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!
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
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!
Tuesday, 1 June 2010
Big News!
Big news from the Farnes today! We had pretty strong Southerly winds all day today, and as a results we had a very rare bird fly over the islands! A Black Kite flew over at about 4.30pm today, whilst being mobbed by many many waders. This is the first time this bird has ever been seen on the Farne Islands, as it is pretty rare in England! So a brilliant sighting! A couple of photos were taken by Mark, so I will get them on here asap! In addition to this, we had Midlands Today (a news programme from the Midlands) out here filming live today! Luckily we weren't interviewed or anything, but was good all the same! Apart from that not much has been happening here. This should have been our busiest weekend of the year, but very strong Northerly winds prevented anyone from getting to the islands the entire weekend and stranded us out here, which isn't too good as we're now running out of food a little bit...but we'll be going to Seahouses tomoro if all goes to plan, so not too much of a tragedy. Thats all there is to report at the moment, so here are the photos I've been promising!
An Arctic Tern carrying a very large sandeel in order to attract a mate
The colony of Sandwich Terns
(note the black beak and shaggy crest at the back of the head)
The Sandwich Tern eggs!
A Puffin on the top of the Pele Tower on a nice day
Graeme with an Arctic Tern on his head!
A bucket full of ducks! The 5 Eider chicks that I rescued :)
Me holding one of the Eider ducklings
Dave hanging on for dear life whilst the strong North winds make giant waves in the Kettle (the sheltered bay between Inner Farne and the Wideopens)
A photo to show how bad the waves were out towards Brownsman during the high winds
A Shag with her chicks - which are now very large despite only being a few weeks old!
A close-up of a male Shag
2 Kittiwake chicks nestling close to their mother
A Black-Headed Gull takes her 2 chicks down to the pond for a drink 
Midlands Today filming live from Inner Farne 
One of the first Arctic Terns to nest showing off her 2 eggs
An Arctic Tern carrying a very large sandeel in order to attract a mate
The colony of Sandwich Terns
(note the black beak and shaggy crest at the back of the head)
The Sandwich Tern eggs!
A Puffin on the top of the Pele Tower on a nice day
Graeme with an Arctic Tern on his head!
A bucket full of ducks! The 5 Eider chicks that I rescued :)
Me holding one of the Eider ducklings
Dave hanging on for dear life whilst the strong North winds make giant waves in the Kettle (the sheltered bay between Inner Farne and the Wideopens)
A photo to show how bad the waves were out towards Brownsman during the high winds
A Shag with her chicks - which are now very large despite only being a few weeks old!
A close-up of a male Shag
2 Kittiwake chicks nestling close to their mother
A Black-Headed Gull takes her 2 chicks down to the pond for a drink 
Midlands Today filming live from Inner Farne 
Saturday, 29 May 2010
A very eventful week
This past week has been a very eventful one! It's my day off again today, and I've got every Saturday off now until I leave. The ringing team were back this morning, and we did some ringing of both Arctic Terns and Eiders. I really like Eiders, but ringing them was not fun. They poo alot, and its unbelievably stinky and gets everwhere!! Not very nice, but was a good experience all the same. Currently there are visitors on the island, so I don't have much to do at the moment, but I have no idea whats going to be happening later tonight.
For the past 2 days me, Graeme, Jamie and Wez have been in Amble learning how to drive the Zodiac boats! So now we are all officially able to drive them around whenever we need to...I'm a bit nervous about it all though! The boat course ran from 12-8 both days, most of which time was spent getting actual experience driving 2 different powerboats! It was a really fun course, but I think I need more practice driving the Zodiacs! The 2 research students from Newcastle Uni arrived on Thursday as well, but I've only really had today to talk with them, as I was on the boat course. They are both carrying out research for their MSc projects. One of them is looking at the effect of disturbance on Puffin chicks, and the other is looking at the effects of disturbance on Arctic Tern chicks. They are both girls and will be here for the next 2 months, so I'll have some female company while everyone else is obsessed with the world cup!
In other news, I rescued 5 Eider chicks from certain doom, which was quite nice! The mother ran off and left them all in the nest. We waited for 2 hours but sadly she didn't return, and it was beginning to turn cold. So we Scooped them and the nest into a bucket and tried to find another Eider with chicks, as they will take in the chicks of other Eiders and look after them, forming 'creches' of chicks. Unfortunately though we couldn't find another Eider with chicks, so took the bucket into the living room for a while and kept them warm and looked after them :) We did eventually find another mother Eider though, so I grabbed bucket and chicks and hurried to find her. I set the chicks down as near to her as I could get and they immediately started calling to her. The Eider started to call back to them, and one by one they all jumped into the water and swam over to her. She took them all in perfectly fine and they all went off together. (Photos of chicks to follow in next post!) Hope all is well where you are
For the past 2 days me, Graeme, Jamie and Wez have been in Amble learning how to drive the Zodiac boats! So now we are all officially able to drive them around whenever we need to...I'm a bit nervous about it all though! The boat course ran from 12-8 both days, most of which time was spent getting actual experience driving 2 different powerboats! It was a really fun course, but I think I need more practice driving the Zodiacs! The 2 research students from Newcastle Uni arrived on Thursday as well, but I've only really had today to talk with them, as I was on the boat course. They are both carrying out research for their MSc projects. One of them is looking at the effect of disturbance on Puffin chicks, and the other is looking at the effects of disturbance on Arctic Tern chicks. They are both girls and will be here for the next 2 months, so I'll have some female company while everyone else is obsessed with the world cup!
In other news, I rescued 5 Eider chicks from certain doom, which was quite nice! The mother ran off and left them all in the nest. We waited for 2 hours but sadly she didn't return, and it was beginning to turn cold. So we Scooped them and the nest into a bucket and tried to find another Eider with chicks, as they will take in the chicks of other Eiders and look after them, forming 'creches' of chicks. Unfortunately though we couldn't find another Eider with chicks, so took the bucket into the living room for a while and kept them warm and looked after them :) We did eventually find another mother Eider though, so I grabbed bucket and chicks and hurried to find her. I set the chicks down as near to her as I could get and they immediately started calling to her. The Eider started to call back to them, and one by one they all jumped into the water and swam over to her. She took them all in perfectly fine and they all went off together. (Photos of chicks to follow in next post!) Hope all is well where you are
Sunday, 23 May 2010
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
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
Tuesday, 18 May 2010
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!
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!
Saturday, 15 May 2010
My first Tern attack...
As I haven't done a post in a little while, this one might be pretty long! Although I can never remember half of what I did when I come to actually writing it down.
On Wednesday, Wez, the newest recruit to island life, arrived. He is currently on Inner Farne, but will be moving to Brownsman next week when the other new guy, Jamie, arrives. I can't remember what I did on the morning, but my job in the afternoon was 'Boats', which involves getting the tourist boats in and getting people off of and on to them quickly and safely, which often requires some shouting at people so that they step onto/off of the boat at the right time (i.e. NOT when its moving away from the jetty). It's stressful when there are lots of boats, but not too bad. In the evening I counted all of the Shags in the area that I will be monitoring, but sadly I could only find 27 (I need to have 50 - so quite a way off!).
Thursday was an odd day. Me, Graeme, Steely and Wez had to get up very early to go for Membership and Customer Service training at a place called Scot's Gap, which is the National Trust's Regional Office. Steely was helping to train us, along with Trish, who was in my interview. We got to meet some people working/volunteering at other properties in the area, which was pretty awesome! Met people from Cragside, Lindisfarne Castle, Seaton Delaval Hall and another that I've now forgotten...damn. The training lasted most of the day, but was interactive, which was cool, as it meant I actually concentrated on a lot of it! Afterwards, we drove back to Seahouses, grabbed some takeaway food as we didn't have time to stay and eat, and boated it back to Inner Farne. Also - highlight of the day - I got to drive the Zodiac (boat) for the first time! It was a very calm sea in the morning so I drove us there! It was really easy, but the steering is backwards which makes it harder! Also, I was the first person to spot 4 Common Sandpipers that morning on the Jetty as we were going to get the boat ready. This is a first for me because 1. this was the first time I'd seen a Common Sandpiper and 2. I'm never the first to spot anything!
Yesterday was a pretty good day too! Trish who trained us the day before came over to Inner Farne in the morning to speak to all of the other Wardens and have a re-cap on their training. This meant that all of the Brownsman brownies and the Inner Farne fairies were on Inner Farne for the morning. Therefore me, Graeme, Wez and Steely all went over to Staple Island (which opens in the morning) to deal with the visitors. Staple Island is really good, as you can get close to a lot of birds. You also have more space to roam about and it is much better for photos! Unfortunately though, it was a bit of a rubbish day and there are no buildings to stand in...or toilets for that matter! It was good to experience the other island though! We all went back to Inner Farne in the afternoon, and the guys that had been training worked with the visitors all afternoon whilst I had a nap and sorted out some of my monitoring stuff. In the evening, we all went over to Seahouses which required 2 boat trips, as there were 8 of us and only 1 boat (which holds 6). This is because our boat broke - part of the engine broke off - so we're all sharing one, whihch is pretty awkward! But there was a party at The Olde Ship (a pub) to celebrate its Centenary, with a Hog Roast (I had Veggie Chilli) and a free bar al night! So we all had a few drinks and got to know each other, which was fun! Also, the first Arctic Tern eggs were spotted! Which is sort of good and bad at the same time. Good, because they're laying eggs, but bad as it means the attacking will begin...
And finally on to today and my first Arctic Tern attack of the season. There I was, innocently filling up the toilet-flushing buckets from the well (don't ask), when out of nowhere I hear a piercing scream as a Tern flew and pecked my head!! Luckily I was wearing a hat so it didn't hurt, but I did get pecked several times today, as did some of the visitors, but it's going to get worse from here on out! We found many more Tern eggs today, including one that was lain in the middle of one of the paths...stupid bird. So we had to put posts in all around the egg, and put blue string around the poles so that people don't step on it. They do nest in some weird places. We did not a lot all morning, to give us some rest for the afternoon, as it has been a very sunny and warm Saturday here on the islands - meaning EVERYONE decided to come to the Farnes! My job this afternoon was tickets, which just involves selling tickets really. And clicking through the members. Today was the busiest day we've had so far, with a grad total of about 375 people visiting in 3 hours, although that did include a group of unruly school children that I had to watch to ensure nobody trod on eggs/stole eggs/touched a duck etc. etc. Not up to much this evening, but will start to monitor my Eiders tomoro morning! On a bird note, saw a Roseate Tern today and one yesterday, which is very cool as they are rare! We only had 2 pairs breeding last year, compared to 1000's of pairs of the other species of Terns that bred here.
All in all a good week so far! I'm working in the Visitor Centre tomoro selling membership, so will be able to put my skills to the test now that I've been trained! The more members I get, the higher I am in the league tables! Yay! That's all for now, I will try to update more often to prevent my trusty followers from having to read an essay each time! xx
On Wednesday, Wez, the newest recruit to island life, arrived. He is currently on Inner Farne, but will be moving to Brownsman next week when the other new guy, Jamie, arrives. I can't remember what I did on the morning, but my job in the afternoon was 'Boats', which involves getting the tourist boats in and getting people off of and on to them quickly and safely, which often requires some shouting at people so that they step onto/off of the boat at the right time (i.e. NOT when its moving away from the jetty). It's stressful when there are lots of boats, but not too bad. In the evening I counted all of the Shags in the area that I will be monitoring, but sadly I could only find 27 (I need to have 50 - so quite a way off!).
Thursday was an odd day. Me, Graeme, Steely and Wez had to get up very early to go for Membership and Customer Service training at a place called Scot's Gap, which is the National Trust's Regional Office. Steely was helping to train us, along with Trish, who was in my interview. We got to meet some people working/volunteering at other properties in the area, which was pretty awesome! Met people from Cragside, Lindisfarne Castle, Seaton Delaval Hall and another that I've now forgotten...damn. The training lasted most of the day, but was interactive, which was cool, as it meant I actually concentrated on a lot of it! Afterwards, we drove back to Seahouses, grabbed some takeaway food as we didn't have time to stay and eat, and boated it back to Inner Farne. Also - highlight of the day - I got to drive the Zodiac (boat) for the first time! It was a very calm sea in the morning so I drove us there! It was really easy, but the steering is backwards which makes it harder! Also, I was the first person to spot 4 Common Sandpipers that morning on the Jetty as we were going to get the boat ready. This is a first for me because 1. this was the first time I'd seen a Common Sandpiper and 2. I'm never the first to spot anything!
Yesterday was a pretty good day too! Trish who trained us the day before came over to Inner Farne in the morning to speak to all of the other Wardens and have a re-cap on their training. This meant that all of the Brownsman brownies and the Inner Farne fairies were on Inner Farne for the morning. Therefore me, Graeme, Wez and Steely all went over to Staple Island (which opens in the morning) to deal with the visitors. Staple Island is really good, as you can get close to a lot of birds. You also have more space to roam about and it is much better for photos! Unfortunately though, it was a bit of a rubbish day and there are no buildings to stand in...or toilets for that matter! It was good to experience the other island though! We all went back to Inner Farne in the afternoon, and the guys that had been training worked with the visitors all afternoon whilst I had a nap and sorted out some of my monitoring stuff. In the evening, we all went over to Seahouses which required 2 boat trips, as there were 8 of us and only 1 boat (which holds 6). This is because our boat broke - part of the engine broke off - so we're all sharing one, whihch is pretty awkward! But there was a party at The Olde Ship (a pub) to celebrate its Centenary, with a Hog Roast (I had Veggie Chilli) and a free bar al night! So we all had a few drinks and got to know each other, which was fun! Also, the first Arctic Tern eggs were spotted! Which is sort of good and bad at the same time. Good, because they're laying eggs, but bad as it means the attacking will begin...
And finally on to today and my first Arctic Tern attack of the season. There I was, innocently filling up the toilet-flushing buckets from the well (don't ask), when out of nowhere I hear a piercing scream as a Tern flew and pecked my head!! Luckily I was wearing a hat so it didn't hurt, but I did get pecked several times today, as did some of the visitors, but it's going to get worse from here on out! We found many more Tern eggs today, including one that was lain in the middle of one of the paths...stupid bird. So we had to put posts in all around the egg, and put blue string around the poles so that people don't step on it. They do nest in some weird places. We did not a lot all morning, to give us some rest for the afternoon, as it has been a very sunny and warm Saturday here on the islands - meaning EVERYONE decided to come to the Farnes! My job this afternoon was tickets, which just involves selling tickets really. And clicking through the members. Today was the busiest day we've had so far, with a grad total of about 375 people visiting in 3 hours, although that did include a group of unruly school children that I had to watch to ensure nobody trod on eggs/stole eggs/touched a duck etc. etc. Not up to much this evening, but will start to monitor my Eiders tomoro morning! On a bird note, saw a Roseate Tern today and one yesterday, which is very cool as they are rare! We only had 2 pairs breeding last year, compared to 1000's of pairs of the other species of Terns that bred here.
All in all a good week so far! I'm working in the Visitor Centre tomoro selling membership, so will be able to put my skills to the test now that I've been trained! The more members I get, the higher I am in the league tables! Yay! That's all for now, I will try to update more often to prevent my trusty followers from having to read an essay each time! xx
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