be counting are now out of sea with their chicks, and more are leaving every day! Which may mean that out Guillemot population will appear to be down this year, although it won't really be.
Chicks
Almost all of the species on the island now have chicks. Shags have been on chicks for a long time now, as have Kittiwakes and Black-Headed Gulls. Most of the Sandwich Terns have chicks, as do the Arctic Terns. There are more and more Eider ducks leaving with their chicks every day now, so there are very few left on their nests. Common Terns are also on chicks, but as far as I know Fulmars are still on eggs.
Chapel Chick
Speaking of chicks, there are some that have very odd habits. There is one Arctic Tern chick that has made the Chapel its home. During the day and for most of the evening it stays in the Chapel and hides under the pews to avoid being trampled by the visitors. In the mornings and during quiet periods the adults fly into the chapel with Sandeels to feed to it! It's pretty cool, but it does mean that the Chapel floor is covered in quite a lot of poop, and we've had to put up signs to warn visitors of its presence!
Chick protection and Veg. clearance
Many of the Arctic Tern chicks are now getting to the stage where they're big enough to run around, which they do frequently. They like to hide in the vegetation when their parents are away, but as soon as they hear the adult calling, they run onto bare ground so that their parents can see them. Unfortunately, this has resulted in many chicks running onto the path, which obviously causes trampling issues. To prevent this from happening, we have spent many morning ripping up the vegetation 1.5 feet either side of the paths in the areas where Terns are nesting, so that the chicks will move further back into the remaining vegetation and stop going onto the path. In addition to this, we have made several 'chick protection boards' from old wood to fence them in a bit, to draw peoples attention to the fact that they're there, and to make sure that they don't get accidentally trodden on. It's working so far!
Bird Ringing
Done lots of ringing recently as the ringer that comes out here said that if I'm good enough and do lots of ringing with him, he'll give me a 'Restricted C Permit' which means I'll be able to ring certain species of birds when he's not there, which is a really awesome thing to have here! We were ringing Arctic Tern adults and chicks and Sandwich Tern chicks, but I also got to ring a Puffin which was awesome!
Birds in Buildings
We've had a lot of birds coming into the buildings recently! A Shag was found hanging around in the Gents toilets, a Puffin was in the Ladies toilets, we had 3 Puffins and a Pigeon in the cellar, and 2 juvenile Pied Wagtails in the Information Centre! We managed to remove them all safely though! :)
Stormy Days
Had a few very windy days recently. And by windy I mean 25mph winds! Which caused some very rough seas, the worst being 11.5ft swell! The windyness was both good and bad. It meant we could have some late mornings, which is always appreciated, and it meant that the birds weren't disturbed by visitors. However, it did mean that many of the Arctic Tern chicks died, as the parents were unable to feed, and it's the cause for all of the birds in buildings. In addition to this, many Kittiwake nests got washed away (including the young chicks in them), and we had several other birds that got very wet and unable to fly, which we had to rescue and put in a box in front of the fire to dry out. All of which were successful, which is good. The rough seas and strong winds also prevented me from getting out to see Chris, which sucked a lot as I'm not sure when I'll get to see him now. I'm seeing my dad in early July, and I'm now just hoping the same thing won't happen then!
The Tides of Spring
The storm wasn't really helped by the spring tides that we've had recently. Spring tides are when the difference between high tide and low tide is very large. So we've had very high high tides and very low low tides. (The opposite of this is neep tides, where there is very little difference between high and low tides.) The other issue with spring tides is that the very high tides have washed away several Arctic Tern nests and several Ringed Plover nests that were on the beach.
Media Coverage
Lots of TV programmes have been filiming here recently. We had Escape to the Country and Animal 24/7 filming on Brownsman a couple of days ago, so look out for them coming on TV soon! Also, the Countryfile episode that was filmed here recently was shown on BBC1 last Sunday night (20th June), so if you didn't catch it, look it up on BBC iPlayer!
The Social Side
The World Cup has been the main focus for the past couple of weeks really. All of the Wardens and most of the boatmen joined in for the sweepstake (in which I got Germany), which makes watching football more fun! Also, we’re collecting the Panini World Cup stickers for the sticker album (which we took apart and stuck all over the walls! A few days ago, all of the wardens went over to the mainland, as we were going to go and visit a site where we could see some rare birds. Unfortunately, we had boat trouble and were late getting into Seahouses, so we couldn’t go. Instead, we went to visit the National Trust’s colony of breeding Little Terns, which is at a site not too far from here. It was a very nice day and we had a lovely walk on a sandy beach to get there. Yesterday we ran into the Brownsman boys while we were in Seahouses, so we all went for an Indian together and then for a few drinks. Good to see them once in a while! Tommorow night we are all going to go fishing with the Boatmen! They’re going to pick us all up in one of the visitor boats and then we’re going to drive out to sea, have a BBQ, drink some drinks and some people are going to fish…not sure that I want to though, but I’ve never done it before so don’t know what it’s like.
In Other News…
I’ve been driving the Zodiac boat a lot more, which is a good thing really, as it gets me more used to doing it and more used to just being in the boat! Also gives me more hours of driving experience, so it all adds up! Some researchers have been here in the past couple of weeks, looking and the diet of the Grey Seals that we have here. This involves collecting seal poo. A few wardens volunteered for this job, as it is a good thing to have done and to have on your CV, but I was not one of them! It has been decided that David is now the Senior Warden on Inner Farne, so when Steely (Head Warden) isn’t here, David motivates us to actually do some work! Also, I need flip flops! I’ve decided that many activities here would be much easier to do if I was wearing flip flops instead of walking boots, as it doesn’t matter if flip flops get wet. Unfortunately though, I can’t find any size 5 flip flops in Seahouses. However, I don’t want to get my boots wet, so today (since I was helping the boats during visitor hours – a job where I always get soaked), I walked around barefoot. It was pretty good actually! I didn’t care about getting wet, and it was a hot sunny day so I could get away with it.
Well, that’s all I can think of for now. This post ended up being much longer than I’d originally intended, but I had forgotten just how much stuff happens here! Still enjoying it, looking forward to seeing friends and family soon!
Nest Counts
We finished the nest count on Inner Farne a short time ago. It took us much longer than it has in previous years as we started much later and were kind of slow whilst doing it, and so we couldn't get it all done in one day. The weather then prevented us from finishing it for quite while, but eventually we managed to do it! So we have now counted all of the nests of all of the ground-nesting birds on the island. Not sure of the results yet though.
Cliff Counts
Cliff counts have also taken a very long time. But this is really because our boat engine was broken for a long time so we couldn't go out and count the cliff nesting birds. When the engine was fixed, bad weather struck, so again we couldn't do them. But more recently the weathers been ok! Therefore, we now only have one more cliff count to do, which will take place tommorow morning if the weather remains good!
'Jumpers'
The only problem with doing cliff counts so late in the year (about 2 weeks later than we should have done them) is that many of the Guillemot chicks are no longer there. When the chicks are old enough the parents fly to the sea, leaving their chick on top of the cliff on its own. They then stay in the water below the cliff and call to the chick until it jumps off! Most of the time they hit the water, but the occasional one hits a ledge of rock and has to jump from ledge to ledge (it's pretty funny!). This means that many of the Guillemots we should be counting are now out of sea with their chicks, and more are leaving every day! Which may mean that out Guillemot population will appear to be down this year, although it won't really be.
Chicks
Almost all of the species on the island now have chicks. Shags have been on chicks for a long time now, as have Kittiwakes and Black-Headed Gulls. Most of the Sandwich Terns have chicks, as do the Arctic Terns. There are more and more Eider ducks leaving with their chicks every day now, so there are very few left on their nests. Common Terns are also on chicks, but as far as I know Fulmars are still on eggs.
Chapel Chick
Speaking of chicks, there are some that have very odd habits. There is one Arctic Tern chick that has made the Chapel its home. During the day and for most of the evening it stays in the Chapel and hides under the pews to avoid being trampled by the visitors. In the mornings and during quiet periods the adults fly into the chapel with Sandeels to feed to it! It's pretty cool, but it does mean that the Chapel floor is covered in quite a lot of poop, and we've had to put up signs to warn visitors of its presence!
Chick protection and Veg. clearance
Many of the Arctic Tern chicks are now getting to the stage where they're big enough to run around, which they do frequently. They like to hide in the vegetation when their parents are away, but as soon as they hear the adult calling, they run onto bare ground so that their parents can see them. Unfortunately, this has resulted in many chicks running onto the path, which obviously causes trampling issues. To prevent this from happening, we have spent many morning ripping up the vegetation 1.5 feet either side of the paths in the areas where Terns are nesting, so that the chicks will move further back into the remaining vegetation and stop going onto the path. In addition to this, we have made several 'chick protection boards' from old wood to fence them in a bit, to draw peoples attention to the fact that they're there, and to make sure that they don't get accidentally trodden on. It's working so far!
Bird Ringing
Done lots of ringing recently as the ringer that comes out here said that if I'm good enough and do lots of ringing with him, he'll give me a 'Restricted C Permit' which means I'll be able to ring certain species of birds when he's not there, which is a really awesome thing to have here! We were ringing Arctic Tern adults and chicks and Sandwich Tern chicks, but I also got to ring a Puffin which was awesome!
Birds in Buildings
We've had a lot of birds coming into the buildings recently! A Shag was found hanging around in the Gents toilets, a Puffin was in the Ladies toilets, we had 3 Puffins and a Pigeon in the cellar, and 2 juvenile Pied Wagtails in the Information Centre! We managed to remove them all safely though! :)
Stormy Days
Had a few very windy days recently. And by windy I mean 25mph winds! Which caused some very rough seas, the worst being 11.5ft swell! The windyness was both good and bad. It meant we could have some late mornings, which is always appreciated, and it meant that the birds weren't disturbed by visitors. However, it did mean that many of the Arctic Tern chicks died, as the parents were unable to feed, and it's the cause for all of the birds in buildings. In addition to this, many Kittiwake nests got washed away (including the young chicks in them), and we had several other birds that got very wet and unable to fly, which we had to rescue and put in a box in front of the fire to dry out. All of which were successful, which is good. The rough seas and strong winds also prevented me from getting out to see Chris, which sucked a lot as I'm not sure when I'll get to see him now. I'm seeing my dad in early July, and I'm now just hoping the same thing won't happen then!
The Tides of Spring
The storm wasn't really helped by the spring tides that we've had recently. Spring tides are when the difference between high tide and low tide is very large. So we've had very high high tides and very low low tides. (The opposite of this is neep tides, where there is very little difference between high and low tides.) The other issue with spring tides is that the very high tides have washed away several Arctic Tern nests and several Ringed Plover nests that were on the beach.
Media Coverage
Lots of TV programmes have been filiming here recently. We had Escape to the Country and Animal 24/7 filming on Brownsman a couple of days ago, so look out for them coming on TV soon! Also, the Countryfile episode that was filmed here recently was shown on BBC1 last Sunday night (20th June), so if you didn't catch it, look it up on BBC iPlayer!
The Social Side
The World Cup has been the main focus for the past couple of weeks really. All of the Wardens and most of the boatmen joined in for the sweepstake (in which I got Germany), which makes watching football more fun! Also, we’re collecting the Panini World Cup stickers for the sticker album (which we took apart and stuck all over the walls! A few days ago, all of the wardens went over to the mainland, as we were going to go and visit a site where we could see some rare birds. Unfortunately, we had boat trouble and were late getting into Seahouses, so we couldn’t go. Instead, we went to visit the National Trust’s colony of breeding Little Terns, which is at a site not too far from here. It was a very nice day and we had a lovely walk on a sandy beach to get there. Yesterday we ran into the Brownsman boys while we were in Seahouses, so we all went for an Indian together and then for a few drinks. Good to see them once in a while! Tommorow night we are all going to go fishing with the Boatmen! They’re going to pick us all up in one of the visitor boats and then we’re going to drive out to sea, have a BBQ, drink some drinks and some people are going to fish…not sure that I want to though, but I’ve never done it before so don’t know what it’s like.
In Other News…
I’ve been driving the Zodiac boat a lot more, which is a good thing really, as it gets me more used to doing it and more used to just being in the boat! Also gives me more hours of driving experience, so it all adds up! Some researchers have been here in the past couple of weeks, looking and the diet of the Grey Seals that we have here. This involves collecting seal poo. A few wardens volunteered for this job, as it is a good thing to have done and to have on your CV, but I was not one of them! It has been decided that David is now the Senior Warden on Inner Farne, so when Steely (Head Warden) isn’t here, David motivates us to actually do some work! Also, I need flip flops! I’ve decided that many activities here would be much easier to do if I was wearing flip flops instead of walking boots, as it doesn’t matter if flip flops get wet. Unfortunately though, I can’t find any size 5 flip flops in Seahouses. However, I don’t want to get my boots wet, so today (since I was helping the boats during visitor hours – a job where I always get soaked), I walked around barefoot. It was pretty good actually! I didn’t care about getting wet, and it was a hot sunny day so I could get away with it.
Well, that’s all I can think of for now. This post ended up being much longer than I’d originally intended, but I had forgotten just how much stuff happens here! Still enjoying it, looking forward to seeing friends and family soon!
Sunday, 6 June 2010
Cliff Counts and Nest Counts
The past few days have been the busiest so far, as the majority of our time has been taken up with cliff counts and nest counts. Cliff counts involves using the Zodiac boat to go around all of the islands in the Inner Group and count how many nesting pairs of Shags, Kittiwakes, Razorbills, Guillemots and Cormorants there are. This is done over 10 days, with each person counting a different species each day. At the end of the 10 days, everybody wil have counted each species at least once. The highest count and the lowest count for each species are then taken away and an average is taken of those that are left. This average is taken as the total number of that species in the Inner Group. The same is done with the Outer Group of islands, which gives us the total number of breeding birds for each species on the Farne Islands. All of this started for the Inner Group on the 2nd June and involved getting up pretty early to go out and count things. It was pretty good though, as I had Shags, which are one of the easiest ones to count! Guillemots are the hardest as there are about 10,000 of them on the Inner Group alone!
Nest counts started on the 3rd June. Nest counts involves counting every single nest of every single species of bird that nests on the island (apart from those mentioned above). To do this, the whole of the island has to be checked with a fine-toothed comb to ensure that we count every single nest. The Brownsman team had their nest count day on the 3rd June. As nest counts take all day, me, Michael and Jamie had to go over to Staple Island to do their visitor work, and then speed all the way back to Inner Farne to do our visitor work over here! So a very long day all round. Nest counts on Inner Farne started the very next day, so we were all up early again, for a 6am start. we had to rope off all of the island into transects so that we could know for certain that we had covered the entire island. The Brownsman team came over to Inner Farne in the afternoon and did our visitor work for us (as well as doing their own in the morning) so that we could continue with our counts. Unfortunately for us though, we didn't manage to get the whole of the island done in one day, so we continued with counts all of yesterday morning, which I helped with even though it was my day off! I then relaxed in the afternoon while the others did visitor work, and helped with nest counts again in the evening. We still have a small amount of the island that we need to cover, but unfortunately there is alot of fog today, so we can't do it this morning. Hopefully the evening will be better!
For the past few days whilst we've been involved in nest counts, we haven't been able to do any cliff counts, apart from yesterday. Therfore we've only done 2 out of 10, and have many to go! The one this morning had to be cancelled as well as the nest counts, again due to the fog. But hopefull tomoro will be a nicer day so that we can get it all done! During nest counts, I took many photos of cute chicks of many species with my brand new camera that my dad sent to me! So I shall be putting those up on here very soon!
Nest counts started on the 3rd June. Nest counts involves counting every single nest of every single species of bird that nests on the island (apart from those mentioned above). To do this, the whole of the island has to be checked with a fine-toothed comb to ensure that we count every single nest. The Brownsman team had their nest count day on the 3rd June. As nest counts take all day, me, Michael and Jamie had to go over to Staple Island to do their visitor work, and then speed all the way back to Inner Farne to do our visitor work over here! So a very long day all round. Nest counts on Inner Farne started the very next day, so we were all up early again, for a 6am start. we had to rope off all of the island into transects so that we could know for certain that we had covered the entire island. The Brownsman team came over to Inner Farne in the afternoon and did our visitor work for us (as well as doing their own in the morning) so that we could continue with our counts. Unfortunately for us though, we didn't manage to get the whole of the island done in one day, so we continued with counts all of yesterday morning, which I helped with even though it was my day off! I then relaxed in the afternoon while the others did visitor work, and helped with nest counts again in the evening. We still have a small amount of the island that we need to cover, but unfortunately there is alot of fog today, so we can't do it this morning. Hopefully the evening will be better!
For the past few days whilst we've been involved in nest counts, we haven't been able to do any cliff counts, apart from yesterday. Therfore we've only done 2 out of 10, and have many to go! The one this morning had to be cancelled as well as the nest counts, again due to the fog. But hopefull tomoro will be a nicer day so that we can get it all done! During nest counts, I took many photos of cute chicks of many species with my brand new camera that my dad sent to me! So I shall be putting those up on here very soon!
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