The day started with a travel day meeting as it was a boat day on a glorious day.
There were many tasks to get completed today, and even at the time of writing a lot of those tasks are still to be completed.
Firstly, a walk to North End was required to drop off some equipment. Eleanor and I started walking around 8am and made a slow wander north with the poles. We spotted around 60+ Painted Lady, a Black-tailed Skimmer and about 30+ Red Admirals along the main track. Skylarks and Meadow Pipits filled the sky with song, and the calls of Linnets could be heard too. When approaching Widdow’s Tenement, we accidently flushed a Quail, this could well be a migrant or it could even be on territory as we have had a few records already this year in seemingly the same spot. The equipment was dropped off soon after and we spotted a few loafing Puffins, a flyby Small Tortoiseshell and had nice views of the seabirds.
A wander back and a trip down to see the boat in was required as we were celebrating both the 20yrs Rat Free Celebrations and the arrival of Emma and Nick who are here to help with some Gull/seabird ringing over the next couple of days, as well as some permit assessments for our trainees on the island. A sweltering trip up and down Millcombe was super sticky, and the highlights were the Song Thrush, Stonechat, our local breeding Starlings, and a few Shags in the Landing Bay.
After a well earned break and a lunch stop in the shade, we joined the celebrations and checked the Manx Shearwater boxes whereby we were able to show the group of leading experts, scientists, conservationists and landowners the true success of the Rat Eradication 20yrs ago. And what better to be shown then a very fluffy, a few day old Manx Shearwater chick! Something that was unimaginable over 20yrs ago when rats ate and decimated the seabird colonies on the island.
After some much needed admin, some food was had and then an evening of Storm Petrel catching resulted in 50 birds being caught including 34 new and 16 retrap.