Calums View of the Isle of May NNR

I spent a week volunteering on the amazing Isle of May. On arrival on the May Princess I was surprised by the sheer quantity of wildlife on such a small Island. Not knowing entirely what to expect I was welcomed warmly by all the inhabitants of the Island, including other volunteers, seabird researchers and Jeremy one of the reserve managers. I was surprised by the amount of work required in maintaining the reserve and monitoring the birds. Helping where I could I spent my week doing a variety of tasks, from netting and ringing puffins to maintaining paths around the Island. Those whom I met there are all very passionate about the work that they do and care about the island greatly. I will definitely go back to the island to do more voluntary work, hopefully for a longer spell of time as I loved the island and the people there were great to work with. I have to thank those who made my stay such a great experience.

I came face to face with a seal while helping Jeremy with his studies of the Greater Black-backed Gulls

It is the first time in my life I've woken up in the morning and a cruiseship was parked outside

Fulmars

Fulmars

During my last few days of shore leave I was down at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust doing a bit of birdwatching. As I was walking around the captive bird enclosures a bird under a bench caught my eye.

It was a Fulmar, a very scarce bird in Gloucestershire. This bird was unlucky enough to have been caught in gales that had blown up the Bristol Channel and got lost.

I managed to catch the bird safely but I then realised I'd never handled one before. The birds are naturally very light. They also had a very interesting fishy smell. It also had a very strong bite. It was not too keen on being handled and drew more blood then a any Puffin ever has!

We kept the bird for 24 hours and released it below the Severn Bridge where it flew away strongly.

So what's a story about about my holidays doing on the blog I hear the readers and particularly David asking?

Well, I found our first Fulmar chick today. Fulmars are our last birds to nest and hatch young on the Isle of May. This bird is at Burnetts leap. The bird had just finished hatching. It still had bits of eggshell on it's back. Here is a close-up of the bird

At the time of writing, as well as all the visitor management work i am also writing our annual report and have totalled up the Fulmar count on the island. The total is 286 occupied nest sites around the island which is down by 20 occupied site last year.

Shag GZJZ - Another rescue from discarded waste...

Another Lucky Shag

Visitors had been reporting a juvenile Shag with some rubbish around it's neck at The Alterstanes. It was looking bad for the bird. Now it was away from the nest it would be almost impossible to catch.

The bird had been ringed on the 2nd June near The Alterstanes at Horse Hole. It wore a ring with the letters GZJZ.

 

The bird  was expertly caught by Mark by climbing stealth like, as it sat on the rocks. He carried it up and we cut the detritus off it. It was likely that this rubbish was in the birds nest and this is where it picked it up.

 

The bird was released after it's ordeal. The bird was still in relatively good condition. It had been managing to catch fish even with this rubbish round it's neck.

This is a perfect example of how throwing litter into the sea can have a direct impact on the birds of the Isle of May.

This bird and the now famous 'Beer Shag' that we wrote about last year were lucky ones. How much of our other sea life is not so lucky?