The Isle of May NNR blog

Getting Going

2012-03-02T11:46:00.000Z

The island looking blasted, brown and quiet.

Loading the boat

The guillis are back.

At first this odd looking razorbill looks like it has an invisible head or has been doing some painting and decorating but is acutally moulting its winter plummage out and hasn't quite got its full breeding feathers.

Shags and guillimots prospecting nest ledges, note the 2 beautifully marked bridled guillimots.

One of the first jobs will be to right Evelyn's purple hide.

The island may look dead but seedlings and shoots are sprinking up everywhere and after the mild winter things will green up fast.

Well this is it, the human side of the Isle of May operation is getting going, blog included. We started the opening up process for the island on monday with a trip out at the begiining of the week. The main purpose was to get the water engineer out there so that he could start the process of cleaning through the system but it gave a chance to see how things were progressing on the island. As usual we look at things from a human personal perspective and for us it is the start but for the island and some of its wildlife things are already up and running. There were lots of guillemots back on the cliffs grabbing their nesting ledges and looking for their partners. It is so long since I had seen them on the cliffs (end of June) that it was a real but pleasent surprise to see the ledges rippling black and white and hear their braying. Fewer razorbills were back, some still with winter plumage. The shags were a mixed lot, a few early starters were nest building but many obviously hadn't put any thought into breeding yet. The island itself looked bleached and brown as we approached but up close amongst the churned up mud from the seals were seedlings and grass poking through ready to change the colour of the island like a chameleon from brown to green.
For the next month we will be making day trips and short stays to get work done on the infrastructure with the plan of going out to stay at the end of March. This will mean lots of boat trips too and from the island in a windy time of year so I hope the weather is kind on us. There is only a certain number of times you want to have to step ashore at Anstruther with a salty face and wet underpants.

May in January

2012-01-18T16:46:00.001Z

So what is the island like in January?
I feel very lucky to have seen it in the depth of winter as it is a time of year that few people have seen it since the Lighthouse keepers left in 1989. After seeing the island is all its manic frenzied, mayhem of seabird breeding season and heaving, groaning industry of seal breeding season the quiet, spent calm of January is another side of the islands contrasting character. The recent storms have scorched the vegetation brown and blasted anything loose off into the sea. All the beaches on the west side have been deep cleansed, all the litter, plastic and driftwood and been cleared away by the huge waves leaving only the biggest timbers. Heading home under the west cliffs we could see numerous pale patches, big and small, where the crashing waves have broken rocks off continuing the gradually erosion of the island that will eventually see it go under the sea.
Last winter, when snow and ice covered the mainland, a number of birds moved across the water to spend the winter on the unfrozen May but this mild winter means that apart from a few blackbirds, a robin or two and several wrens the body of the island is virtually free of birds. It is only come dusk that the usual bird landscape reasserts itself with gulls, herring and greater black backed and shags come on to the rocks to roost for the night. 2000 herring gulls makes an impressive site, a milky way of white dots in the gloom. On the morning that we left the drop in wind brought a few of the May cliff nesters back onto the island prospecting for mates and staking out a breeding site. A few guillemots were hanging around on the cliffs in their extremely smart new breeding uniform while a few pairs of fulmers smooched and cackled together, a sound that took me straight back to spring. An after dark walk with Mark and a strong lamp caught us a rather grumpy but extremely impressive adult greater blacked back gull. Ringing it was an experience, it was like ringing a set of bagpipes smelling of fish. Compared to last year our stay in the lowlight was very comfortable, actually too warm on the first night though we were all wearing enough clothes to qualify as refugees. A modern Scottish diet of pizza, chocolate and crisps supplied the calories eaten in a room steeped in history that has hosted most of the eminent ornithologists of the last 70 years. But most memorable of all once the gas lamps were out was going to sleep listening to the booming roar of the wind in the chimney and lit by the glowing orange of the fire. As my daughter would say...awesome.
Next visit February to start the process of opening up the island for the season.

Fantastic sunrises.

Th whole of the vegetation on Rona had been blasted and washed by the storms.

Rabbits along with the gulls were the most obvious island inhabitants

Fulmers showing signs of getting frisky and settling on the cliffs.

Sunset

Pizza in the Lowlight

Ringing an adult reater black back gull - treat with respect.

The island in the murk.

What The Wind Did

2012-01-17T16:44:00.000Z

2 nights on the Isle of May in January isn't the best offer I have ever had but seeing as there has been a bit of wind recently I thought I would tag on to the seabird researchers trip to look at wintering shags, to see what the damage was. For once the weather was with us and a quiet weather window opened up so Mark from CEH, Hannah, who's PhD has lead her to look for shags up and down the East Coast and myself headed off to the island each wearing a wardrobe of clothes. With us was Maggie and Paul from the Seabird Centre who were daytripping to try to fix the webcam link from the May. As we approached all the usual landmarkers could be seen intact but as we ran down the east side I noticed a slew of splintered wood down the cliffs near the Lowlight. Following the trail up the cliffs I realised that the hide used for close study of the puffins had disappeared. Ooops.
Coming into the harbour the first thing to notice was the lack of seals compared to our last visit in December.

The whole island has been blasted brown.

Th Arnot Trap flattened

The mousehouse a bit battered.

How we found the puffin hide.

Hannah bringing the bits of hide up the cliffs.

What the hide looked like once the wind had finished with it.

The lochan from the engine room

Home for a couple of nights.

We shouldered bags and headed off to the Lowlight where we were staying. The whole island had a very quiet, blasted feel, most of the vegetation was scorched brown and gulls were the only obvious inhabitants. The first thing was to help Paul and Maggie move the satellite dish back into position from where the wind had twisted it out of alignment. Once it was up and running they headed back to the boat and went back to Anstruther leaving the 3 of us to have a longer look around the island to check for damage and make ourselves at home in the Lowlight. The damage actually wasn't too bad. The puffin hide that had stood for the last 30 years was the main problem. The other hides that were at the top of the cliff tops and seemingly in the full force of the wind were all fine. The purple shed hide at the south end was just blown on its side but not damaged at all. The heliogoland traps used by the bird observatory are also in a pretty poor state and the railings on the Visitor Centre ramp had been flattened but the buildings themselves were all sound. The Beacon looked a bit tattier, a few slates blown off the Lowlight and the outhouse door was blown off its hinges (despite accusations this was done by the storm rather than the occupants). By the time dusk came the wind was picking up yet again and Mark and Hannah were at different ends of the island trying to read the ring numbers of shags coming onto the island to roost. Blasted, bleak and empty the island had a different sort of magic to the summer.

Finding out about why not all young seals survive.

2012-01-09T12:39:00.006Z

Johanna is a vet and pathologist carrying out a PhD on disease in grey seals between the Sea Mammal Research Unit in St Andrews and the Moredun Research Institute in Edinburgh. She is looking at causes of death among just born pups and, in particular, which bacteria, parasites and viruses they are carrying that may be shared with other species such as terrestrial mammals and birds. Grey seals are at the top of the food chain, live where the marine and terrestrial environments meet and as such may hold valuable information about the health of our marine coastal waters.

Although grey seals populations are relatively healthy, neonatal mortality is surprisingly high over the Isle of May colony, with 10-20% of pups succumbing in this period depending on the year. This year, she carried out post mortem examinations on seal pups that she found dead on the colony, looking to see if differences in causes of mortality depend on the type of ground the seals choose to pup on. Pupping areas stretch over the majority of the island and include the bouldery tidal beaches of Pilgrim’s haven, the grassy slopes of Tarbert and the rocky, muddy pools of Rona Rocks; so lots of different conditions to give each seal pup a very different start in life.

Infections of the umbilical cord were quite a common finding in seal pups in all areas of the colony – not a surprise though when you see how much time they spend in muddy pools! Here’s a picture of a rarer finding: enlarged thyroid glands (congenital goiter) in this newborn seal pup, the exact cause of which we have yet to look into. The thyroid gland (arrow) is almost 4cm long in this picture whereas it should be about 1.5 to 2cm long in a normal seal pup. In terrestrial mammals such as cattle, this can be caused by excessively high or low maternal iodine levels so that is something that remains to be investigated in grey seals.

The story of a leg and a ring.

2011-12-21T12:33:00.000Z

This is an update. Back in October I found a pair of long grey legs on Rona, and a few feathers. A carcass on a raptor kill, probably a peregrine. On one of the legs was a ring with a Finland contact. The guess was that it was a curlew or possibly a whimbrel but after sending in the ring details to the British Trust for Ornithology I have now received confirmation of the ring details.
The bird was indeed a curlew and it was rung as a nestling on 28 May this year (2011) in the middle of Finland.
This is the joy of ringing. After a whole summer of turning over carcasses and looking at dead birds legs this is the reminder of why we do it. To me it is fascinating to think of the (short ) life of this individual bird and what it has seen and done. The wonders of Google maps show me that the area where is it was rung is just south east of the centre of Finland, in an area of huge lakes. After fledging it has made a journey of 1877km if it flew in a straight line though of course the distance would have been much further. What was its route ? I don't know, either west through Scandinavia and then to Scotland or down to the Baltic states and the south edge of the Baltic may be. Either way it is a big undertaking even for a bird the size of a curlew, especially as it was directed by instinct having never made the journey before. And on once it reach the island it just passed on its energy to a bird of prey like a baton by a relay runner. Such is the natural world.

End of Season Clear Out

2011-12-09T07:46:00.001Z

With high winds forecast we had a mad rush around to close down the island for the winter.

There were few birds about, but on Tuesday morning good numbers of pink-footed geese were coming in off the sea, maybe they new the weather was due to change and wanted to get south when they could.

2 long-eared owls were still about, roosting in the top heligoland trap. The migrant birds that they usually feed on have mostly moved on so my guess is that they will follow soon or go hungry.

And across the island were weaners everywhere. These are newly weaned grey seal pups who have bulked up on a high fat diet from mum but haven't yet got the motivation to move on with the next stage of their lives. You have to be careful as you go around the island as they can literally be everywhere. Lurking in muddy pools.

I don't know how they got there and how they will get out but some were sunbathing on cliff top ledges.

While others turned up in and around the buildings.

This weaner liked a sea view having made it way up nearly to the South Horn.

While this one was sleeping on the path back to the cottages, I literally stepped over it.

And so with the buildings locked up, the laundry, scientific samples, tools and equipment bagged up we headed off for a wet and bumpy ride back to Anstruther. This really is the end of the field season for the May. The island has a short period of peace over Christmas and the New Year but it all kicks off in late when January another visit is required to look at wintering shags and a chance to see another face of this special island. On the way back I made a mental note to myself - in January thermal underwear essential.

Seal Action

2011-12-08T09:38:00.001Z

Monday morning and a rushed trip out to the island to help with the closing down. Storms are forecast for later on in the week and the seal researchers have finished their work for the year so it is time to help them get their stuff off, drain down the water system and close down the buildings for the winter....and quickly. But in between cleaning out cupboards, bagging laundry and other such joyful tasks I had a chance to wander around the island. Many of the seals have left the island already, it seems like either a very early season or not so many pups as usual have been born this year but there were still plenty dotted around all corners. Most of these are weaners, that is this years pups whose mothers have feed them and then left them. They lie around for a while wondering when their next feed is coming before eventually heading out to sea. If you go quietly you can get quite close to them and it gave me a chance to have a closer look at these amazing animals.

They have fantastic whiskers. They are incredibly sensitive and they use them for finding food underwater where there isn't much light.

Some of the weaners spend lots of time messing around in muddy pools and end up looking like a monster from the deep. This one is coated with mud which shows off its eyebrow whiskers beautifully.

Grey seals do actually have a tail but it is just a short little stubby one that apart from helping with steering doesn't now have much use.

When the grey seal pups are first born that have a white coat. This is thought to be an adaption for when ancestors of grey seals lived on polar ice sheets and shows their geographical origins. This weaner is gradually losing its white coat and getting a mottled adult one. When they are being feed these pups don't move much and afterwards they just sleep so there is often a huge patch of white fluff left on the ground where they have moulted.

The weaners are feed for just 18 days by their mothers and grow at a rate of up to 2 kg a day on a high fat diet. By the time they are weaned if feed properly they are very fat and don't do much.

Eventually they will grow into an adult bull or cow and return to the island after 7 years at sea to start breeding. They are less cuddly and more world weary by then.

But there are always some pups that don't make it, one of the seal researchers, Jo is trying to find out why this is. Even dead they go to provide food for a whole range of creatures that eat carrion and break down carcasses such as gulls, crows, burying beetles and blowflies.

To the land of the seals part 2

2011-11-18T11:38:00.000Z

A long-eared owl close-up, feel the force of its personality.

A photo session
A woodcock close-up.
A European white-fronted goose, a youngster and a rare visitor to the island.
One of 100+ blackbirds depsrately refueliling for the next part of their journey.
A dusky warbler, a very rare visitor.

When you land on the island it is the seals that captured your attention but there was plenty else to see with a bit of searching. Birders are not normally out on the island this late in the year so Mark and I were surprised to see so many birds about. The light east winds had brought in a drift of migrants from Scandinavia and over the two days we found some gems of birds. The most exciting, due to rarity rather than beauty was the dusky warbler as only a handful are recorded in the UK each year. But for me the most awe inspiring were the long-eared owls, one of which we managed to catch to ring. These birds have followed the migrant blackbirds across the North Sea like a donkey following a carrot and when seen close up they demand attention and respect. The woodcock that we caught look a bit more worried about life but they have patterns on the feathers that have a warmth, depth and detail that can never be fully captured on paper. Behind every bush and crag were blackbirds, fieldfares and redwings looking strangely out of place away from the gardens where you normally see them. Mixed in with them were a black redstart, blackcaps, bramblings, chaffinches, dunnocks and robins. For variety there was an extremely wary little grebe on the lochan, a lonely European white-fronted goose and a bean goose, a merlin, 2 peregrines and a kestrel. All of them eating or being eat, desperate for food to make their next step of their journey.
It was a privilege to see the island in this hidden season on its year and learn a bit more about its life and character. The great thing about picking up a bit of knowledge is that it allows you to see more. After what I have seen and learnt from this visit my next visit I will look at the birds with new eyes and the seals with better understanding.

To the land of seals part 1

2011-11-17T08:57:00.007Z

The welcome committee to the island

There are seals everywhere.

The pups do a lot of sleeping.

The island turns very muddy with 4000+ seals across it.

After nearly 6 weeks off the island Mark and I headed out there on Monday, "refreshed" by day after day of being in the office working on annual reports and other such things. I didn't quite know what to expect having never seen the island in peak seal season. I was going out with Mark just for 1 night, he was checking winter shags, I was clearing up the things I had left when I left the island in a hurry and starting to make shopping lists for next season. But we both wanted to see the seals and the seal researchers. Out there on the island were 6 people who spend a solid 6-7 weeks finding out more about the seals lives than you thought possible. The researchers lifestyle is very different from the seabird researchers, they don't have the interruption of daily visitors coming but they do have to contend with the short days / long nights and the cold, the wet and the mud. Three of them are PhD students, Jo is looking at parasites and pathogens found in the many young seals that don't make it through the first few weeks (the post mortems were fascinating), Amanda and Kelly are looking at pup mother interactions. More about Amanda's work on rarely studied vocalisations on the Isle of May seal blog ( http://www.isleofmaygreyseals.co.uk/) . When you get talking to experts like these you quickly realise how little you know about creatures that you have been looking at all season. For instance, did you know that the mothers only feed their pups for 18 days after birth during which the pups grow from 15kg to 60 kg (that is some diet) ? And did you know that seals have huge amounts of blood which they use to store oxygen in the haemoglobin rather than hold in it their lungs when they dive? In 2 short days I learned loads but barely scratched the surface.
The island itself was showing an entirely different side. Damp, grey, bleached and muddy (sounds like an standard August day) initially it looked spent and dormant but actually it heaved with life. Seals were everywhere, I couldn't believe where they had got to. These are not animals that just lie on beaches a few feet from the sea but roam all of the place, some were up at the top of the cliffs while others had made themselves at home next to Evelyn's purple shed, hundreds of yards away from the shore. Their grunts, growls, wails and cries carried on the wind, sounds at times like a school group had just landed. At night it gave an eerie feel to the place, gives voices to ghost stories. And if you put 4000 seals in a small area for 6 weeks it is going to smell. A sort of farmyard, pig sort of smell that is not totally unpleasant, at least from a distance.
But the seals were all the was to see, tomorrow find out what birds were out there!

Marine Rubbish - This Is What Can Happen

2011-10-28T09:36:00.008+01:00

A grey seal pup similar to the one caught in this incident.

The last few days have seen the Isle of May in the news but not for a good reason. A very young seal pup born on Pilgrims Haven decided to do a bit of investigation of a structure that it found on the beach. Unfortunately itwas a creel (used for catching lobsters) washed up on the beach after the last lot of stormy weather. It crawled in through a hole but then found it couldn't get out. Its mother stayed by its side all this time but it seems that though the pup was later seen out of the creel it didn't survive the experience and was dead on the beach a short time later. All this drama was captured on the live web cams that are linked from the beach to the Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick . Footage of the trapped seal was released as a press release to highlight the dangers to wildlife caused by rubbish washing up on the beach. The links to the BBC and STV television websites are below.

We clean Pilgrims Haven regularly of rubbish (see blog posting Tues 27 Sept) including removing at least 10 creels this season, the last time shortly before we left the island for the season. It is therefore very dispiriting to see more rubbish being washed up and causing this problem.

http://news.stv.tv/scotland/east-central/276479-seal-pup-escapes-from-lobster-pot-after-an-hour/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-15478438

Watch the seals on Pilgrims Haven through the Scottish Seabird Centre webcam:

http://www.seabird.org/webcam-may.asp

Close Down

2011-10-19T10:15:00.003+01:00

Many apologies for the rather abrupt ceasation of blog updates but the end of our island season came a bit quicker than we expected. I ended up coming off the island in a bit of a rush and in the roughest weather I have yet experienced leaving Jeremy to hold the fort. But then Jeremy's computer went down with a nasty virus and to allow him to finsh his report he had to come off as well. So we have partially closed down the island for the winter leaving it to the seals, mice and rabbits but it is not completely abandoned as the Lowlight is still manned by the bird observatory monitoring the bird migration and next week the hard-core seal team from Sea Mammel Research Unit (http://www.smru.st-andrews.ac.uk/) head out to the island for their 6 week stay.

And I will be heading out for short stays through the winter, just a night or two every so often to complete the final close down in December and make sure everything is OK. I will post the occassion blog posting about these visits but from now onwards there won't be any regular postings until March when we start the process of opening up the island again ready for visitors at the start of April.

But thank you very much for reading the blog over the season and I hope that you will join us for next season in our journey of finding out more about this special island.

The Boys are back in town

2011-10-05T16:48:00.001+01:00

First seal pup to be born on Pilgrims Haven this year, having its first meal.
On Rona there are seals draped across large parts of the island.
The big boys are waiting to get their beaches back.

The numbers of seals coming back to the island is going up every day.

The little bit of red you can see on these flippers is a numbered tag so the seal researchers can identify individual animals and plot their life histories.

Seal season is building up here and it seems to be an early one. There are already more than 8 pups on Rona, a pup at Tarbet and the first to appear on Pilgrims Haven (you can watch the seals on Pilgrims Haven from the web cam linked to the Scottish Seabird Centre, follow this link http://www.seabird.org/webcam-may.asp) . And at each flat area of the island increasing numbers of seals are hauling themselves and starting to reclaim their beaches for the season. Whenever you go down to any of the bays you can feel eyes on you and just off the shore following your every move is a beach master a bull grey seal that is watching you. They spend a lot of time just floating around in the quiet water blowing bubbles, snorting and sizing up rivals but this is all a prelude to the real season when the seals come ashore. The Sea Mammal Research Unit are due out in a couple of weeks time to start their annual work looking in detail at the seals and they keep a blog going that tells of their work. Paula who writes the blog is a wizard at seal identification, she runs the project that uses the individual pelt patterns to identify different animals. To follow their work the blog address is
http://www.isleofmaygreyseals.co.uk/ and as they are the experts they will be able to tell you far more about these brilliant animals and their work.

A Shrike on the Horn

2011-10-04T00:27:00.000+01:00

Today began with coffee out on the deck of the Principal Keepers cottage over looking Kirkhaven and the most stunning sunrise I have seen for a while.

There wasn't a breath of wind and I could hear the seals from the end of the island grumbling and wailing. The last couple of days have been quite interesting as it has been generally fairly still but with light east winds bringing in at different times a deluge of rain, thick fog (called haar round here) and a whole pile of interesting birds.

Jeremy and I have been torn between wanting to lookf or birds and get on with the long list of island close down tasks, So a compromise was reached where we have been wearing our binoculars every moment of the day and have got on with the tasks but just very slowly, with repeated interruptions for checking out birds (message to line manager - don't worry Caroline, all the jobs were done, honest). For example Jeremy spotted his first crossbill for his Isle of May list when he was perched on top of a hide that we were reroofing with a hammer in his hand. It was a close run thing whether it was the hammer or the binoculars that he brought up to watch it.

A redwing

Things started getting interesting on Friday late afternoon when redwings started appearing, these beautiful thrushes come from Scanadnavia to spend the winter here in the UK. By Saturday there were at least 200 on the island with similar numbers of song thrushes and also parties of robins and blackbirds. A load of rain later on on Saturday briought in more migrants including my favourite a great grey shrike whh seemed to like perching on the trumpet of the South Horn.

Great Grey Shrike

While looking for the shrike I also found this tiny treecreeper on the side of one of the fog horn buildings. Normally you only see these birds fly a few yards in the woodland where it noremally lives but this little birds had flown hundreds of miles on migration. It was exhausted and starving and immediately started feeding.

Treecreeper

Sunday was a better day for weather and we woke to find the island absolutely hooching with birds. Mostly they were goldcrests, unbelievably they are Britain's smallest bird yet they were stopping off on the island to refuel and rest while on a journey of hundreds of miles. Mixed in with them were chiffchaffs, bramblings, blackcaps, whitethroats, garden warblers and about 50 wheatears. The bird watching was exciting as you just didn't know what would should out of cover or drop out of the sky next.

Wheatear

The calm conditions of last night and this morning were good for travel so most of the birds have now left the island and just in time as tonight it has all blown up again. A south westerly gale is now howling down the chimney, rattling the gates, sending spray across the island and generally making life for humans and birds more difficult out here. According to the forecast it will be with us for 3-4 days and this will slow down or stop bird and human journeys until the next bit of favourable weather but until then I will be remembering 1200 goldcrests peep peeing from every wall and bush.

West Rona this evening.

The Lighthouse Family

2011-10-03T08:05:00.001+01:00

Another interesting visitor came last week. David Best, American landscape photographer from Washington State visited the island to photograph it. What made the visit more special was that he was a "several greats" grandson of Lucy Anderson. For those of you who don't know Lucy Anderson was the young babe who survive the lighthouse disaster of 1791 when the lighthouse keeper George Anderson, his wife and five of his children died after being suffocated from fumes from the ash heaps surrounding the old Beacon lighthouse. Lucy was saved and brought up in Anstruther before heading to the States with her husband. David isn't the first from the lighthouse keeper Anderson family to have visited the May and there is great satisfaction is maintaining the connection down time and across oceans with people with a direct link to the island. We showed David around the Beacon where his relatives lived and died and all round the island and we are very much looking forward to seeing his photographs of his visit.

Interesting Carcasses

2011-10-02T07:17:00.000+01:00

Those of us working on the Isle of May are drawn to dead birds and seals like flies to rotting meat, literally. This is not just down to a general fascination with these creatures and seeing them close up or a need for skulls, feet or flippers for the visitor centre touch table. It is the tags and rings that we are after. A large of number of birds on the island are ringed as a way of marking individual birds but this ringing effort is only useful if rings are seen or found after they have been fitted. Some special rings put on birds can be read from a distance but most are small metal rings that can only be read when the birds are in the hand and dead birds are the easiest to get in the hand hence the unhealthy interest in carcasses.
So a few weeks ago when out on Rona I found 2 legs attached to a bit of a freshly cleaned carcass that were probably from a whimbrel or curlew that had been killed and partially eaten by a peregrine. Glinting in the gore was a metal ring on one of the legs - goldust. A closer look at the ring and things got even more exciting as the ring was labelled "Museum Zoolog Helsinki Finland", this bird had been ringed in Finland. I sent off the ring number and details to the Isle of May Bird Observatory ringing secretary who made contact through the right channels to the Finland Ringing Scheme. Apparently this bird had been ringed so recently that the details had not yet been submitted to the central office but the seems as if it is likely to have been a curlew ringed as a young bird in Finland. A look in the fantastic Scottish Birds book under curlews states that up to 2004 over 60 young curlew ringed in Scandinavia have turned up in Scotland. So through ringing a picture has been built up that shows that the Scotland is an important wintering ground for curlews breeding in the Nordic countries. We will have to wait and see what the details of this bird are but finding a ring like this makes all that turning over maggoty bodies and trying to find if the legs are still attached, worthwhile.

Two Ribs plus One

2011-10-01T10:22:00.006+01:00

Notes from the memory log of Sept. 28, 2011.

Warm southerly air and brilliant sunshine was the surprise of a good part of this Scottish week. I will use the word "hot", on the May, surrounded by cool sea. I am here to substitute for Dave and Jeremy, away on an annual conference, keeping this volcanic rock stable and attending to various projects revolving around tern habitat and other maintenance.
James, the pilot of May Princess provides us with the to-ing and fro-ing of supplies and personnel as required. For this he uses his Rigid Inflatable Boat (Rib). On Wednesday he had arrived with three individuals surveying the Low Light and Katherine, one of the researchers who had returned to locate an "easy to find thermometer" hidden under a rock during the breeding season. She had forgotten it. I met them at the jetty and they went to attend to their business. James waited for them to return as the tide rose with flat, calm, clear water.
As ever, while stationed here, our eyes are kept to the sea. I first heard, then noticed two small Ribs skimming the waters off the east face of the May, moving south. As they moved past the slim opening to the harbour entrance the lead boat slowed down. The skipper had noticed James moored at Kirkhaven, our harbour. The second boat also slowed. They were soon navigating through the narrow, treacherous channel. I watched as they safely found the way in and greeted them first at the low water jetty and directed them to moor alongside James who had relocated at the main dock as the tide continued to rise. They informed me of their trip from Southampton, their charity fundraising for muscular sclerosis and Parkinson's, and their sexy boats. I welcomed and informed them of what wonders they had stumbled upon. If they had not seen our Rib they would not have stopped. I encouraged them to have a stroll and visit the island. They did so, returning with smiles on their faces. As they prepared to depart, we wished each other well. By-chance encounters are often so rewarding. A link to their blog is located here below.

Both Wednesday and Thursday provided the highest tides of the year. The photo below shows that the sea at it's highest came over the dock by about 5cm. (2in.) Fortunately, the weather provided for calm, flat conditions.

Oh yes. Katherine did recover her expensive scientific equipment. It took her more than half an hour to locate it, under an "easy to find rock".

Rinchen Boardman

http://taketworibs.blogspot.com/ - Day 20 Wed. 28th Sept. 2011.

Beach Rubbish

2011-09-27T08:28:00.005+01:00

Pink footed geese migrating in off the North Sea at sunset.
Sunrise on the Isle of May this morning + watched with the first coffee of the day = no better start to the day.

The end of the visitor season on the Isle of May came to an end rather abruptly with the last few days of the May Princess sailings being cancelled due to crew illness. This made the Scottish Seabird Centre RIB that came on Sunday the last visitor boat for the year. It appears that it has been a record breaking year for visitors but we won't know for certain until we have a total up of all the boat numbers over the season.
So now we are doing a general tidy up of the island and shutting down all the visitor facilities so they don't get too battered by the winter gales. As part of this tidying up I did a last beach clean of the season at Pilgrims Haven so that it looked good for the last boat and the beach was clear of rubbish before the seals haul up. We do this regularly, probably every 2 weeks and it is always a depressing job because of the amount of rubbish that turns up, and often the same items. There must be plenty of footballers missing the target by a long way judging by the number of footballs that get washed up. Single shoes are another regular, but never a pair. But by far the commonest item is plastic bottles. For this last beach clean I picked up 44 plastic bottles of different types and everyone of them will have been discarded by someone in an irresponsible way. Of course those collected can now be sent to be recycled but it still leaves thousands just around the Forth that are gradually being broken up by the sea. The chemicals from the disintegrating plastic don't just disappear, they get taken up by organisms living in the sea and are concentrated at the top of the food chain, namely seabirds and seals. This is just one example of how people living miles away from the island can still have an impact on the wildlife there. So if you want to do one thing to help the puffins and seals that are so popular here then please recycle you plastic bottles.

The first seal pup of the year

2011-09-26T09:32:00.006+01:00

Here it is! This pup was born on the afternoon on the 23rd September. I'd been out looking everyday for a week and finally found this one at dusk. There have been a few prospecting cows around the island so we expect more very soon. It is the first of around 2000 pups that are born on the Isle of May.

We keep coming across seals further on the island. We presume this yearling is sitting in the middle of Rona to escape the attention of the big bulls that are chasing females offshore.

This animal has been in Kirkhaven all week. It pays little attention to us while it sleeps on the beach.

The Seal Day went ahead albeit a watered down version. Visitors got a glimpse of the pup and the lucky one saw the Minke Whale off the North Ness.

Isle of May Seal Day

2011-09-21T22:46:00.007+01:00

It's nearing the end of the season now. The tourist boat only has just over a week to run and though the visitor numbers are dropping, the numbers of grey seals start to increase as the males and females gather to give to mate and birth. September sees the opportunity get a look at these fascinating mammals and learn a bit more about their lives in the North Sea.

On Sunday 25 September, a seal expert will be on the boat explaining about the seals as the boat passes their haul out spots on the rocks at the ends of the island. Once the boat lands visitors will be able to visit the two viewing points set up on the cliffs, where there will be viewing scopes and experts on hand to answer questions about the seals.

For young people, and not so young people, the South Horn will host stories and songs about seals and selkies from Scotland’s rich mythological tradition. Selkies (also known as silkies or selchies) are mythological creatures found in Scottish, Faroese, Icelandic and Irish folklore who can shed their skin and turn from seals into humans.

The average first date of a seal pup is around the 22nd September. I've been out looking every day but have had no luck so far. There are however some very big haul outs of very big bulls all around the island. I can also hear them wailing as I walk about the island. The seal pupping season will be in full swing after we all gone away for the season. We will be replaced by the seal researchers.

Sailings to the island will be on the privately operated May Princess from Anstruther harbour, leaving at 11.00am, as well as the Scottish Seabird Centre boat from North Berwick at 11.10am.

For details on Anstruther Pleasure Cruises, who operate the May Princess from Anstruther, see the website http://www.isleofmayferry.com/, email info@isleofmayferry.com or phone 01333 311808. The Scottish Seabird Centre boat runs from North Berwick, for more information see the website http://www.seabird.org.uk/ or phone 01620 890202

Volunteering on the Isle of May

2011-09-19T11:03:00.002+01:00

Katey Whyte came out to the Isle of May for 2 1/2 weeks in August as a volunteer to help us with the running of the island, this is her view of the island and her time on it:
"As I prepared to head off for the Isle of May I was unsure what to expect of the next few weeks. But after following advice to pack the essentials for island life (waterproofs and a camera of course) I felt I was ready for whatever the island could throw at me!
However, it seemed getting there was not to be so easy! Bad weather meant the boat was cancelled for 5 days in a row! Eventually I did make it across, although slightly damp and bedraggled looking, on an exhilarating RIB ride in heavy rain. Later that day, as I was shown around the island, David continued to assure me that this place has some of the best weather in Scotland due to the rain on the mainland usually bypassing the island. I must admit I was pretty doubtful. (But then again, I was also doubtful of his story about the seals singing to themselves while they lie on the rocks.... Turns out they really do sing!)
Right from the beginning of my stay I was kept busy with a wide variety of jobs. From dry stone walling to wader counts, from meeting the boats to path maintenance, there is always something to be done on the Isle of May! And as the days went by I became more and more at home on the island. Soon life back on the mainland seemed very far away, and sure enough it wasn’t long before I was swapping my rain jacket for suncream and shades as the weather improved dramatically!
One of the many highlights of my stay was getting the unique opportunity to experience the island and its wildlife in all different times of day and weathers. I also enjoyed passing on my enthusiasm for the island to the visitors. It is a great feeling to see people leave on the boat happy and keen to visit again! My personal favourite treat though was getting to sit by the sea for several evenings and watch as minke whales swam back and forth feeding as the sun went down. Simply magical.Low points were few and far between. Although I think the worst day was when we discovered an injured gannet on Pilgrim’s Haven. (See previous blog entry ‘Unlucky Gannet’.) It was amazing to see such an impressive animal up close, but unfortunately we knew that with a badly broken wing there was little hope for it.
It is amazing how such a small place as the Isle of May can be full of so many spectacular sights, smells and sounds to experience. You can never be bored of it, so by the time it came for me to leave I really didn’t want to go! However, after a slight shove onto the boat I was on my way home, and already planning the next time I can make a visit back there again! "

From the east this time

2011-09-18T11:53:00.003+01:00

I spoke a bit too soon in the last posting as an unforecasted blow appeared on Friday and Friday night. The only difference is that it was from the east which gives us a different view of waves crashing onto the island. The good thing about an easterly is that there is more of a chance of more interesting migrant birds appearing. So yesterday with some excitement Jeremy and I headed out to see what we could find. Initially the island seemed very quiet and there were few birds about but with a bit of searching, birds that had been blown off course while going about their normal migration on the other side of the North Sea started to appear. Some of them are species that we also find here in Scotland such a a song thrush, 2 common redstarts, a garden warbler, a whinchat, 2 crossbills and a common whitethroat. But there were a few others that are birds that don't breed here so we know that they had be blown across the sea. 2 Lapland buntings cheeped as the north end of the island, a beautiful bluethroat appeared briefly at the Lowlight bushes and today a delicate yellow-browed warbler was caught and rung before quickly being released.

Yellow-browed warbler

All of this adds a bit of spice to our day though of course we are still getting on with our everyday work of cleaning toilets, meeting visitors and report writing. But it lead me to look up a booklet that I have on my book shelf published 100 years ago about 2 people also experiencing autumn migration on the Isle of May. Back in autumn 1910 2 ladies, Evelynn Baxter and Leonora Rintoul were busy breaking the mould by studying bird migration as independent lady researchers on the Isle of May in a scientific way. These 2 ladies spent each autumn staying with the lighthouse keepers for 6 weeks and noting the birds using the island during that time. They then published their records and used the information to inform their theories on aspects of bird migration. It is interesting to note in the booklet that in that year they recorded a Lapland bunting that proved to be the first record for the Forth and also 1 bluethroat that turned up only a few days earlier in the year than our one this year. Perhaps the biggest contrast with today is that they regulary refer to procuring birds for identification and this means blasting them with a shotgun, something we don't do today. Rintoul and Baxter went on to be in the forefront of Scotttish ornithology for many years but it was their interest and studies in the Isle of May 100 years ago that has lead to the forming of the bird observatory here and the study of migrating birds that we contribute to today. It gives me a real feeling that the work here is part of greater project that has made big steps in increasing our understanding of birds in Scotland.

So Quiet

2011-09-16T08:57:00.001+01:00

It's all quiet now. Katia has moved on and those of us left on the island have been relishing a wind-free existence. But it does feel a bit like we have skipped a season overnight. The wind has turned to the East and the breeze has a cutting edge making it a top coat colder and me reach for a hat. The grass has been bleached by the wind and salt, giving it a wintry colour and flattening it all in one direction like a well coiffured head. The nettles, sorrel, rhubarb and elder are blackened and shrivelled and we won't seeing much greenery from now till spring. To cap it all the geese have appeared in the last couple of days, groups of pink feet heading south, high up against a blue sky their calls to each other setting the season clearer than anything else.
And now you can hear yourself think and be able to stand without being shoved, the quietness can make itself heard. All things are relative and there is still plenty of sound but the birds are no longer saying "oi, look at me" and those that are left and just concentrating on getting through the winter. I wouldn't like it like this always but as a contrast and at a season's end, it's bliss.

Please touch

2011-09-14T09:14:00.001+01:00

When people come to the Isle of May we really don't want them to spend very much time in the visitor centre as what we really want is for visitors to be out there and experiencing the island first hand. But the visitor centre can be a good place to either get the answer to a question or find out something new about the island. This year we have added a few things that are a bit more interactive and tactile. The touch table was made by our hard working volunteer, Rinchen, out of recycled materials (budgets are very tight this year). It gives people of all ages the chance to feel a gulls wing and even flap it, put their finger on the teeth of a bull grey seal, touch the webbed foot of a gannet and look closely at the differences in beaks of some of the seabirds. None of these things you can do as you walk around the island. Someone asked me how we clean up the skulls of the dead things we find around the island ? Well the traditional way is to bury them in the soil or the compost heap and let the microbes and worms clean them up. The problem is that it takes so long that most people forget where they bury them, there are so many skulls buried and forgetten around the garden that it is a job to find room to plant my pototoes. We have found a much quicker method.
- First take one nylon net onion bag.
- Put skulls in bag and tie long string around bag.
- Take it down to the jetty that goes out into the middle of the freshwater loch by the engine room.
- Leave in loch for 4 weeks
- Remove and leave in bucket of dilute bleach for 2 days,
- Dry and put on touch table.
This works becuase the loch which is like pea green soup most of the year has some mean creepy crawlies in it which clean of all flesh of the skulls within a month. I bet even David Walliams wouldn't do a sponsored swim across it, there would be nothing left of him by the time he got to the other side.
The other addition to the visitor centre is a large white board rescued from a SNH office. This gives us a chance to put up the latest sightings on the island and what work we are currently doing but also gives the opportunity for visitors to put down what they liked best from their visit. Some people seem to like it anyway.

Still Blowing

2011-09-13T20:39:00.003+01:00

This morning is was still blowing hard but with the blue sky it looked fantastic. Rainbows appeared wherever you looked.
But the same as yesterday as it got closer to high tide the waves got bigger, the blue sky went to be repalced by lowering skies and allround rain.
The birds, me, the Lowlighters, everyone is just waiting for the wind to drop so we can start going about normal life again....well as normal as you get on the Isle of May. Tomorrow maybe ?

Another blow - Katia reaches the May

2011-09-12T20:42:00.006+01:00

It was lovely this morning but you could see that something was brewing.
By lunchtime things were livening up.

And this evening it is really blowing. With weather like this you have to get out and see it and experience it. Though it doesn't compare to the big storm on 23rd May (see posting The Kitchen Window for that date) this one is still pretty impressive. So I had a bit of a wander around and found a couple of places where I could tuck myself down out of the wind and just watch the huge rolling waves crash into the cliffs. Its hypnotic and I found I couldn't tear myself away as I kept waiting for the next big one. Of course the pictures here can only tell part of the story as you can't show the roaring wind, shoving and pushing your every step, the spray coming in all directions, rain from above and seawater from below or even the seafresh smell.

The fog horn must about 10m tall, the cliffs another 10m so this spray is going up 20m, 60 foot high.

The first casualty of the storm, a dead guillemot washed up at tarbet.
It is dark now and the bumping and rattling around the cottage is getting louder. But these cottages have seen a lot of this, anything that could blow away would have done a long time ago. So it is a matter of waiting and seeing what the morning will show - but according to the weather websites she has finished with the island yet.

Out For Dinner

2011-09-12T17:00:00.000+01:00

I went out to dinner last night, 7 for 730. This doesn't happen on the island much, especially when you are the only one on Fluke street but Ian, Colin and Frank who are in the Lowlight invited me over with the temptation of a very nice chilli and a fine 15 year old, malt whisky of course ! They are all long standing members of the Isle of May Bird Observatory with Frank having first visited the island in 1949 as a boy on birding trips. It made for a fascinating evening listening to stories about past birds, boat trips, the lighthouse keepers and the keepers goats. King Farouk was the billy and could be smelt from a fair distance away, I'm glad we don't have to deal with that sort of thing now though it was a close run thing earlier this year with the researchers and the shower ban. I tend to think of the island as having been a nature reserve for ever but when Frank first came out all the debris from a wartime occupation were strewn around and the island was first and foremost a lighthouse island in a strategically important place. The pioneering bird observatory guys were just mad bird watchers who flitted around the real work of the island. It just goes to show how far the management of the island and the thinking behind it have changed. So it gave me something to ponder as I wove my way home in the dark up over the island, internally warmed by the whisky, buffeted slightly by the increasing wind and intermittently lit by the Mainlight. I wondered what state the island would be in in another 60 years time.

May in Autumn - Inbetween Times

2011-09-11T22:59:00.001+01:00

This is a funny time of year for the island. It is very much inbetween times but that is not a bad thing. Most of the seabirds have finished their breeding cycle and left terra firma to head out to where they spend the bulk of their lives, far out at sea. The seals have spent the summer stuffing themselves with fish and are starting to return but haven't yet claimed the island for their own; that will come in 4-5 weeks time. So there is a tranquil, calm feel about the place. Even the gulls are down to ones and twos during the day though good numbers come back to roost over night. There are places to think without being immediately distracted by puffins or kittiwakes and the wind becomes ever more evident, even more so today as it is building for a right good blow tonight. No visitor boats today and unlikely for tomorrow. This end of season feel is strengthened by the colour of the plants. The elder and the nettles are turning black from all the winds, the yellow ragwort turning to fluffy seeds and the grass is in places just starting to show signs of winter die back. There are also more subtle signs such as the day length and the height and intensity of the sun in the sky and intensity that subconsciously tell us that summer is over the autumn is well with us.

Autumnal rustic - first island record
Pink-barred sallow
But there is still plenty to see. The migrant birds are coming to the fore and generate excitement with their amazing journeying. This morning a flood of swallows, sand martens, house martens and meadow pipits headed south with some purpose. Maybe they can feel the change in the weather and want to get far south as fast as they can? Over an hour several hundred went through the island, slipping between the gaps in the gusts of southerly wind. A kestrel followed them eyeing them up for a possible meal while a party of redpolls went through last evening with the same determination. Out at sea there is a lot of movement but the seabirds have different flight plans to the song birds with some heading north, some west and some south. The other night I got very excited as I saw my first sooty shearwater, a large brown (clue is in the name) seabird that breeds in the southern oceans but spends its winters in ours. The more familiar gannets are still trailing backwards and forwards past the island to a from fishing expeditions and kittiwakes, young and old, have been gathering in a group of over 4000 to roost on the island. On a smaller scale the autumn moths are often the best and in the last few days we have caught only the second ever pink-barred sallow and the first autumnal rustic for the island. My favourite is the latter as it is subtler and more stylish that the bubblegum pink and yellow sallow.
So on the Isle of May, even in inbetween times, it is not about whether you will see anything but just how long will you watch.

Whales and Choppers

2011-09-10T17:56:00.005+01:00

It has been a fantastic year for whale sightings. I spent a glorious half an hour yesterday evening sitting at the south end of the island watching a minke whale rise time and time again as it fed on shoals of small fish (see above). A week ago most of the May Princess passengers got a good view of a minke not far out of Anstruther.
And now Colin Murray of Anstruther sent me 2 fantastic pictures of a whale he saw from his boat only 5 miles west of the Isle of May in the middle of the Firth of Forth. It was a very big animal and experts that Colin has sent his photos (see 2 photos below) to suggest that it is a Sei Whale, a rare visitor to UK waters. So if you are anywhere near to the Firth of Forth over the next few weeks keep an eye out for these life enhancing creatures.

It has to be said that for the next 2-3 days a calm sea if not likely with all sorts of storm warnings going out as we look to get the tail end of Katia. Today the weather felt very odd, it was breezy on the top of the island but the wind was almost hot and heavy showers were moving down the Firth. It certainly feels like we have some weather on its way.

And its all happening here today. As i was checking the moth trap this morning i heard a rubbling get louder and louder and looked up to see a huge ship parked right next to the island. The Pharos has arrived. She is the supply ship of the northern Lighthouse board that visits the Isle of May usually once a year. They have about 25 helicopter loads to delivery and 5 loads of remove. So as soon as the visitor boats left the island the helicopter started its load carrying. In the background over Fife I could see the RAF Leuchers airshow going on but I liked ours better, some seriously good flying to land loads right next to the back door of the Mainlight.

Isle of May bird counts

2011-09-09T09:26:00.012+01:00

Everyone we speak to on the boats who come out to the island hears the same thing, 'My job is simple I meet all the visitors to the island and count the seabirds.'

The the first nine days in June this is what I did. I have to count all the crags, ledges, cliffs, gulleys and shelves. I count all the Kittiwakes, Shag, Fulmar, Razorbill and Guillemots. There is no complicated or clever scientific method. I sat down at what I considered the best vantage points and counted everything I see. As you can see from the pictures below this can be quite a daunting prospect. It is important to get good accurate counts of seabirds as they are struggling within parts of their range.

Kittiwakes nests are scattered all along the west cliffs

There were over 6000 birds on Greengates alone!

Razorbills love to hide in the crags

A peregrine sits on the cliffs. I spotted them a few times during the counts. One even landed next to me.

I made friends with fulmars......

And eiders.

Cliff safety is very important

I counted 15691 individual guillemots. using scientific data collected from the last 40 years and extrapolating out, this gives us a total of 14995 pairs. This figure is just a fraction down on last year.

Razorbill numbers were slightly up with 3012 individuals which equals about 2705 pairs.

I also counted 306 Fulmar, 505 shag and 2685 Kittiwakes.

This year the island was hit by a massive storm in May so a number of birds were relaying when I was counting. The scientists at CEH are currently looking at productivity for the season.

This picture drawn by one of the previous wardens shows perfectly what the Guillemots do when the counter is coming!

Isle of May Lighthouse Open day 2011

2011-09-06T10:28:00.016+01:00

At the end of the day David said to me, 'Well that's three down and one to go.'

This event had taken quite a lot of organisation. The Main Lighthouse, Beacon, Lowlight and Engine room were opened up to the public. It was particularly special because for the first time ever the Stephenson Lighthouse was opened up by the Northern Lighthouse Board.

For the third open day in a row the boats were full and the sun was shining.

It was a unique experience. Visitors were able climb the tower up to the parapet, see the lightroom and look around the living quarters.

Visitors climbing the spiral staircase

It was possible to see some of the ornate furnishings

Scotlands first lighthouse was opened up and staff were present to tell its story

Looking closely you could see Adam Livingstones initials carved into the fireplace in the beacon

It is certainly a great view from the top of the Mainlight

For the more adventurous it was possible to climb the Lowlight Tower

This event was planned and promoted with the help of Fife Council as part of their 'Doors Open Day.' Many thanks to the Northern Lighthouse Board staff who were there to answer questions on the day.

David counting the roosting gulls from the North Horn

On your next visit to the island you may notice that the North Horn is getting a new coat of paint. SNH are responsible for the horns and the Lowlight.

Our last event of the year on the 25th September will be to celebrate the seals on the island. Experts from the Sea Mammal Research Unit will be present to take a close look at these animals. The Isle of May is the forth largest seal colony in the UK.

The South Ness Monster

2011-09-03T07:44:00.000+01:00

We see gannets everyday here on the May as they head past to a from Bass Rock but they rarely land on the island. Jeremy had an injured one a couple of weeks ago and usually if they end up on the island they are coming to die.
But a couple of days ago a fine big healthy looking bird spent the day sitting on the South Ness preening itself and looking a giant in amongst all the roosting kittiwakes. In some ways this is an exciting event but there is also a bit of nervousness about it. Gannets are doing pretty well around here and are filling up Bass Rock on the south side of the Forth rapidly. 100000 gannets nest there making it the biggest single gannetry in the UK. If they run out of space on Bass then they will start looking for new nesting areas and the Isle of May might suit them. The only problem with this is that the Isle of May doesn't have much spare room with it cliffs packed with kittiwakes, guillemots, razorbills, shags and fulmers and the flatter ground covered with gulls and puffins. Gannets are big and will turf other birds out so if they colonise the Isle of May it might mean the other seabirds are the losers. As it is the bird was gone the next day but it sitting on the South Ness reminded me that these habitats and species are in a constant flux and it is hard to predict how these seabird populations will fare in the future.

Things I have been mostly seeing this week....

2011-09-02T13:33:00.005+01:00

Migrant birds have been a bit thin on the ground but this beautiful little merlin has been a treat for the last few days. These smallest of UK falcons breed on moorland but often come to the coasts for the winter.
The spring tides have been especially high, covering the high water jetty at the top of the tide so the crew of the May Princess, Kevin and Fiona have had their shoes off in trying to keep the boat from banging on the jetty.

You wait a whole season and then 2 gloves wash into the harbour in the same day...... of course they were never going to be a pair !
People are always asking "what eats the rabbits on the island ?"..where here is the answer, a greater black-backed gull tucks into an adult rabbit...they are messy eaters.

The Isle of May lighthouse open day - getting ready.

2011-09-01T21:44:00.009+01:00

A little piece of history is in the making on the Isle of May this Sunday with the first ever lighthouse day when the buildings will be open to the public. So of course we are busy getting everything ready. Today I spent much of the morning sweeping out 100 years of dust and cobwebs from the Lowlight tower as this is one of the buildings that the public will be able to see. There were some huge spiders in high corners that probably used to feed on the pigeons that lived in the tower up to a couple of years ago. They produced some much guano that the stairs had become a ramp. But over the last 2 years 25 sacks of poo have been removed, the tower has been painted (on the outside at least ) and so with a bit of a clean it will be ready for Sunday. If you are coming on Sunday then to get to the top be prepared for a tight winding stair case, a narrow metal stair and a small hatch (not for big bums !) before you can get out on to the rim of the light. But it you get that far remember to look out for the beautiful brass fittings (they don't make then like this anymore), the crests embossed on the lantern and the old graffiti from Service men and visiting bird ringers that dates back to the 2nd world war and before.
The Lowlight was originality built in 1844 at the same time as when a revolving light was fitted to the Mainlight. But the Lowlight was a fixed light and its purpose was to mark the position of the Carrs rocks that lie just off Fife Ness. The rocks lay on the line of the Mainlight and Lowlight so if at night a ship was heading south round Fife Ness the skipper knew to keep the Lowlight to the right of the flashing Mainlight to miss the rocks. It was in use up to the late 1890's before a light ship moored on the rocks took its place. From then on the tower became redundant while the cottage was first home to lighthousemen, then Servicemen through the wars and now is home to the Isle of May bird observatory. And the tower wears its history well having been beautifully constructed, simply made to function and last but with a little decoration and it hasn't yet been smartened up so it still retains its working character. It is still easy to imagine Victorian lighthouse keepers going up the staircase to light the lantern every evening or Service men sneaking up the tower on a spare moment from watches to scribble their name before going off for another shift at the observation point. As I swept the staircase I wondered how many times it had been done before and by whom.

Beautiful moths.

2011-08-31T21:01:00.001+01:00

An angle shades moth with its delicately rolled wings looking just like a dead leaf. Butterflies are hugely popular wildlife with the public but moths have a bit of a hard time. People usually firstly think of holes in theri woolens or coming out of wallets and the fact that most fly at night doesn't help their cause. But many of the moths found in the Uk are absolutely stunning. We run a moth trap most nights on the island. It consists of a bright light that attracts the moths in, a wooden box under the light with a slot that mothdrop into and can't get out and lots of eggs boxes. Before you ask these go in the box and the moths hide under them until we release them in the morning. Below are pictures of a selection of some of the species that we have caught so far in the seaosn. Enjoy.

A burnished brass

A yellowshell

An antler moth - it gets its name from the white antler patterns on its wing.

A garden tiger (next 3 pictures), many peoples favourites moth.

A dark arches - the commonest moth on the island, it is possible to catch 200 in one night.

A brimstone moth

A square spot dart, a notable species as it is rare in the UK, recorded for the first time on the Isle of May this year.

A rosy rustic, not always rosy but always beautifully put together.

A hedge rustic.

Isle of May on TV

2011-08-31T20:14:00.004+01:00

Following hot on the heals of 'Dancing' John Sergent on the 'One Show,' ITVs 'Daybreak' came out to film.

http://www.itv.com/daybreak/lifestyle/travel/daybreaks/lucy-in-edinburgh/

The Isle of May features last in this travelguide to Edinburgh. They came out on the Seabird Centre RIB.

And you guessed it, they wanted to film Puffins......

Bird movements

2011-08-30T14:59:00.003+01:00

The other night Jeremy and I had to go down to the North Horn to check that a key that we had been given fitted. The sun was setting and we took advantage of being in an elevated position to watch the sun going down and see what birds might be coming over to the island to spend the night. On the isle of may we are always looking at birds moving about, it can look a bit random (them not us) but birds always move from place to place with a reason. So some are on migration heading north or south depending on the season, others only pass the island once a year, Some travel to the island to breed for the summer and then head away and some just spend the night on the island as it is safe from many predators.

Half an hour just watching revealed a lot of moving birds. As the sun dropped down behind Fife making it look almost beautiful parties of curlew and knots came speeding in low over the water having spend the day feeding along the mainland. The knot are working their way south while the curlew are mooching around while the moult their feathers. Shags and cormorants rumbled in to spend the night together on a rocky point. A black-headed gull, a rare sight here, flew down the island going south. But what was most striking was the herring gulls coming onto the island for the night. The first few parties came in in groups of 20 to 30 and then they started to pour in. When I looked up I could see a steady stream of them all the way back to Fife. Having been feeding all day and now replete on earthworms, landfill rubbish and chips they gained height over the mainland and then taking advantage of the wind in their faces to maintain lift they just soared downhill to the island. We stared counting and in half an hour reached 1000 and when we left in the gloom there were still birds drifting in. An insight into the bird movements of the island and a spectacular sight from one of our commoner birds.

Waders Count

2011-08-29T20:00:00.001+01:00

Turnstones

Purple sandpipers

At this time of year the seabird monitoring has finished but there are still birds to count and this time its waders. Now the island doesn't look like wader country as they usually have very long bills for sticking in mud and we have lots of rock. But actually one of the many reasons while the Isle of May is legally protected for its wildlife are because 2 types of waders gather after the breeding season in important numbers. They are the turnstone and the purple sandpiper. Both actually prefer rocky ground and are specialised at picking small snails and shrimps from the seaweed and under rocks. So from July to September we try to do a number of counts to find out how many of these birds there are . The Isle of may has many rocky inlets and gullys so it takes a coordinated count from between 2-3 people to cover all of the north, east and south sides. And it is an incredibly intensive 2-3 hours where you are totally focused on what you see. As usual there is always lots to see:
You might find a gull chick eyeing you up.

You can enjoy the poo art from the kittiwake roost.

And marvel at the way the wreck of the Island has been broken down by the sea and pushed up on the rocks so that it is now just a scattered few lumps of metal.

And you get to explore lots o dark gullys where people don't normally go.

At the end of the last count we managed to find 5 different species of wader and nearly 200 birds...not bad for a lump of rock.

Catching Up

2011-08-28T20:15:00.004+01:00

No visitor boat today as it is blowing hard from the west and has been raining for much of the day. So a good day for catching up, including, of course the Blog. Well the seals are getting more frequent and more curious. The one above was watching me in the harbour. The seal below was trying to sleep but the incoming tide and waves were making life uncomfortable - time to move.

A couple of days ago another blogger Mark Avery visited the Isle of May. Mark, as Director of Conservation for the RSPB was an outspoken champion for wildife in the UK and he put his views over in a very popular and well-read blog. He has now left the RSPB and is self-employed and still writes his hard hitting blog. With trepidation I went on to find out what he had written about the Isle of May. The link here (http://markavery.info/blog/) will let you read the entry for the 28th August but luckily he was very complimentary about the island, nearly as complimentary as he was about Fiona from the May Princess, none of the rest of us got a mention though.
Yesterday evening was beautiful, though today the shepherds would have been hiding their faces this morning. I took a few photos of the angel and the bishop at Pilgrims Haven while the shags watched me from the stack.

Today it is a different scene, but that is the Isle of May, never the same, always changing.

Purple Sandpiper video

2011-08-24T19:54:00.004+01:00

Here is a short video of Purple Sandpipers on the Isle of May NNR taken on Saturday. The island gets nationally important numbers passing through in the Autumn. This charming wader hides amongst the rocks on the island.

Isle of May on the BBC

2011-08-22T20:46:00.006+01:00

The Main Lighthouse on the Isle of May

Back in July David and volunteer Alice met John Sergent out here on the island. They were filming for the 'One Show.' They were going into the mainlight. We don't have a TV set out here so we missed the original broadcast. We have watched it back on the BBC i-player. It is great to see the island featured on a prime time show.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b013lr0r/The_One_Show_17_08_2011/

We are about 23 minutes into the broadcast or I as like to call it, the headline feature.

There will be a unique opportunity to visit the Mainlight on the 4th of September. On this day we will be celebrating the islands Lighthouse.

Unlucky Gannet

2011-08-20T18:45:00.007+01:00

Every so often members of the public report dead of injured birds in to us. So on Saturday when a member of the public described what sounded like a Gannet to me my heart sank. These are quite feisty big birds that don't like to be handled. Loss of fingers and eyes are possible. I'd also received enough injuries from Puffins during the summer! So after the May Princess set off we headed for Pilgrims.

Here is a picture after the bird was successfully secured.....

Only after a short struggle.

It did however put up quite a fight. Heaven knows what people from the Seabird centre thought. The cameras were trained on me at all times. The stick was used to give it something to peck at so I could get a hand behind it's neck. For a badly injured bird its survival instinct was quite Strong as it charged at me. I managed to catch it receiving no wounds.

Here is a picture of its bill close up

Gannet have this wonderful foot pattern

Sadly this bird had to be humanly destroyed. It's wing was broken very badly. In the past here we have had Gannets caught in fishing nets. They do follow the fishing boats and can pick up injuries when they dive into the nets. Just last week I saw a line of Gannets sat on the back of a fishing boat out from the island.

Discarded fishing gear is just one of the hazards that our sea life faces. I was looking at the sea the other day when it was flat calm. I was amazed just how much rubbish there is across the sea as far as you can see with a telescope. It was really quite frightening. And that's just the rubbish we can see on the surface!

We do say in our introduction 'the way we all live our lives can have a direct effect on what goes on on the island.'

A few thoughts from last weeks open day.

2011-08-20T18:23:00.000+01:00

A full house on the May Princess

Brother Baldwin was on the Priory watching the boat come in

It's great a sesame street extra could make it!

It was a fantastic day. My favourite memory was when I went to tell brother Baldwin that his coracle was leaving shortly, without breaking character he turned to the person he was speaking to and said 'the Abbot has requested me to return to the mainland.'

Our next event is on the the 4th September. You are welcome to celebrate the lighthouses of the island. More details to follow shortly.

We arranged this for you

2011-08-20T13:31:00.003+01:00

Sometimes the weather is just bad. It's raining cats and dogs. But the boat still comes out and we will be there to meet it. On a particularly rainy day it was not looking promising. It had rained all day. It was so bad we stood in the bar on the boat and I did the usual talk. To be fair the weather did not dampen the enthusiasm of visitors. Off they went in their various directions. I stayed on the boat and had a coffee with the crew. I set off eventually with it still raining. I headed for the main light and as I walked up Palputation Brae the rain stopped.

A strange mist rose from all around

From behind the Beacon a rainbow appeared

Do you see the crock of gold at the end of the rainbow? (or a group of non english speakers off the path. Grrr)

The island was bathed in sunshine as the May Princess left. And yes I did use the old joke 'we arrange the weather' to every visitor I saw!

On average we get 40% less rain then the mainland. We have suffered with a water shotage this summer. Many days we've looked back towards Anstruther with dark clouds above while we are in bright sunshine. One of those stange phenomina of being an island.

Seasons are a changing......

2011-08-19T22:58:00.015+01:00

These were typical pictures from the start of the breeding season

I was recently being asked by a friend of mine, 'what is there on the island once the puffins have gone?'

It did not take me long to come up with a list of reasons why.........

The scenery is fantastic. On a clear day you can see a long way down the Forth. The Bass Rock can be seen to the south west like an incomplete 'Death Star' (star wars geek alert) with strings of Gannets that will be feeding their young until October on the Rock. Great views of these birds can be had from May Princess or just streaming past the Ladys Bed. You can also see North Berwick Law, the Pentlands looking south. Looking towards Fife you can see Largo Law and the Lomands as well as getting a different view of Fifes beautiful fishing villages. You are still in the central belt of Scotland, can you think of anywhere more tranquil?

The waters around the May are amazingly clear. All manner of sea life can be seen in the harbour. If you go up to the west cliffs it is possible to get a look at seals swimming under the water.

The seals are now turning up in force. The skipper on the May Princess will skillfully and safely drive the boat close to where the seals haul out. Good views are easy to get.

At this time of year the Sea Campion and Oxide Daises are out. The flowers attract a profusion of Butterflies. Many hundreds of Red Admirals and Tortoiseshells have been seen on the island with smaller numbers of Painted Ladies and Peacocks.

And you never know, you might get lucky.....

Can you see the Minke Whale?

This Barred Warbler is a vagrant to our shores from Eastern Europe. This is a rare bird in the UK. Islands get a good mix of migrants in the right conditions.

I can't think of a caption for this picture. Answers on a postcard.....

So I think we can establish there's still a lot to see plus think of the fresh sea air.

Stop press - At time of writing Puffins have still been seen carrying fish to feed their young. There are also Fulmar feeding young. It's a long breeding season out here on the Jewel of the Forth.

A welcome distraction....

2011-08-18T21:28:00.007+01:00

Volunteer Cathrine and I are hard at work tidying up around the reserve and moving stone for the dry stone walls. So when the ringers bought over a sparrowhawk we were delighted to go and see it get processed.

The bird was one of three present on the island. At least one has been terrorising the Gulls and feral pigeons for about a week! These birds feed on small birds. The bird was born this year.

This picture shows the beautiful barred underwing

Sharp at both ends!

Living on the Isle of May Open Day

2011-08-15T08:18:00.002+01:00

Guillemot meet boy.

Tommy the waller restoring the lighthouse keeper built walls.

Reliving the priory's history with Monk Baldwin.

Claire entrancing visitors in the south Horn with wonderful stories and beautiful singing.

Well we were blessed again. Yesterday our second open day (of 4 for the season) again had fantastic weather and the 122 people made it over to the island in various boats to enjoy the People of the Isle of May open day. As usual they were able to walk round the island sampling the birds, seal and tranquility in the sunshine but in addition they got an insight into the many and varied lives of people that have been living on the May down time. Monk Baldwin greeted everyone that made it to the Priory to tell them about the 10 seater toilet, the successive holy buildings and the hundreds of years of burials. Dave the lighthouse keeper regaled visitors of the stories of working the lighthouses on the island while Tommy the waller got people to help him in his work to restore the walls around the island that the original lighthouse keepers built 200 years ago. In the South Horn Claire wove some magical stories about selkies, lighthouse keepers and witches and entranced listeners with her singing - the acoustics of the South Horn have to be seen to be heard. And a 6ft high guillemot flew in to explain how 1000 of years ago when people first came to the May they came to eat guillemots but now people come to study and enjoy guillemots.

We have 2 more open days left - the 4th Sept is lighthouse day when visitors can look round the lighthouse buildings and the 25th September is seal day and with our track record the weather will be stunning so book up now !

Ship, cloud, whale

2011-08-14T08:06:00.005+01:00

Sometimes on the Isle of May you just don't know where to look.

Yesterday evening the small group of us on the island had a little BBQ down by the visitor centre. A dry, slightly breezy evening seemed not too bad weather and preparations were well under way. However the lightly of the BBQ was interrupted by the yell of "WHALE" as there maybe only 100yards off Foreigners Point was a minke whale. These are the commonest whale in UK waters and from the same family as the blue and humpback whales though much smaller, they are under 10m but then when you pace it out 10m is a lot of whale still. The hunt small fish and other creatures that they sieve out of sea but taking a huge gulp of water and squeezing it out of their mouths through filter plates that hang down so leaving them a mouth full of food. But they are fast moving and have a reputation of surfacing once, and then diving for a longtime and so not being seen again. So what was exciting with this whale was that it kept surfacing, doing 2-3 closely spaced breaths before going down for 5 minutes or so and then coming up again. It was long enough to get everyone out to see it. It was last seen heading north east towards Fife Ness. Back to the BBQ.
But that wasn't the end. The cloudscape was fantastic with huge rain clouds moving down either side of the Firth and then a massive one lumbering over the island but thankfully not dropping anything on us. We were just finishing the last of our sausages when the shout "WHALE" went up again and we saw it heading south. We ran down to the South Ness to get really close views of what we thought were probably 2 whales, a bigger one and a little one off the end of the island. Behind the whales and looking incredibly dramatic was a beautiful cruise liner moving out of Leith and out to sea, gleaming white against bulging black rain clouds lit by the setting sun. Behind us the setting sun was colouring more rain clouds and lighting up the Mainlight light with with its own rays. You found yourself spinning in circles to take in the back lit lighthouse, the storm lit cruise ship and the sea lit whales.

A boat at last

2011-08-12T17:47:00.009+01:00

A boat, we have finally have a boat. The May Princess made it in for the first time since Saturday and even then it was touch and go with a rough crossing had by all. The RIB Osprey did make it across on Wednesday with the Seabird RIB from North Berwick and these 2 boats brought on the total of 14 brave souls who experienced torrential rain for the whole of their visit. So hopefully we will a bit less weather and calm down now.

Jeremy made it back on today after suffering from being off the island *(the isle of May does have that effect on you).

The sea delivered his new island vehicle just before he arrived and I had to explain to him about cut backs in public services and how we all have to make sacrifices. If he asks nicely I will let him drive my own quad bike.

The are still plenty of gulls on the island, all 4 species are feeding young and will give a traditiona Isle of May welcome to people that stray off the paths !

The east winds that have produced such spectacular seas have brought in a few nice birds, some from across the north sea. In the last few days wood warblers, whinchats, common whitethroats, robins, wheatears, willow warblers, meadow pipits and a common rosefinch have all appeared. A sprinkle of migrant birds adds spice to island life as you just never know what you might see each morning when you go out and what might be hiding in each bush you look in.
A wood warbler

A whinchat

Ringing mallees

2011-08-11T10:15:00.002+01:00

A chick about to fire.
It doesn't know yet that we are above it !
Adult fulmars.

Trying to point heads away while holding the feet.

Fulmars or mallees as they are called locally don't get noticed much with the puffins and all the other birds around them but as they always take so long to get started with the breeding business they are always the last feeding chicks at the end of the season and so now they stand out. With the cliffs nearly bare of birds the great big fluff balls of chicks that look more like a muppet chicken than anything else can be spotted easily. Fulmars have a strategy of both parents going out to sea to find food for the chick at the same time. The downside of this means that some young chicks get eaten when unprotected but the upside is that chicks get fed with twice the amount of food and so grow twice as fast. And now they are the right size to put a ring on their leg to help gather scientific information about these birds. But it is easier said than done as they have a useful defence. They squirt a stinking liquid at you that can go 2-3 feet. As they nest on steep grass banks you often have to climb up to them and care has to be taken that you don't come face to face with one. So an approach from the side is good and you have to make a quick grab for the head and turn it away immediately else you will have a smelly arm for a week afterwards. Where you turn the head also matters otherwise your colleague who is handing you rings and ringing equipment won't talk to you again if they are on the receiving end.

So with some trepidation Mark, Emily and myself headed onto the cliffs last week to ring some chicks. Despite trying to distract them with various diversion it wasn't long before we were wearing this years fragrance of eau de mallee but after an hour 21 chicks had small new bracelets on. And Emily who was going back on the May Princess that morning and had been especially targeted was going to have no problem getting a seat!

2011-08-10T14:03:00.013+01:00

Isle of May Adventure July 2011

We made a short day trip to the “ May “ on the 15th July 2011, little did we know then, that within a week we would be ensconced in the Low light for a few days.
In those few hours on the 15th we fell in love with this charming Island. I found out we could stay in the Islands Bird Observatory and that the following week it was vacant. One phone call on the following Tuesday to Jonathan Osbourne and it was all arranged.
I have to say it was with immense trepidation we set sail on The Isle of May Ferry on Friday the 22nd. I had never even been camping and have reached the time of life that I had become a lady who doesn’t do basic. But, I was prepared for the lack of hot water and electric , sleeping in a bunk and dinner by candlelight, even the outside chemical toilet called “ Elsie “ had been taken into account. I am by nature a lady who jumps in feet first without much thought…if it feel right , do it is my motto. Well it felt right but what I hadn’t prepared myself for was the extreme beauty and tranquillity of the “ May “.

The Lowlight

We were greeted by Jeremy who kindly told us he would bring up our many bags on the quad bike. Off we set to the Low Light. Now this may sound really stupid but on our previous visit to the island we had gone no further than Holymans Road, we never got as far as the tunnel or even saw the Low Light and it was all down to the puffins we had seen…..we were captivated.
As we walked up the path and into the kitchen I instinctively knew I had made the right decision on coming. We unpacked had a coffee and sat out side basking in our temporary surroundings. How lucky we felt when we went to wave the boat off that we were staying. During the rest of that day we explored the North side of the Island marvelling in the variety of Seabirds all around. You cannot imagine the delight I had to see Puffins in “ our garden “ . After all it had been less than a month since I had seen my first Puffin at the ripe old age of 54 on Skomer Island. Now there they were all around me. We had dinner by candle light and went for a walk down the Low Road to Burnett’s Leap. The noise was deafening , the air filled with a variety of Gulls and Puffins. I wanted to ring someone, anyone just so they could share in this great experience. Even the frequent attacks by “ Psycho “ Gull, a lesser black back, who patrols the path leading from the Low Light couldn’t dampen our enthusiasm.
Bed beckoned and after a few trips to see “ Elsie “ in the dark I finally fell asleep.

'Psycho'

23rd July 2011

I awoke at 5.30am and was too excited to stay in bed any longer. I put my Jeans and jumper on and went outside to see if “my“ Puffins were still there. Sure enough they were. I sat watching the waves pounding the rocks pinching myself that this was still real. Then I set off to explore further. What a delightful morning it was just me and a few thousand seabirds. I walked down the Low Road , fending off “ Psycho “ Gull who swooped down on me many times trying to land a good kick, and up the High Road until it crossed the path to Three Tarn Nick and Bishops Cove, the wind was quite strong but the path was very sheltered and it seemed every Puffin on the Island had come out to see me. How lovely the Cove is, so peaceful. A great variety of birds can be found here on the cliffs. There is the Oyster Catcher chattering in the air as it flees back and forth and the Kittiwakes with their spectacular aerobatics over the sea cliffs. The Puffins sitting in splendour until they all take flight and gradually come back to their original positions. There are Rock pigeons, Guillemots and Razorbills on the ledges and Gulls circling above. Rock Pipits and Wagtails fly hither and dither.

I went back to wake Dave, have coffee and breakfast. We both thought that with the strong Northerly wind that it would be doubtful that the boat would land today. When we arrived down at the Harbour it was clear that the swell was so strong that no boat would make it in today. Yes we were delighted…selfish but nevertheless, we had the Island to ourselves. We watched the waves and a single seal until it was washed off the rocks then made our way back for a spot of lunch. The island seemed to heave with the weight of the many thousands of Puffins all around. It was as if no visitors had given them the all clear to come out to play. They darted back and forth over our heads, coming so close we could feel the movement in the air as they flew past. More exploring and one different sighting, a single Kestrel. It hovered in the distance then plunged to the ground and presumably some prey. Dinner was a slightly more substantial affair tonight, slightly spoilt by the fact than on lighting the wood burner the room had filled with smoke so we had to sit outside until it cleared and we could return to our room. The sunset again was lovely but we were both worn out by our days activities so no late night walk. An earlyish night ready for more explorations tomorrow.

24th July 2011

I awoke at 4am to visit “Elsie” and it was quite noticeable how quiet it was. No Puffins, maybe they do sleep in their burrows, but it was how quiet the Gulls were, that was more surprising. Even though not fully light they had been quite active the evening and morning before. I finally gave up my bed at 7am dressed and went out to my rock to see “ My “ Puffins. There were very few , unlike yesterday. A gull swooped down and all by a single one took off. Some returned but then another disturbance and they all went, this time they didn’t return.
I took my usual route up to Bishops Cove but unlike yesterday passed very few Puffins on the path, it was so very quiet. What few Puffins on the cliff edge were soon disturbed by the Gulls swooping down and they all flew out to sea not to return. On the way home Dave met me on the Path with breakfast in his backpack. We walked down Iron Stairs to Altarstanes landing and he unpacked coffee, orange juice, biscuits and chocolate. Just my kind of breakfast. The little landing area is very sheltered and it was so idyllic just the two of us, watching the seals teasing us and the echo of the Kittiwakes dashing into the coves to feed forever hungry young. Shags fending off hungry Juveniles hopped to and from their rocks.
We went down to Fluke Street to download our memory cards and to the harbour delighting once more in the waves crashing over the rocks, no boat again today. This was becoming a real dream, another day with the island to ourselves. Back for lunch on the outside benches and a mild indulgence, The Germany Formula One race on the radio. As it’s my Photographic profession ( Motor Racing) it seemed rather quaint listening to a race on the radio on a deserted Island in the North Sea. I wonder what my friends in the F1 teams would think if they could see me listening to them in this wonderful setting.
We then decided to investigate the only paths we had not ventured to on the South side . Here we stopped to watch many seals basking in the warm afternoon air, the weather had been magnificent today. Reaching 29 degrees in the shelter of our home of yesteryear. The only Eider duck we had viewed was preening amongst the Shags below and the Kittiwakes feeding very small fluffy chicks on the cliff edges. The only noticeable change was NO puffins, where had they all gone? Yesterday they were everywhere, today they had all but disappeared. Eventually we made our way back to the stables to download our many memory cards and recharge camera batteries. The sun was setting and the sky a beautiful pale yellow and pink.
Dave went back to start tea as I continued to survey our days photographs. When I came out I couldn’t believe the sky, it was now deep red and Violet. I raced to the top of Holymans Road so I could get a clear view for my camera. When I reached the Low Light we just stood outside marvelling in the spectacular sky, it is rare to see such vibrant colours for so long. Dinner by candle light and an hour of a serial, care of BBC iplayer.
It was with sadness I went to bed that night knowing unless fortune were to shine on us for another day the boat would arrive and we would have to leave our island haven and back to reality.

25th July 2011

My body is tired today…sign of old age me thinks. I took a while to dress this morning and with a heavy heart went outside to my rock for my morning catch up with nature. Imagine my delight as I rounded the corner “ My “ Puffins had returned. I had expected them to be all gone like yesterday but no there they were. It was like seeing an old friend when you least expected it.
My morning walk was slow as my legs were feeling the efforts of the last few days, my eyes were tired and the cameras felt heavy. I was feeling sad at the thought of going back to the mainland but felt very privileged to have had these last few days. “ Psycho “ Gull had upped his game this morning, he’s been joined by a Herring Gull, a brother in arms. Both now in the garden making my escape somewhat more perilous.

Dave joined me for breakfast and with a degree of melancholy we packed away our belongings and cleaned our little temporary home. We walked together one last time to Bishops Cove and waited to see if we could see the boat coming from Anstruther. Sure enough there it was in the distance, diving through the waves with a new set of visitors. As the boat neared the Island the Seals below in the crystal clear water mesmerised us with their playful games. We counted a excess of 6 diving and chasing each other about the rocks. Were they putting on a show for us or for the daily guests.

I cannot begin to tell you what these last few days have meant to us both. I have been lucky enough to have travelled to many lovely places in the world but there is something about this beautiful Isle of May that will live in my memory forever. I cannot thank Jonathan Osbourne of the Isle of May Bird Observatory enough for allowing us these few magical days and many thanks to Jeremy Squire for all his kindness and assistance whilst we were there. Rinchen for the information about accommodation and Kevin the boatman for his knowledge and kind assistance.
I hope I will be back to visit “ The May “ once more.

I can only recommend anyone who loves the outside and to be at one with nature to visit The May…though you may find a few hours is never enough and you will want to come back time and time again. The variety of birds even at this time of year is a wonder and of course there are the forever lovable Puffins and Seals. It is a place of tranquillity and immense beauty. Every day there is a different scene to survey , every cloud and wave a wonder. There are the most marvellous photo opportunities all around , something for every level of expertise. Thanks for all concerned who keep this Island just as it should be kept, a jewel in the harsh North Sea.

Joanne Burnett
Motor Sport Photographer
and
Mr Dave McGlynn

Tamworth , Staffordshire
July 22nd-July 25th 2011

Isle of May People Open Day - Sunday 14th August.

2011-08-09T22:28:00.003+01:00

This Sunday we have the 2nd of our 4 open days for the season. This one is all about the people who have lived on the Isle of May going back in time. So if you come over you will get the chance to find out more about the lives of the monks that lived in the priory and even meet one, the lighthouse keepers, learn about the pioneer bird researchers who set up Scotlands first bird observatory and find out about the lives of the Isle of May residents today. You can also hear stories told in the atmospheric south horn. And of course there is also the fabulous Isle of May to see and if you have been reading this blog regularly then you will know that there is always something of intererst to see on the island at anytime.

You can come a long in the usual ways either on the May Princess from Anstruther (http://www.isleofmayferry.com/) or on fast RIB from North Berwick with the Scottish Seabird Centre (http://www.seabird.org/), just contact either for ticket details.

Wind and Fire

2011-08-08T22:33:00.001+01:00

A waterfall at Bishops Cove
It was so wet the shags had taken over the jetty.
If you like weather then the Isle of May is the place to be, we do lots of weather here and the last couple of days have really delivered. Since Saturday morning it has rained almost continuously right through till this (Monday) morning. It then improved to showers but the island is now as wet as I have seen it. The paths are streams, the roads are rivers and the streams are something bigger and we even have waterfalls. 3 Tarn Nick which normally struggles to reach 1 or 2 is now 4 and a half. And perhaps most importantly of all the well is filling up. I hope this will hold us in good stead for next years washing and showering regime.

But the last of the showers finished at tea-time and the day left us on fire with a spectacular sunset but now the swell is building up. It has been breezy today but not enough to create the waves that are pounding the east side this evening. Somewhere else across the North Sea it must be blowing hard and the long fetch gives the chance of the waves to build and 2.5 m waves are crashing across the harbour entrence which if it keeps up means not boat tommorrow. The morning will show us.

Grow Your Own

2011-08-08T07:05:00.003+01:00

Back on the mainland harvest is well underway and when the fog clears I can see the fields changing colour on the East Neuk. Here on the island my attempts to grow vegetables have not been terribly successful. Back in the spring the BTCV volunteer work party dug over the garden by PK (Principal Keepers cottage) and we quickly planted peas, potatoes, rocket and mange tout. The rabbit fence was repaired and I stood back and waited for the fruits of our work. But along came the huge storm at the end of May which completely frazzled everything, shrivelled it and turned it black. Only the potatoes came back so I had another go and planted some onions sets in the vege garden and some rocket, spinach and onions in some fish boxes. The fish boxes have done OK as they give a bit of protection from the damaging trio that we have to contend with, snails, rabbits and wind but down in the vege garden the hungry rabbits have literally eaten through the netting and seasoned themselves with the onions and raked up the potatoes. So after all that we will harvest a bit of salad, maybe a few onions and salvage a few potatoes. And next year I will have to strengthen the defenses against rabbits and wind and have another go.

But it makes me look at the old lighthouse keepers gardens with new eyes. These are surrounded by huge stone walls and represent a massive amount of work for the keepers themselves but if you had to be partially self-sufficient and supplement your meagre pay then it was worth putting in the work. The Isle of May keepers were famed locally for the fantastic vege that they grew and would win prizes at shows on the mainland as well as sell any excess that they had. And when you get into the gardens you can feel how effective the walls were for protecting the gardens from the ever present wind and generating heat.

One of the walled gardens.

And though the lighthouse keepers are now gone the link to them is still there. Recently i met on the island Susan and Ken Gillespie who had come out to see where Susan's father had been born because her grandfather was Assistant Lighthouse Keeper Gillespie, stationed on the May during the war years from 1942 to 1948. Ken and Susan very kindly sent me these pictures take on the island that give a fascinating glimpse back in time and are a reminder of the 350 year history of lighthouse keepers on the May.

Assistant Lighthouse Keeper Gillepsie and his family on the Isle of May - 1942 to 48.

The Headless Viking

2011-08-07T09:28:00.005+01:00

"I hear that the headless viking has been seen again", this was Kevin's last comment as the May Princess cast its ropes and headed back to Anstruther. He always starts this when I am in Fluke Street on my own. This is the first time this season that I have Fluke Street to myself and there are still 5 others 1/2 a mile away in the Lowlight so I am not completely abandoned.

As the island it has had a colourful human history on and off for 1000's of years with Viking massacring monks, hermits, smugglers, 350 years of lighthouse keepers, a 2000 year old burial chambers, 2 cemeteries, 1 of pilgrims and one of islanders, 2 lots of wartime habitation and numerous shipwrecks so if ever an island had a lingering atmosphere it is the isle of May. There are some stories of nighttime footsteps with murmured foreign voices, knocks on doors in the middle of the night when no-one else is on the island and ghostly faces and wailing in some of the lighthouse buildings but luckily Kevin's stories such as the nun with an axe and the bearded monk are not quite as believable and are purely to wind me up.

After the bedlam of being on Fluke Street with 15 manic seabird researchers and volunteers it does always take a day or two to get used to being here alone but quickly you get used to the quiet, the odd noises and the smells and then start to revel in the isolation and the tranquility. Occasionally the unexpected makes you jump like yesterday morning when I went down to the visitor centre to clean the loos early and as I went to open the first door I found it locked and gruff voice shouted "f*** off". As I knew where everyone else on the island was at the time this was a little surprise, was it the toilet troll ? or Kevin's viking caught short (being headless he might have struggled to communicate as he did). A minute later a chap emerged from the toilet as surprise to see me as I was to see him. It turned out he was a kayaker who had paddled over very early with his mate from North Berwick and he thought the island was empty and that it was just his mate trying the door to wind him up.

So I have just a couple more days to enjoy the solitude before our next volunteer Katie comes over and Jeremy will be back soon so I aim to enjoy it as much as possible by just taking in the full island experience.

Midnight Fairies

2011-08-06T07:48:00.001+01:00

It is past midnight and I'm sitting with Emily and Mark in the pitch black on the south end of the island at Lady's Bed. It's cool, damp from a heavy dew and there is just a faint scattering of stars. It has been a long day, I'm a bit knackered and there is a right racket going on around me. We are after the smallest seabird in the world, we're after stormies.
Storm petrels are the most amazing birds. Tiny, not much bigger than a swallow they spend the winter months roaming the southern hemisphere oceans. In May they return to their breeding colonies and the tunnels where they nest and these in the UK are all scattered in the north and west, the nearest to the isle of May are in the Orkney. They only visit the land after dark to avoid being eaten by gulls so spend most of their lives out of sight by man and this means that there is huge gaps in our knowledge of them. So what are we doing on the Isle of May then. Well firstly there is a large population of non-breeding birds that spend time wandering the oceans. But also breeding birds travel far afield to look for food. They do stints of about 4 days on the nest while the other partner is off feeding. By using a tape machine playing a loop of their strange calls and a mist net these birds can be attracted in to the island as they pass and caught and ringed. And that is why I am sitting in the dark with a blast of stormy calls in my ears. But we didn't have to wait long before a gentle fairy like flitter above my head and a bird is in the net. Once in the hand we get a good look at it and even better smell it. Because storm petrels don't regurgitate their food to their chicks but actually convert it to a musky smelly oily substance that they then feed to their chicks. I can't help but put my nose to the tiny bird in my hand and breath in this unique smell. Handling the birds shows up another mystery. All the birds we caught have brood patches which means they have been sitting on eggs. There could be closer breeding colonies yet undiscovered but it seems like these birds may have flown the hundreds of miles all the way from Orkney or further on a feeding trip. So after putting a ring on the bird I place it on the palm of my hand where it sits in the dark for a few minutes and then stands up and patters on tiny webbed feet across my hand and silently into the dark and back into the unknown.
We catch 4 more, one with a ring on that shows it has been caught before at the Isle of May before we head to bed at 3 in the morning and the last thing I remember is smelling storm petrel on my hand.

Back On

2011-08-03T14:22:00.008+01:00

I'm back on and fired up after a bit of a break and of course things have been happening on the island and the seasons progressing.
Firstly since I have been away we have had rain, in fact yesterday it poured down literally all day.

This means several things, the island is greener than it has been all season, the ragwort and burdock are in flower offering colour and nectar to butterflies. At last the butterflies are appearing after having been battered by storms and starved by the frazzling of their food plants. Today there were loads of painted ladies, red admirals, small tortoiseshells in a frenzy of feeding.

Water means washing. Our well is filling up, the tanks are full, the shower ban lifted and washing machines fired up. This means that we smell better. This is a little tough on the seabird researchers who have all left for the year (like their birds) just as the water came back on but for those few left on it is good.
Most of the cliff nesting birds have left leaving just a few kittiwakes on the cliffs. There are good numbers of young kittiwakes on the wing, good news for a bird that has had a number of very poor breeding years recently.

Puffins are still present, many are on the sea just off the island but there are still adults frantically feeding chicks in burrows. And pufflings are still making their big first journey from the pitch black burrow to the wide open sea. Just after lunch today I found one in my kitchen. it has taken the wrong turn on the way out to the shore. This actually isn't the first puffin this season that has made it into my kitchen, three weeks ago one turned up after midnight and peered in a small end of season party that was going on. It looked on with surprise at the 8 islanders jumping around to Free Nelson Mandela by the Specials played at full volume (no neighbours to worry about) but was quickly caught and boxed to be released the next morning.

With fewer seabirds the island is entering into a tranquil phased, less frenetic that May and June before things start hotting up in September and October when the seal breeding season begins and the autumn bird migration hits full swing. This makes the island a beautiful, peaceful sanctuary away from the real life of the mainland for visitors coming over for 3 hours. But of course this is still the Isle of May so there is still plenty to see.

Dolphins from the Princess!

2011-07-30T00:40:00.005+01:00

I'd like to thank Kevin from the May Princess for this picture of two of ten Bottlenose Dolphins that were around the boat as they left Anstruther on Thursday.

There has been a number of cetacean sightings recently with Harbour Porpoise, Minke Whale and Risso's Dolphins all seen off the island. All very exciting stuff!

The World

2011-07-27T18:30:00.002+01:00

I've been meaning to upload this picture for a long time. We see all sorts of ships big and small coming in and out of the Forth. This superliner called 'The World' passed by in June. This is one of the biggest cruise ships on the planet. It was bound for Wick when I got this shot. If you look closely, in hot pursuit is the May Princess. I think it was going too fast for them to catch up with it however!

This week so far in a nutshell!

2011-07-27T17:54:00.006+01:00

A lot of seals! Picture off the south end from the May Princess Tracey Jolliffe.

A lot of Puffins all over the island and long may it continue!

There are still a few Guillemots and Razorbills on the ledges. The bottom of Green face is best.

Eiders are still hatching young. Look on the Loch.

Also this week there are fat fluffy Fulmar chicks on the walk up to the Main light and at Mill Door. There are Kittiwakes still feeding young and flocks of fledged birds on the sea. Offshore observations have included Minke Whale, Risso's Dolphins, Harbour Porpoise, Storm Petrels, three species of Shearwater and two species of Skua.

Cuckoo in the lighthouse garden

2011-07-27T17:36:00.003+01:00

We have seen a few cuckoos this year on the Isle of May but quite often all they do is just fly past. But yesterday this juvenile was in the Lighthouse garden. It showed very well to the visitors though the scope while it fed on caterpillars. Many commented that they have heard them but never seen one.

The adults are a uniform grey colour. The juveniles are brown and barred on the upper parts. This is good camouflage as you can see with these pictures.

Can you see it?

Cuckoos are just one of the species that can be seen on the Isle of May that migrate through the island in the spring and autumn. Bird migration has been studied on the island since 1907. The bird observatory is the oldest in Scotland.

Is this the most photographed Razorbill ever?

2011-07-25T11:25:00.005+01:00

This hansome Razorbill sits on top of Bishops Cove. It appears to be here all the time. When I took this picture I was about a metre away! There are still a few Razorbills sitting on the crags along the west cliffs.

Still a degree of field craft is required to take the picture! Birds in places like Bishops are used to seeing people and become habituated. Unfortunately not all our birds on the island are as tame. This is why it is very important to stick to the paths.

Lovely weekend - Why no boats?

2011-07-25T10:11:00.005+01:00

The temperature was in the twenties and hardly a clould in the sky. Unfortunately the May Princess and the Seabird Centre were unable to sail over to the island. A swell was from the north. Waves were up to 6 metres high at the mouth of the harbour.

The east side of the island was bashed with waves from Friday night onwards!

The shags were enjoying themselves in the surf!

The swell was coming from the north.

More visitors....

2011-07-20T23:43:00.005+01:00

Last Thursday I was up early waiting for a cruise ship to arrive. We were expecting nearly 100 visitors from the Clipper Odyssey. From half seven the visitors started to arrive. They came on small rigid inflatables. We met all the groups before they landed. I ended up doing my daily talk about 8 times. Rinchen used to work with one of the guides on the boat. This guy knows everbody!

The weather was great and the was plenty of wildlife on display that day. We had a lot of good feedback with the group clearly charmed by our little island. It was the last day of the tour which had circumnavigated Britain. The boat was going into Leith for a couple of days before it went to the Faroes and Iceland.

Never used to get this at Loch Leven!

One eye and other seals....

2011-07-20T22:10:00.005+01:00

This is One Eye. He appears to have just one eye. He has been hanging around Kirkhaven for a few weeks. He sometimes comes and has a look at the visitors on the May Princess. This seal appears healthy despite his obvious disability.

These two were enjoying the good weather down at Tarbet. Seals smile when they are happy!

This one was just down at Logans Road. It was quite annoyed when we woke him up because the May Princess came in.

The Grey seal numbers are noticeably rising on the island. Seals can be seen all round the island. Seals start to pup on the island in October. Up to 2000 pups are born on the Island.

Puffins...

2011-07-20T21:33:00.006+01:00

Enjoy some puffin pictures. They are the best they've been all year at the moment!

All part of the service....

2011-07-16T23:23:00.006+01:00

It was 5pm and the May Princess was about to leave. Kevin was there counting up the numbers. The Gangway was removed. Just as the engines were engaged a passenger asked if it was possible to retrieve a book their young child had dropped over the side. The book was caught in wind and tide and looked like it might get back to Anstruther unaided. There was nothing long enough to retrieve the item on board. It looked like it was lost forever.

Until a new super hero was unveiled. Rinchen Broadman the Tern and visitor office stripped down to his basics and without thought dived into the water. James the skipper only gave him 5 out 10 for the dive but the book was retrieved to rapturous applause of a full May Princess. The water was only about 15 degrees so it was quite impressive. He even posed for pictures!

Well done Rinchen. Great work. That was not in the job description.....

TVs own Lucy Verasamy visits the Isle of May NNR

2011-07-14T20:19:00.004+01:00

Our very good friends at the Seabird Centre bought out a film crew today to the island. They were filming for 'Daybreak.' They required some footage of the puffins. (which is not too difficult right now as the island is loaded)

The presenter was the very charming Lucy Verasamy. We had a good chat and she told us of her distrust of Owls!

The shots were canned quickly and it was back out to sea for more shooting.

She did decline the offer to release some of our boxed up pufflings!

We will keep you posted on when the programme goes out.

Photos or lack of....

2011-07-14T20:12:00.003+01:00

Hello folks.

I have a lot of just lovely photos to blog while David P is away but our lack working PCs has meant I can't post them at the moment. I will post them as soon as the IT is back working.

Sorry about that.

I will try to maintain interest with some flowery creative writing.

But I do know, 'A picture tells 1000 words.....'

Hard times for the island Lepidotra

2011-07-14T19:56:00.002+01:00

Here on the island we record the butterflies and moths. We count the day flying insects and set the moth trap at night.

It has recently become clear that these are proving easy prey for some for the other hungry residents of the island.

It is lovely that the Pied Wagtails breed here but is a little sad when I watch the fledged young eating the Tortoiseshell butterflies one after another.

The other breeding passerine on the on the island, the Rock Pipit has been catching the Ghost moths on the island too with great gusto and expertise. Finding them hiding underneath the nettles.

But the biggest surprise came when I emptied the moth trap this morning. Over half the moths had bee attacked. Wings and half eaten moths everywhere. Carnage!

Was it the Rock Pipit mocking me as it made its familiar 'fsst' noise? I doubt it would find its way in and out of the trap. So too the Pied Wagtail that made the 'chiswick' as it flies over.

So what is it? Well, I have my suspicion but I'll solve the crime to the standard Bergerac used to before I go accusing anyone!

I'll post soon.

Under the radar - rockets and waggies

2011-07-09T10:17:00.000+01:00

A pied wagtail chick getting ringed.
Back in the nest.

The adult pied wagtails.

Rock pipits more commonly known as rockets.

Seabirds are big, striking, some are colourful, loud, smelly and often quite tame so naturally they get all the attention on the Isle of May at this time of year. But there are 2 island residents that tend to go under the radar and only the sharpest eyed visitors notice them. They are the rock pipit and the pied wagtails.
The pied wagtails or waggies are highly strung and the more obvious and the males make a bit of a song and dance earlier in the season before they are buried under parental responsibilities. They are an early warning system for birds of prey as as soon as they see a likely predator they make a twittery racket and it isn't uncommon to see a raptor flying through the island streaming a comets tail of 4 or 5 madly twittering waggies. A pair nest right behind our cottages so they are a regular site criss-crossing with beakfuls of food and they are very good parents. They have just about finished bringing up their 2 brood of chicks for the season already and just the other night we ringed the chicks. Though not migrants in the traditional sense the island birds mostly head south for the winter as there is little food for them here during the harshest time of the year.
Rock pipits are the naughty little boys of the island. Naturally their name gets shortened to rockits. There is also a pair nesting right behind the cottages on Fluke Street and the birds are constantly nosing around the buildings, peering in windows and generally look like teenagers up to no good. These birds are tough, they will spend the winter on the island feeding on goodness knows what. The population on the isle of May crashed a few years back for an unknown reason but they are gradually recovering and we now have more than a dozen pairs. So if you come over to the island look out for these chaps.

Beer Shag - The latest

2011-07-07T16:42:00.009+01:00

Cast back your minds back to April 3rd of this year. David reported that a Shag that was breeding down at Ladies Bed at the south end of the island had a plastic beer can ring round its neck.

This bird was recognisable because it wears a plastic yellow ring with YY marked on it. The beer ring was removed in April.

The latest on the bird is that it has successfully reared 3 chicks this spring. This bird was born in 1995 and has bred every year since 2002 producing 14 young.

As well as putting up with heavy seas and bad weather there are many man made threats to these birds including pollution and litter. As we say in our talk to the public everyday 'The way you live your life can have a direct effect on the birds of the Island.' Yellow YY was lucky, unfortunately many are not.

Pufflings are go.

2011-07-07T10:13:00.001+01:00

What the visitors want to see.

There are lots of puffins just hanging around at the moment, especially in the mornings and evening.

A large sprat, a good meal for a chick.

A load of sandeels.

The puffin burrows on the island are obvious with a well worn track left by parents bringing fish back for the chicks.

A puffling soon to be launched off the cliff to a new life at sea.

OK, I have to do it, I can't avoid it anymore, I'll have to write about the puffins. With the island residents there is a certain reticence about puffins and this is almost entirely because the visitors are often so keen to see puffins they ignore all the fantastic other creatures found there and there is so much m ore to the Isle of May than just puffins. But I shouldn't hold it against the puffins so here goes.
Well they seem to be having a reasonable year so far. There are literally thousands of adults bringing back good loads of fish and not just the more normal sandeels but also tiny silver and dark rocklings and the much more obvious huge silver sprats. The sprats are good feeding for the chicks but eye catching and obvious to the gulls. There is a war going on here at the moment with gulls being gulls and chasing the puffins that are bringing fish back to their burrows to get them to drop them so the gulls can steal them. Its fascinating to watch the gulls hanging around in and even fighting over prime positions to pounce on puffins, and puffins wheeling in numbers to go back to their burrows in groups to confuse the gulls. The dogfights when the gulls chase the fish-carrying puffins are spectacular to see. But enough puffins get through as the pufflings are starting to emerge. They are abandoned when full grown by their parents and then have to leave their burrows at night to avoid the gulls and head out to the sea on their own. They can't fly properly so sometimes we find them in the morning stuck behind obstacles like walls, that have impeded their progress on their nocturnal journey. It isn't uncommon to hear the patter of tiny webbed feet at night round the cottages at night and then find the a puffling cowering in a corner in the morning. Those we find are ringed, weighed and measured and then put in a cool dark place to be released in the evening. This gives them their best chance to avoid the gulls and escape the island to which they won't return for another 5 years. And at the moment the island seems loaded with puffins because the pufflings of previous years have come back to get to know the island again, find a mate and sort out a burrow. So it is well worth a visit but in another month the island will become a puffin free zone.

Gulls - the marmite of the bird world.

2011-07-05T08:42:00.004+01:00

Gulls looking good.

A mean greater black backed gull, the top predator on the island.

A herring gull not doing itself any favours.

A beautiful kittiwake, still a gull but somehow a diffrent nature and public image.
A rising roof of gulls.

Cause for concern, herring gulls are declining across the UK.

Gull chicks look great, there are loads dotted about the island at the moment.

The vikings got it right when they named the Isle of May, May coming from the viking word "Mey" for gull. And today that name still applies today as gulls dominate the island and like the vikings they stimulate strong emotions and are often falsely portrayed. Some people hate them but a fewer number love them.
Gulls are prominent all year round but this doesn't mean that you are looking at the same birds all year. Of the 3 species of large gull found on the island (I am not counting the beautiful, delicate cliff nesting kittiwakes in these discussions)the herring gull can be found on the island all the time but large numbers use the island for roosting during the winter and breed elsewhere. The similar sized lesser black-backed gulls have the right idea as they mostly head to Spain for the winter and return in March / April. The greater black-back gull, the largest gull species in the world with a wingspan of nearly 6ft, are seen at all times of the year but large numbers come on to the island for the seal breeding season in October to December to take advantage of all of the afterbirths and casualties. That is the thing about gulls, they are experts at taking advantage of all sorts of food. So though they will eat anything within each individual species there are gulls that specialise. On the island some will patrol the cliffs looking for the unattended chicks and eggs of cliff nesting birds, others harry puffins for the fish that they carry, some mostly take tern chicks and eggs while others head off the the mainland to specialise in feeding on farmland, rubbish dumps or outside chip shops. Of course this makes them unpopular and they certainly don't help their public image when they blatantly, in front of the visitors, snatch fluffy eider and shelduck ducklings from the mothers, eat their gull neighbours chicks and eggs or mug the beloved puffins for their sandeels. They also don't make themselves popular with the island residents as they defend their nests vigorously first by dive bombing and then pooing on you and if that doesn't work by smacking you on the head with their feet as they swoop over. Sometime it seems like they save up the poo just for the residents and they are very good shots, one once filled my eye pieces of my binoculars, luckily I noticed before using them but they still smell a bit.
But gulls are having a hard time themselves. The reduction of rubbish going to landfill and less discarded fish means less available food and in some places herring gulls are declining at quite a rate. They actually have the same conservation value on the Isle of May as the terns and the cliff nesting seabirds.
So I am not saying that you should love them as much as puffins for instance but just admire them for the beautiful birds that they are, marvel at their fabulous flying, swoon over their cute chicks and appreciate that they have a role to play in this whole ecosystem.

Giving Back To The Island

2011-07-04T10:08:00.000+01:00

Rinchen who has volunteered for much of the season with a spotted flycatcher.

The WC puffin signs made by Kevin and Fiona crew of the May Princess.

Volunteers surveying the breeding gulls.

When we all visit the island we all take a bit away from it. It might be the effect of the use of fossil fuels to get there, it might be wear and tear on the paths, disturbance to wildlife or dropping of litter. For a few the Isle of May is there purely for entertainment but for many people who come over hopefully it is a little bit more than that. For us managing the island the main aim of inviting visitors over to see the wildlife spectacle is so that they go home remembering a special day, sometimes one that they will remember all their life and hopefully they will then wonder what they might do to help the island in return. Already many people put in a huge amount of time a effort in all sorts of ways that help the island. The birds observatory based in the Lowlight is organised, managed and run entirely by volunteers and enables the Isle of May to make a contribution to the understanding of bird migration. In running the reserve we gets lots of help from volunteers of all walks of life, in fact we couldn't run the National Nature Reserve with out them. They help with providing information to visitors, helping with the maintenance of the paths and buildings, clean the toilets, monitor the terns and help protect the eider chicks amongst other things. There are too many to name but an example or two of what is done are Kevin and Fiona, the May Princess crew, made the puffin WC signs on the visitor centre toilets, Rinchen made out of recycled materials the crafted leaflet holders and the touch table in the visitor centre, and Flora, Rinchen and Alice who have been helping to monitor our delicate tern population and meeting and greeting visitors. And the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) who carry out most of the research into the seabirds on the island also have people who volunteer to check puffin colour rings, help with the shag researcher and carry out the seabird ringing work.
But the main thing we ask is that everyone can do something even if you live far away, simply anything that you do that can minimise climate change by reducing your carbon footprint will be helping seabirds not just on the Isle of May but across the world.
So a big thank to every one that puts a little back into the island however small.

Whatever next ?

2011-07-03T10:21:00.001+01:00

When the visitor boat chugs up to the jetty on the island you just never quite know who is going to get off and what they are going to do? Sometimes there are friends on or people you know, sometimes there is a group booked on with a special interest and sometimes there is a surprise. Yesterday was one of those when the Edinburgh University Renaissance Singers stepped off on a day out. In high spirits and good voice they enjoyed the island and sang. The priory was first stop, it has just been recently opened after the terns nesting there meant that people couldn't get in and seemed a fitting place for renaissance music. It isn't the first time the ruins have seen type of thing. Above is a photo taken at the end of the 2nd world war of a of a christening service held for the daughter of the commander of the island during the war years.
The choir dispersed only to gather and sing on the jetty towards the end of the visit as everyone was filing back onto the boat. A beautiful day, a stunning setting, thousands of birds and all enhanced by beautiful music. Magic.

Media Spotlight On The Isle of May- not really

2011-07-02T09:01:00.005+01:00

The Stevenson Mainlight - the focus of the film crew.

The inside stair case in the Mainlight.

We have been having a bit of media action out here on the island in a very small way, certainly it isn't going to our heads. Firstly we had a visit from Euan McIllwraith from the Out of Doors Radio Scotland show who was doing a bit about Fife. With there a being a water shortage and my personal grooming standards not being as high as normal it was a good thing it was radio. Euan huffed and puffed a bit going up and down the hills but was extremely positive about the island and its wildlife so it was easy form e to witter on about the amazing place that it is. Of course there is more to it than just wittering and i tried to slip in the message about the real purpose of nature reserves of to win over peoples hearts and minds for nature conservation and ultimately make a change in their lifestyles to reduce their carbon footprint and so help the seabirds that way but it was a bit heavy for a Saturday morning and ended up on the cutting room floor. Listening to my voice afterwards is painful but at least it got out to a wider audience the joys of visiting the isle of May.
Next up was a freelance journalist Steve Newman who came to look around the island, chat with a few people and produce a number of tailored articles for various publications. These are yet to appear but will reach a different group of people out there and put the Isle of may on other peoples radar.
And the yesterday the One Show came to visit lead by guest presenter and former political correspondent John Sergeant. Really they were coming to film a piece about the Stevenson Mainlight that dominates the island but couldn't help but be wowed by the birds. John Sergeant was heard to demand that the camera crew must get some shots of the puffins but it wasn't true that this was becuase he and the puffins had the same dancing styles. The piece isn't going to go out for another month but keep your eyes skinned for the Isle of May on prime time TV later in the summer.

This week I have mostly been.......

2011-06-29T07:40:00.000+01:00

.....enjoying a few more moths in the moth trap, the warm weather has at last brought a few include including this beautiful netted pug.

....welcoming some schools to the island, we have 3 in the last week.

....enjoying the snail formations on the walls and posts. Last nights rain sent then off and about in a frenzy of feeding.

...taking in the beauiful light, especially in some of the evenings.

...admiring the sea campion that is flowering everywhere after being burnt off by the big storms.

...incredibly frustrated when a visitor stepped on a terns nest breaking the eggs despite us having piut a ring of boulders round it and a large marker post. These birds have flown thousands of miles and fought off predatory gulls to breed here only for someones utter carelessness bring their season to an end in a moment.

.....sampling the contrasting lichen encrusted rocks with the haze of blue forget-me-knots.

....watching the researchers as they "grovel" for puffins, that is put their arm down the burrows to check pufflings.

.......meeting the full visitor boats that are coming over at the moment.

....marvelling at the common rosefinch that Mark found in the traps. A beautiful second year male with a pinkish blush that is a bit way off its normal migration route of Africa to Scandanavia.

Photograph less, see more.

2011-06-28T07:40:00.003+01:00

We get lots of photogrpahers to the island at this time of year. Seabirds are large, striking, relatively tame and so easy to photograph and couple this with stunning backgrounds of seascapes, cliffs, carpets of thrift and sea campion and lichen encrusted rocks it draws photographers from all over Europe. There is also the puffin factor, people will travel across continents to photograph them and the Isle of May is one of the best places to achieve this. And it is a pleasure to see people connecting with the island and the beauitful images that result. But it has to be said that my heart drops when I see an array of huge lenses come off the boat because I know that there may be a challenging afternoon ahead.
To be clear most photogrpahers are exemplery on their visits to the island and treat it with respect but if you find someone off the path almost always they will have a large lens strapped to their face. For some reason the request to stick to the paths to avoid having an impact on the breeding birds doesn't seem to apply to the photogrpahers and their desire for the perfect image means that they consider their photograph to be more important that the breeding success of their subjects. The top wildlife photographers are expert ecologists who know the lives of their subjects intimitly and use this knowledge to get better photographs but we have had photographers turn up wanting to know why the puffins aren't carrying fish in early May (becasue they are all sitting on eggs then)or why is one gull teaching another to fly by carrying it on its back (it isn't, its mating).
And then there is their shopping list. Many photogrpahers come to the island with a list of images that they want to capture and leave miserable at the end of their visit if they have not got that picture of puffin with dew on it head or the right number and arrangement of sandeels that they wanted, or are grumpy as the light is not quite what they wanted. And meanwhile they will have missed hundreds of spontaneously stunning sights like a tern chasing a herring gull, or backlight sea campion, or shags gleaming in the sun feeding their young.
So perhaps there is a lesson to us all there, that there is so much to see on the Isle of May that with open eyes, an enquiring mind and a bit of pateience it can be experience and recorded by anyone without having an impact of the birds and the island itself. And real life is even better than watching on the TV or looking at photos.

Surrounded by water with nothing to drink......or wash

2011-06-26T13:39:00.000+01:00

Seen from the island showers falling elsewhere.

St. Johns Well, water suitable for cattle and modern day island inhbitants.

Our modern day water puritfication system, it just add water to work.

View down the well.

Water is a hot topic of discussion with the island residents because we have so little of it.
But we aren't the first island inhabitants to be up against this problem. Water has always been in short supply even though there are 5 permanent wells on the island plus some springs and pools. Several hundreds of years back cattle were never raised in large numbers, just a few milk cows, on the island because of the amount of water they need. The lighthouse keepers had always had their water brought over to the island firstly from Crail and then in later years by the lighthouse supply ship. In 1868 Joseph Agnew, the principal lighthouse keeper wrote about the wells and none got much of a write up, for instance Lady's Well "had cool and refreshing water with a peculiar taste", Sheep's Well (so called from having a sheep drown in it) "was so bad that keepers were banned from using it" (an after effect of the drowned sheep ?) and St. Johns Well " a bit brackish and used for watering the cattle". And this last well is where we get our water from today.
It lies just down near to Kirkhaven and receives water as it passes through the aquifer that is the whole rock island. As it is near to the sea it is affected by the tide and as a consequence it is a little brackish. For many years we drank this water have been UV treated for bugs and soon got used to salty tea and coffee (the coffee tasted better than the tea). But new water regulations mean that we have to have the water treated further but tin this reverse osmosis treatment up to 80% of the water is rejected to be used for toilet flushing. Knowing this we have been on a 1 shower a week ration and minimal clothes washing but even that has not been enough. A couple of weeks ago the well literally ran dry, probably as a result of the very dry winter that didn't fill up the island aquifer enough. So this is where endurance and improvisation comes in. Some water comes over in containers on the May Princess and the rest is boiled rainwater. A number have been testing the washing in the sea options (cold, bracing and ultimately a bit sticky) while quick thinking Bethany took advantage of a heavy rain shower and washed round the back of one of the lighthouse keepers cottages (luckily no visitor boat was on !). The recent showers won't make much difference to the well and we really need a wet winter to refill the island rock. Two teenagers stepped off the May Princess the other day and said "ooo, what a stink" and we weren't sure if they were referring to the island as a whole or the small group of staff standing at the jetty so apologies to any visitors coming on over the next weeks and a suggestion that if they can they should stand down wind of any island residents that they meet.

To and From the Island - 144 times in 6 months.

2011-06-23T18:16:00.000+01:00

Most people come to the Isle of May from Anstruhter on the May Princess, visitors, staff and researchers. Kevin and Fiona Smith, writing below, are the boats crew that make that trip 144 times a season (weather permitting of course).
"Kevin & I originally came to work on the May Princess for the Summer season in 2008 having taken a sabbatical from our banking jobs and we are still here!! The Isle of May really gets under your skin and we feel really lucky to be able to visit the island throughout the season and see the ever changing face of this magical place.
The May Princess sails up to 7 days a week out of Anstruther, with up to 100 passengers. A typical day starts with Kevin & James, the skipper, preparing the boat for the sailing (most important job is to make sure the urn is on for cups of tea), while I issue the tickets from our kiosk on the pier. It takes just under an hour to cover the 6 miles to the May. Sometimes we are blessed with flat calm seas and at other times we experience some ‘rock and roll’ when the sea is a little choppy.
Our job is very rewarding and we meet lots of interesting and like minded people. It always a pleasure to share that first sighting of a puffin with a first time visitor as it is to see a well kent face returning for another island fix. Kevin keeps us informed of anything interesting that is happening at sea and helps our passengers to identify both the landmarks on the island and the birdlife around it. We try to do a full circumference of the island on each trip, doing one side as we approach and the other on our return journey.
We tie up in Kirkhaven harbour at the island and, after a brief talk from the warden, our passengers are free to go off and explore for two or three hours depending on the tide.
We also try and spend at least an hour each day going for a wander around the island and I can honestly say we see something different every day. Our picnic spot changes depending on the direct of the wind but one of our favourite seats is at Alterstanes or outside the main lighthouse on our favourite bench which we renovated in 2008 – think it is needing some work again though!!!
Then it is back to the boat so that passengers can buy a well earned cup of coffee before our sail back to Anstruther. All that sea air definitely does you good – half the boat is normally asleep as we cruise back across the Forth!!
Our passengers disembark, hopefully with lots of happy memories and numerous photos, most of them heading off for fish and chips. All that is left for us to do is to tidy the boat in preparation for the next day and another sail to the May."

The Big Jump

2011-06-22T08:56:00.001+01:00

An adult guillemot brooding a chick under its wing.

A young chick not ready to jump.

Another one not ready to jump.

Gathering at the cliff top.

One of the lower ledges down to the sea.

It is tough on the spectators.

The next 2 pictures are of chicks about to make the jump.

Some people ask me what do we do for entertainment in the evenings after work especially as we don't have a television. For starters there is a sort of grey area between work and spare time on the island.
But last night we watch a real life drama as exciting, exhilarating, stress-inducing as any think you might so on the TV. The guilli chicks were jumping.
Guillemot chicks spend their first 3 weeks on the ledge where they were hatched being stuffed with large fish, often packed shoulder to shoulder with other families and buffeted by arguments, predators and weather. Their whole world is a few inches of rock ledge and a view down to the sea. At 21 or so days old with stubby wings with no flight feathers, covered in down and half the size of an adult this all changes because this is when they jump. Rather than stay on the ledges and get fed by the parents until they can fly guillemots and their close relatives the razorbills do things differently. The chicks are taken out to sea where it is safer from all the predatory gulls and they can be easily fed by a parent while they finish their growing. But first they have to get from their ledge down to the sea. It is literally a big step and it takes the chicks a long time to pluck up courage to make it. They pick windless evenings and you can usually tell if chicks will start jumping because in the whole colony there is a building air of excitement with the noise getting louder and loader. The chicks have a piercing call that carries through the braying and bickering of the adults and they stand on their ledge calling to their parent. This is a Dad thing as the mother takes a step back and leaves the Dad to persuade the chicks to jump and the Dads do this either next to them on the ledge or from down on the sea. Some chicks work their way down from ledge to ledge slowly and gradually but this has the disadvantage of bringing them into the middle of highly stressed adults who often give the chick a good pecking. But some just go for it and move from their natal ledge to the sea in one move. Of course having wings that don't work means that they drop like a stone, the lucky ones hit the water with a splash, the less lucky ones smack onto the rocks at the bottom of the cliffs. They are so feather light that this usually only stuns them briefly and after a shake of the head they are able to wobble into the sea. But the jump is only one hurdle, they then have to find their Dads in all the bedlam and then paddle hard to get as far away from the island and the gulls under the protective cover of dark. Gathered at the bottom of the cliffs like undertakers with a tape measure ready are the gulls and any youngster that isn't reunited with their Dad immediately after they have made it into the water usually ends up as gull supper. But those that survive the jump and the gulls now have several weeks at sea being fed by their Dads and growing to adulthood in a world so different to what they were born into.
So we gathered at one of the cliff faces and for over an hour watched the chicks, one by one leap. One did a fine swallow dive and made it cleanly to the water while another cart wheeled down bouncing off a ledge as it went. Another spent so long that when it finally made it to the water there seemed to be no parent to meet it and the last we saw of it was paddling off into the gloom with no chance of survival. The finally dram of the evening was a small guillemot chick at the very top of cornerstone cliff face. for this chick things were not normal because somehow it had been raised by a pair of razorbills. Maybe a guillemot egg had rolled down and knocked their egg off, we can only guess but however it had started this chick had been feed the razorbill way, that is on lots of small fish rather than the big single fish that guillemots feed their young. So it was very small for its age and also 5 days older than the other jumpers. But it had decided it was going so it set off down a switch back of ledges, being hammered by stroppy adults as it went. Several times it changed its mind and tried to go back up but finally it could walk down no more and jumping was the only option. In the gathering dusk after much calling it went, missing the rocks at the bottom. Immediately instinct made it dive and then swim out to sea as soon as it surfaced. We wondered whether its razorbill foster parents would continue its upbringing but our last sight was this tiny chick meeting up with 2 razorbills and immediately setting off out to sea. No film would ever give such a dramatic, draining, roller coaster ride as this real life spectacle and the only way to mark it was to head back to the cottages through the fading light and drizzle, passed the dancing ghost moths and to celebrate the jumping with a whisky.

Seabird Open Day - who dares wins

2011-06-20T22:37:00.001+01:00

Just a quick posting about our seabird open day yesterday. It was great. After a load of poor weather it dawned beautiful on Sunday and kept on all through the day. The people who came out couldn't believe their luck as when the May Princess rolled in, shortly after the Seabird rib from North Berwick, the sunny was gleamingly bright and what is more even warm.

After a welcome to the island everyone quickly headed out to explore and find out more about the seabird spectacle. The researchers (after a bit but not much smartening up) had been pushed out rather unwillingly to meet the public and surprised themselves by actually enjoying telling the public all about their work on the birds, showing off their huge knowledge and passing on the fascinating life stories of these birds.

Fergus the storyteller filled the south horn for the whole of the event with his "true" stories about seabirds (I have been kissing gulls since hearing them just in case we have any beautiful princesses here)

The face painters had their work cut out painting anyone that came near, island residents or visitors.
In case you can't guess Hanna is a shag researcher.

They even caught me, apparently my nose was just the right shape for a puffin bill.

The terns gave their usual Isle of May welcome to all visitors that came close enough.
So in the end the saying was right "who dares wins".

Garden nesters - an update

2011-06-18T12:56:00.005+01:00

The eider that was nesting just a few metres from my room was sadly predated by Herring Gulls in May. I was disappointed by this as she was just days from hatching. I was therefore delighted that she had relaid while I was in Turkey. I kept a close eye on her during this time of incubation and never saw her leave her nest even in the middle of warm nights. She would often keep me awake at night 'chatting' to other non breeding failed eiders!

I took this picture just after I relaid. I put the pile of down next to her which she used to line her nest.

Last Tuesday she finally hatched. I noticed she was acting differently to normal. She was very vocal and alert and very much on edge. She sat brooding the chicks for a few hours before she trotted off down to the loch. The other females showed an interest in her young when she got there and she joined the small creche that is currently in residence on the loch. She had two ducklings of her own.

Can you see the duckling sticking its head out behind her wing?

I wish her all the best and now I can get a good nights sleep!

She is just one of up to 1000 pairs of eiders that nest on the Isle of May NNR. The nesting season is nearly over for these seaducks but hopefully we will be seeing their young for weeks to come on the island. Up to 20000 eiders spend the winter of Tentsmuir Point NNR.