Monitoring Begins!

Started doing all of my monitoring yestday! I have 27 Shags, 55 Kittiwakes and 21 Eiders so far! I need to have 50 of each, but I have more Kittiwakes than I need, which shows they're doing well! I also need to start monitoring my Arctic Terns and Razorbills, but haven't had a chance yet, and won't be able to for the next few days at least, as we are all going to be very busy here!

Yestday was an average day really, but really hot which was a welcome change! Bit windy still, but good enough! Spent the morning monitoring and the afternoon at Lighthouse Cliff chatting to visitors about the birds and answering any questions that they had. In the evening Steely came back from Brownsman and we all piled into the Zodiac boat to go and do a Wetland Bird Survey (WeBS) count, which involves driving around to the other islands in the Inner Group and counting all of the waders and ducks that we see. We counted Mallards, Eiders, Oystercatchers, Turnstones and Purple Sandpipers, and there were loads of each! I was looking out for Ringed Plovers, Curlews and Redshanks. I saw one Ringed Plover and one Dunlin, but that was about it. Anyway, as that took a while, we all went into Seahouses afterwards (I drove the boat there) to have showers, buy food supplies and eat dinner, which was nice!

Today is my day off, but Steely pointed out some more Eiders to me that I didn't realise were there, so I monitored them and counted their eggs. One of my Eiders has eggs that are currently hatching which is awesome! By this time tomoro they will all be out at sea! This afternoon, I'm going to make fairy cakes and hang out on the roof of the tower in the sunshine :) Hope all is well where you are!