Week Ending 21st July 2013

It's been another scorching hot week out here on Flat Holm, and the island is starting to look more yellow than it's normal green. All of us have been feeling the heat, including the animals and the plants.

Despite the hot weather work goes on though, and it has been a pretty full on week. Unquestionably the largest challenge of the week was removing the commercial sheep from the island. They have at last found a new home to go to, but I think it's fair to say that they didn't want to leave this one!

It took many hours of building pens and herding (even sometimes carrying) the sheep between them, but eventually we were able to get the sheep onto the Harbour II boat and send them off to their new home.

Finally all of the sheep are safely on the boat and ready to depart for their new home

The Meadow Brown butterflies have been out in force this week, with well over 100 of them being counted on the weekly survey. The numbers of the Small Tortoiseshells have dropped off significantly, while the Large Whites seem to be making something of a comeback.

One of the Meadow Browns sunning itself on a Wild Leek

A Red Admiral lands on one of the Wild Leeks

With the weather being so hot, many of the birds are regularly being seen around the few areas that we actually have water left. With all of our collection tanks for outdoor use running very low we are hoping for a good rain storm to get us back on track. Not often you hear us wishing for that!

A pair of Greenfinches come down for what little water is left in the wildlife pond (female left, male right)

We had 2 school groups come over and visit us during the week. For the first we hosted a pirate treasure hunt with clues hidden all across the island. Most of the kids really got into it although a few of them...lets just say they might not be cut out for the great outdoors!

The second group were slightly older, and they came with the brief that they had to record a film of some description on the island. Some went for the conventional documentary type approach while others went down a more Disney meets horror movie route! I will certainly be interested to see what they look like if the school send the finished products over to us!

The rest of the week was taken up by continuing on the building that we are working on down near the jetty. By now all of the old lichen has been removed and the majority of the old paint has been scraped off. All that remains now is for it to be primed and painted and it should look as good as new again.

This weeks news story focuses on incredible luck, and just goes to show that when you think something is truly lost it might not be so lost as you think!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-23388667

See you all next week :)

Week Ending 14th July 2013

It's been another extremely sunny and warm week out here on Flat Holm, which is great for the relaxing outside in the evenings but not so good for all of the heavy manual work!

The week began with a full clean down of our water system on Monday. All of the large water tanks had to have their contents run down in order for us to clean them, and getting rid of so much water felt so strange considering how hard we normally try to conserve it! Once the tanks had been run down and scrubbed we then flushed a bleach solution through all of the pipework across the island before the system was re-topped up and flushed through with clean water again to rinse it.

On Tuesday the week's butterfly survey saw the general population of the island boom, with us recording more than twice the number of butterflies compared to any of our previous surveys.

As well as looking at the butterflies this week we also took the time to create a new invertebrate study which enable us to get a better understanding of the less obvious creatures that we share our island with. So far we have found 4 different species of grasshopper, many different flies and beetles as well as a couple of spiders.

Vicky, Molly and Emma trying to identify some of the insects we found

With us having had so many scorching days without a drop of rain over the last 2 weeks some of the plants and vegetation around the island seem to be struggling. Ideally we could do with a bit of rain before long to keep the plants going as they act as a habitat for many of the insects that we find.

During the week we had a visit in very unfortunate circumstances from the police search and rescue helicopter. A young girl who was swimming in the sea off the coast of Barry had gone missing, and a 3 day search followed in the surrounding area including Flat Holm. The helicopter circled the island to do a visual search before landing to come and talk to us all. Having followed the story on the news our team had already conducted a search of the shoreline just in case but had found nothing. 2 days later we heard the terrible news that her body had been found a few miles from where she was swimming, and our thoughts go out to all of her family and friends.

The police helicopter coming in to land on the helipad

With the only boat of the week being Thursday's Westwood Ho trip the rest of the week was an ideal opportunity to carry on with a few of the ongoing jobs around the island. The dry stone wall has continued to get slightly larger although it is still very slow progress. We are also scraping and scrubbing down one of the old storage buildings near the island's jetty in the hope that we can get a new coat of paint on it some time within the next week.

The weekend has so far provided us with a good opportunity to spend some time swimming and sunbathing on the beach, and generally taking it easy before we get back to work on Monday.

Matt enjoying himself in charge of the BBQ

This week's amusing story is all about misheard song lyrics. Unfortunately "just let me staple the vicar" (from Peter Kay's latest stand up) didn't make it in, but here are some of the most commonly mistaken lyrics as voted for by the public...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23284179

Have a good week and we'll see you next time!

Week Ending 7th July 2013

It’s been all smiles out here on Flat Holm this week after the weather has finally noticed that it’s supposed to be summer! This has made for far more interesting insect activity including the butterfly and the ladybirds that we survey weekly.

The Small Tortoiseshell butterfly population has soared and these were a common sighting across the island during this week’s survey, while the population of Small White and Green Veined White butterflies appear to have fallen.

A Small Tortoiseshell butterfly taking a break on a thistle

The number of casual sightings of other insects (we don’t have an official survey for them) has also increased with sightings such as this Blister Beetle below:

The "Blister Bug" can secrete a toxic chemical causing a nasty skin reaction including (yes you guessed it...) blistering

The Shelducks now appear to be leaving the island following the breeding season, with only 3 birds reported as being seen during the week’s survey. Across the country there have been reports of the Shelduck ducklings fledging their nests and taking to the water, but this unfortunately hasn’t been seen here on Flat Holm. Whether there were any ducklings that we missed or whether the season had been unsuccessful we will not know.

The main event of the week however was undisputedly the annual gull ringing weekend. You will have heard me mentioning the gull rings that we monitor here on the island in the previous blogs, and they enable us to study the migratory habits and lifespan of the birds. Since the last blog incidentally, we have recorded the sighting of a gull 2 years older than our previous best meaning that the oldest recorded gull on the island is now 18 years old!

Of course in order for us to be able to study these rings they must be applied to the gulls in the first place, and this is where this weekend’s event comes in. Every year a team of gull ringers comes over to the island, and with the help of us trainees we apply uniquely identifiable rings to 100 of the gull chicks. Each year the rings are a different colour and contain a different alpha-numeric code usually ending in F. This year the rings are green with white writing. This ring is placed on their left leg and a corresponding  smaller silver metal ring is placed on their right leg.

The chicks have to be selected quite carefully, as it is in the interest of the project as a whole that they are likely to survive. This rules out the younger and smaller chicks as they are the most likely to be predated upon by the other gulls. However the oldest and most developed gulls are now able to fly, and as such are now nearly impossible to catch, making it a balance in judgement to select the right ones.

Vicky has selected a chick and is waiting to have the ID rings fitted

Although the effort took a lot longer than we had originally hoped we did manage to get all 100 rings onto a chick (and I don’t mean just one chick!), and they will now go on to be studied far and wide for years to come. Let’s just hope the Peregrines don’t feel the need to devour them all!

Me with the first chick that I helped to ring. Green and White 4TF. Maybe one day our paths will cross again?

*Side note - Speaking of the Peregrines, we are really excited to see that they have successfully bred on the cliff face this year and the young Falcon is now flying alongside it’s parents!*

While the bird ringers were on the island they also took the opportunity to conduct some mist netting to catch and ring some of the smaller species of bird that we have on the island. The nets are made of a fine dark material making them almost invisible when bright daylight isn’t present, and the birds become trapped in a shelf like layer of the net. This doesn’t harm the birds in any way and the nets are checked every 15-20 minutes to ensure that the birds do not remain trapped for long.

Setting up the mist nets

The smaller birds do not receive colour coded rings like the gulls, instead only receiving the small metal rings like the ones placed on the right legs of the gulls. After a few measurements and a weigh in the birds are then released and are on their way again.

A song thrush has been caught in the nets and is having an identification ring fitted

Minutes later the same song thrush is ready to be released. His ring is clearly visible just above the foot.

This week’s amusing news story comes from Sheffield, and shows how creating modern art can not only make you money but cost you a lot of money too...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-23203033

See you next time!

Week Ending 30th June 2013

So this week saw me become another year older (I know that technically I only aged a week between Monday and Sunday but you get the picture) as Tuesday was my 27^th Birthday!

The past 2 years have absolutely flown by, but when I take the time to look back it really hits home how many amazing things we've been able to achieve in that time. It really reinforces how lucky we really are.

So on the Tuesday Mum and Dad were able to board the Westwood Ho boat from Weston-Super-Mare and come and visit us on our little island home for the day. It’s always great to gauge people’s reactions when they come to the island, and I think that they both were able to see the same things that Vicky and I see in it. Certainly the rations of cake and sweets that came over with them from the mainland have been well appreciated by all of the team! While they were here we were all able to enjoy a drink in the pub and a picnic on the beach, as the weather for once was sunny with very little wind... certainly not something we see very often in these parts!

Mum and Dad made it over to see our little island home

The little ducklings that I mentioned last week are now unfortunately no more, and in fact I think the last one went missing not many hours after I published last week’s blog. It is very unfortunate that they share a nesting field with the biggest predators on the island!

The gull chicks on the other hand are going from strength to strength, and many are now starting to show their juvenile feathers. It is hard to believe that they are the same little bundles of fluff that they were just a few weeks ago. A number of them have even been spotted trying to fly, but at the moment they just end up flat on their backs whenever they try. It won’t be long though I’m sure before we see them taking to the skies. Next weekend we will be having a gull ringing team over to the island to ring 100 of the lucky little things, so that we are able to keep tabs on them throughout their life and see where they end up.

A gull chick comes face to face with an Oyster Catcher. The chick is no longer a ball of fluff and is sporting his first feathers.

At the moment the oldest ringed gull that we have sighted on the island this year has been 16 years old which certainly isn't bad going! Many of the birds that are ringed here go on to be spotted down in Western Europe as they migrate away from the UK, and are often spotted in the likes of Spain and Portugal. In terms of distance, the furthest that a Flat Holm ringed gull has been spotted away from the island has been nearly 3250km away in the Western Sahara!

The remainder of the week has mainly been spent trying to get certain types of vegetation under control on the managed side of the island. Nettles and thistles have mainly been the enemy as we race against time to stop them going to seed and creating more work for the future. Strimming and hand slashing has largely been the workload therefore and we have not had the time to carry on with the dry stone walling. 

Vicky getting some strimming done near the fog horn station

Being honest I haven't really looked at the news this week and so I don't have an amusing article to finish on, but I'll aim to resume normal service next week. See you then!

Double Edition! Weeks Ending 16th June & 23rd June 2013

Hi Everybody!

First of all apologies to all of those who took the time to look at the blog last Sunday to find no updates, this was due to being stranded in Cardiff with boats to the island being cancelled, and when we finally did get back to the island we were simply too busy for me to write!

So going back to 2 weeks ago. We were finally able to escape the island for a few days to get back home and see friends and family. With the bad weather due to roll in Wednesday we were able to hastily arrange a boat to get us off the island late Tuesday night. After a few service station pit stops and a strong coffee we arrived back in Kent at 3.15am.

The day after we arrived home we were due to sit our ECDL computer test for databases (we were due to sit them back in May but as you know the weather prevented us from leaving the island), and fortunately we were able to pass them despite the hectic 48 hours that had preceded them!

It was great to spend some time catching up with people at home, although we wished we had longer to allow us to see all of the people we would have liked to.

By Sunday afternoon we were already on our way back to Cardiff, however just as we were pulling off the M4 and into the city we got a phone call to say the boat was cancelled and that we would need to stay an extra night in Cardiff. Whenever we are in Cardiff overnight the council put us up in a backpacker hostel just across from the Millennium Stadium, and to be honest it's a very good hostel with an amazing free breakfast in the morning!

In the end it was Tuesday afternoon before we were able to get back onto the island, but with a visitor trip scheduled for the day after we had to launch straight into work to "open" the island in time for their visit.

As well as the visitor trip Wednesday brought 2 wildlife surveys with it in the form of Shelducks and Moths. Only 18 Shelducks were sighted on the island (a drop of 11 from the last count), and only 2 moths remained in the trap from the night before for us to ID.

Thursday saw us begin a dry stone walling project, with the aim of repairing one of the walls on the island that has mostly collapsed. Trying to create a wall out of oddly shaped rocks is a lot more difficult than using bricks and mortar, but the final results should be a lot more rewarding. It's also a great physical workout! In the area where we are building we have set up some "batters" which have string running between them to act as a guideline for where the wall should run. Now it's simply (or not so simply) a case of finding the right rocks to build the 3D jigsaw puzzle that will be our wall.

Starting to rebuild the first section of the wall

Fridays main activity was completing a "Rocky Shore Survey" where we take a look at the marine life living on the rocks while the tide is out. We identify and count the wildlife in a square metre of the shoreline before moving up the rocks to an area 60cm higher than the last count and repeating the process.

Stuart and Harriet check the books to find out what Matt has in his hands

We were able to identify 4 different types of seaweed, several periwinkles, limpets, anemones and barnacles. We also found a number of small creatures that seem to be related to shrimps as well as this little guy below:

A Seaslater. Think woodlouse but a lot larger!

By the time we had completed some more of the dry stone walling our working week was complete as both of the weekend's visitor trips were cancelled. Just as we were packing up our tools however we noticed that we had a few new additions to our island family. One of our Indian Runner Ducks that has been carefully minding a nest in the nettles for the last few weeks was surrounded by 9 little ducklings!

Baby ducklings poking out from under the wings

Unfortunately how long they will last is anybody's guess as the middle of a gull colony is not the best place to have your ducklings; already 4 have disappeared presumably down the necks of the gulls :(

This week's news story of the week is all about one animal that wouldn't have so much of a problem with our gulls though...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/16/guinea-pig-armor_n_3449820.html

See you next week!

Week Ending 9th June 2013

The majority of the last week for us has been taken up by the back breaking task of shearing the sheep. 

Monday brought the only boat visit of the week for a 3 hour trip from Cardiff. Fortunately the weather played ball on this occasion and I finished my guided tour a lot dryer than my previous one! Monday is also the day that we do the majority of our weekly checks and cleans, so it was a pretty full on day in the end.

Tuesday through to Thursday was sheep shearing time. Professional sheep shearers are able to rattle of a sheep a minute, or 90 seconds at worst. For us novices though the process takes a little longer and is in the region of about 90 minutes per sheep (we'll use the excuse that we don't have as good equipment as the professionals, with most of the group using hand shears).

Before the haircut...

Working in pairs you would first have to tip the sheep into a sitting position (they can't lay on their backs otherwise they wouldn't be able to breathe properly) in order to work on the belly area and around the leg joints. One person would be shearing while the other holds the sheep in place to stop it running off and causing mayhem. The sheep can then be put back on it's feet and again be kept in place while the shearer works over the back and neck area. When the process is completed they look only about half the size they did at the beginning!

After the haircut...

With most of the group suffering aches and pains after the sheep shearing ordeal, Friday was kept to fairly simple and non-physical tasks. Gardening, wild plant identification, bird watching and strimming were the main order of the day. 

The gull chicks are developing and getting bigger by the day! Herring gulls in this case

You may remember a few weeks ago that I featured the bird in the picture below while talking about gull ringing. 

Finally we know the history of this bird

After a bit of hard work and research I have been able to find the history of that particular bird. It wasn't a simple a process as normal, as the history keepers didn't have any record of this particular bird.

My research led me to an email address for a guy in Spain, and after a speculative email containing the picture of the bird we were able to confirm that the bird was ringed by his project in Malaga. This gull is still comparatively young at only 2 years old, and it has migrated between the UK and Spain in both years of it's life to date. It was seen in mainland Cardiff last summer and is now frequently being spotted on the island here.

This weeks rather amusing news story comes from Sweden and looks at the crazy things some people will do to get around dress codes where they work:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22828150

See you all next week!

Week Ending 2nd June 2013

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!

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!