So here we are in June already, even though most days you wouldn't know it yet! The bank holiday weekend afforded us an extra day off last weekend, although we ended up using the afternoon for work purposes anyway. With the tide being a long way out we decided to complete the cliff count that was missed originally from this year's gull count.
The team split into 2 groups; one counting Herring Gull nests and the other counting Lesser Black Back nests. 3 hours later with the tide rapidly coming back in, we had completed the count finding another 250 Lesser Black Back nests and 231 Herring Gull nests. This took our grand total of Lesser Black Back nests up to 3856 (indicating 7712 birds). If you were to include the Herring Gulls in the count then we would be looking at over 8000 gulls currently resident on the island!
A large percentage of the eggs that have been laid are now starting to hatch, and small chicks are a common sight around the island. The parents are now becoming even more aggressive as a result though which can make for some uncomfortable moments while walking through the colony.
Tuesday saw a boat trip from Weston-Super-Mare arrive with us for the day, but unfortunately the weather didn't play ball with driving rain present for most of their stay with us. Unfortunately for me I was leading guided tour that day, and it ended up taking all of 3 days to get my clothes dry again afterwards! Everybody still seemed to enjoy their day with us none the less though.
A bit of maintenance took up most of Wednesday's time with us having to secure the roof of one of our storage buildings.
The rest of the week was made up with odd jobs around the island, before Saturday night we had our first BBQ of the year!
We had a good laugh on the island at this week's news article which is all about nicknames for your loved ones http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22699938
See you all next week!
The team split into 2 groups; one counting Herring Gull nests and the other counting Lesser Black Back nests. 3 hours later with the tide rapidly coming back in, we had completed the count finding another 250 Lesser Black Back nests and 231 Herring Gull nests. This took our grand total of Lesser Black Back nests up to 3856 (indicating 7712 birds). If you were to include the Herring Gulls in the count then we would be looking at over 8000 gulls currently resident on the island!
Baby Lesser Black Backed chick
A large percentage of the eggs that have been laid are now starting to hatch, and small chicks are a common sight around the island. The parents are now becoming even more aggressive as a result though which can make for some uncomfortable moments while walking through the colony.
Stuart being swooped at by one of the gulls
Tuesday saw a boat trip from Weston-Super-Mare arrive with us for the day, but unfortunately the weather didn't play ball with driving rain present for most of their stay with us. Unfortunately for me I was leading guided tour that day, and it ended up taking all of 3 days to get my clothes dry again afterwards! Everybody still seemed to enjoy their day with us none the less though.
A bit of maintenance took up most of Wednesday's time with us having to secure the roof of one of our storage buildings.
Supporting props newly installed in the store room
The rest of the week was made up with odd jobs around the island, before Saturday night we had our first BBQ of the year!
Vicky and Stuart at our BBQ
We had a good laugh on the island at this week's news article which is all about nicknames for your loved ones http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22699938
See you all next week!
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