The week gone by...

Haven't done a post this week...as far as I can remember anyways. The days all sort of merge into one here, so some of the days/dates in this entry might be a bit off! Just a short entry on the highlights of this week though. Also, I have some more photos to add, but can't be bothered to do them right now.

Wednesday 19th
In the morning, we all went to the West Wideopens (an island in the inner group, very close to Inner Farne). Had to get up pretty early for this one, as we were going 'egging'. Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-Backed Gulls are the main predators here, as they will take both eggs and chicks of all of the other birds on the island. There are a few exceptions to this though, for example Puffins nest in burrows, and because of this the gulls aren't able to get at the eggs. Also, many of the Arctic Terns are protected from predation by gulls as they nest very close to the pathways or in areas where there are often lots of people, such as outside the Pele Tower. The gulls don't come to these places, as the presence of humans scares them off. However, the gulls will take the eggs and chicks of Eiders, Shags, Kittiwakes, Guillemots, Razorbills and anything else they can get to if given half a chance. Therefore, we stop them doing this by reducing their numbers (which requires a special licence). So, we all went over to the West Wideopens and spent the morning walking all over the islands in search of gull eggs, which we then smashed. It's not very nice, especially since some are more developed than others, but it needs to be done in order to protect the rarer species (comments on this matter are welcome). Eventful morning, but the afternoon was just spent working as normal.

Thursday 20th
Can't remember what happened in the morning...although actually I think this was the morning that 2 of the team went over to help the guys on Staple Island, who were short staffed. It was an extremely hot day here, and me and Michael spent the morning putting up posts around Arctic Tern eggs to protect them from trampling feet, fixing the boardwalk, and talking to a group of people doing a Marine Biology course, who had permission to come to the island in the morning. One of these days we went to Seahouses in the evening for showers and we also got some takeaway Indian food which was nice, but can't remember which day that was!

Friday 21st
Again Staple Island needed help, so Wez went over to them in the morning (I got to drive the Zodiac in fog!). The rest of us spent the morning doing general maintenance and talking to news reporters as Midlands Today came out to the Farnes to film for a story about protecting our coastlines, which should be on in about 2 weeks time! :) The afternoon was spent doing visitor work, I was in the Information Centre all day, but only managed to get 1 membership.

Saturday 22nd
Was going to do some more of my bird monitoring, which I really need to get done, but there i a guy here that does bird ringing and who is a ringing trainer, who we found was coming out to do some ringing of Arctic Terns with us! In case anybody reading this doesn't know, bird ringing is when you catch birds, take their measurements (such as weight, wing length, and in this case, length of tail streamers and head length), and then put a metal ring around the leg of the bird. Each ring has a unique number engraved on it so that each bird can be individually recognised. So, we caught Arctic Terns (well, Chris - the ringing trainer - did) and we released them. Turns out that I've done more ringing than the other guys, so I was the only one to actually ring and take the measurements of an Arctic Tern which was pretty cool! A new entry for my ringing book :) Also, Chris is able to give out other levels of ringing permits (I'm currently a trainee), so hopefully I'll be able to get a restricted 'C' permit! This will allow me to ring some seabirds without direct supervision, although I'll still be accountable to Chris for everything. Would be awesome if I could get one! Also, the newest addition to the Inner Farne warden team, Jamie, arrived today! He stayed in the lighthouse Saturday night, as there wasn't room in the tower.

Sunday 23rd (today)
My day off!! Yay! Was going to go to Seahouses early, but there was a fog so couldn't get over. Instead I monitored my Eiders in the morning (one of them had 4 chicks!) and got pooed on alot by both Common Terns and Black-Headed Gulls (including in my hair - not happy). After finishing all of that, the fog had lifted a bit, so got dropped in Seahouses, had a shower, bought some food, had an ice cream and got on a boat back. Once I got back here I made fairy cakes (finally!) and lounged around a bit. There was a storm at about 4.30pm but it soon cleared. The evening was just spent socialising and watching TV really! So not a very productive day, but relaxing at least...wel sort of! Dave and Michael dropped Wez off on Brownsman this evening, and he's going to remain over ther for the rest of the time now, as they needed an extra warden, and Jamie needed a bed! Sad to see him go though, I think we all got on really well as a team, but I'm sure he'll be just as happy over there, and that we'll all get on with Jamie as well as we did with Wez!

That's all for now, will be monitoring Shags and Kittiwakes tommorrow and need to start on Arctic Terns very soon! Also got an Oystercatcher nest to monitor :) Hope all is well xx