The Past Few Days

The past few days have been incredibly busy, so haven't really had time to post anything.

Tuesday 4th was my first day of actual work. It was a lovely sunny day in the morning, but went cold and windy quite quickly. Fortunately for me, I was working in the visitor information centre that day, so I was able to keep out of the wind quite a bit :) I managed to sell 6 Farne Islands Guide books, but only got one membership, but at least I'm in the league tables now! It was pretty busy, but most of the visitors were members already which is why I wasn't able to convinve very many people to join the National Trust. In the evening, we all took a boat over to Seahouses in order to shower and buy some more food shopping, as we were all running out and I hadn't brought very much with me in the first place. We also ate dinner on the mainland since we were there anyway. As I said, it was a really nice day, and the sea was really flat and calm, which was good, as Steely wasn't with us, so Michael and Dave drove the boat there and back for the first time on their own and there were no problems at all.

On Wednesday, I was posted at lighthouse cliff, which is where large numbers of Shags, Razorbills, Guillemots and Kittiwakes nest. Therefore, it was my responsibility to talk to visitors about these birds, to inform them of their lives and point out any birds that are on eggs or chicks. I also had to answer any questions that the visitors ask, which are usually either about the birds, their behaviour, or about myself and what it's like to live and work on an island. It was a really hot and sunny day, which was nice as I was on the most exposed part of the island, so on days when the weather's bad, it's not too nice up there. Unfortunately though, I managed to get a bit of sunburn on my face. :( Oh well, it was going to happen sooner or later. In addition to this, at certain times throughout the day, I was required to carry out a survey to monitor the lobster potting boats in the area around the islands. At the specific times, I scanned around the island to look for these boats and record where abouts they were. This is just to monitor how these boats affect the reefs and marine life around the island. Trawling etc. is already not allowed here, and they are now just looking at the effects of the potting boats and of the diving boats. I will be monitoring diving boats all day Sunday, as well as whatever else I'm doing that day. In the evening after the visitors had all left, we took the boats into Seahouses once again, as the Farne Island wardens were playing football against the guys that run the tourist boats. I, obviously, did not play. There were a few others that didn't play either, and after about 30 mins watching them we went for a shower and then to the pub for dinner! The wardens won the match (yay) but disaster struck as a thick fog came in, meaning that we were unable to travel back to the islands that night! The plan was for all 9 of us to sleep on the floor of the lock-up that we have on the mainland (with sleeping bags), but luckily there was nobody in the hostel that night, so we were all able to sleep there for only £4 each!

It's mine and Jason's day off today, so we didn't have to get back to the islands as early as everybody else did. There was rain on the mainland though, so we didn't stay there much longer after everybody else had left. We hopped on a tourist boat at 11am and I got picked up from that boat into one of the little Zodiac speed boats when we got closer to the islands so that I didn't have to sail around for an hour first. I was pretty cold at this point but warmed up pretty quickly once I got in. Also, I met the female research students who are coming out in about 2 weeks to carry out research projects. They will both be here for about a month and a half, so I won't be the only girl for long. Not sure if that's a good thing or not though! Might get the day off tommorow as well, as strong winds are predicted so there might not be any boats coming out. Thats all for now, my night to cook tonight, hopefully I won't kill anyone, but you never know. Hope everyone back home is ok! Let me know whats going on with everyone!