A Close Call...

So you may have heard on the news about the severe flooding that hit Britain last week, with thousands of homes flooded out due to the large tidal surge, flooding towns all along the east coast. This was the largest coastal surge to hit the North Sea coastline in the past 60 years, brought about by combination of three factors all occuring at once, a lethal combination. Spring tides, the highest astronomical tides of the lunar cycle, combined with a low pressure system and very high winds across the North Sea (up to 80mph in places) to form a massive tidal surge, pushing over flood defenses and destroying flood banks in many areas. People were evacuated all along the East coast, thousands of homes were flooded, power was knocked out in many locations, lamp posts ripped up, walls torn down, and general destruction along the coast. And it was no different here!

Being located in the 'V' where the River Ouse and the River Trent meet to form the Humber, we were on flood warning quite early on, although it wasn't expected to reach Whitgift (where I'm living), although later on we were upgraded to flood warning as the tidal surge began. People living in Goole and in some villages along the Trent were evacuated, and Whitby, Hull and Boston were all badly affected by the flooding. As we weren't on flood alert until late in the day, we thought we were relatively safe, although we did move the Konik ponies to higher ground on the reserve to ensure that they would be ok as we expected the reserve would get very flooded, being right in the junction where the two rivers meet. We didn't expect it to be quite so bad as it was though... I got a phone call at about 7:45pm on Friday, when the tide was almost at its highest, to say that the the water was pouring over the floodbank, and heading towards the village, and that we probably had about 20 minutes to get everything upstairs before the waters came flooding in...

So we moved things upstairs, and got prepared to turn off the electrics and retreat upstairs at the first sign of flooding. Luckily though, the waters seemed to bypass Ousefleet and Whitgift and carried on past us! Unfortunately Reedness, the next village along, got hit very badly when part of the floodbank collapsed and the waters came rushing in, with walls destroyed and homes flooded, as the water reached up to car windows on its way through and out across the fields behind the village. So we got off very lightly really, our side of Whitgift wasn't touched at all, and the villages this side of the river weren't too badly affected. The floodwaters in Reedness have now subsided, although debris still litters the pathways and gardens.

The reserve however did get pretty badly battered, with waters reaching halfway up some of the hides, coating everything in mud and silt, pathways underwater and debris everywhere. Tomorrow the clean up begins, a task that will take quite a while by the sounds of it! Some things have been rescued from the visitor centre, but a lot of the stock was totally ruined. However, I am pleased to report that all four of the Konik ponies are ok. We got a bit worried about them when we couldn't find them on Friday night when all of the flooding happened, but as it turned out they had just jumped the fence in a bit of a panic. They got separated in pairs somehow during the flood, but they have all been relocated and moved out of the reedbed to somewhere a bit safer. They'll be checked over by the vet at some point this week as well, just to make sure they're fine. I'll post up some photos of the reserve next week, but we're hoping to be open again by next weekend. We're out of danger now though, so should be fine from here on out!

For more info and pictures (for those of you that haven't already seen them), click on the following links:
BBC News Report - General overview and explains more about tidal surges
BBC Local News - Yorkshire
Some photos - scroll to bottom of page

A Wetland Wonderland

People often ask me what it’s like to work on a nature reserve and live in a remote area ; ‘How do you get shopping?’, ‘What do you do for fun?’, ‘You’re  living so far from civilisation, there’s not even a STARBUCKS near you, how do COPE???’ and ‘Do you really like living alone? I mean, you’re so ALONE, so lonely and alone. All ALONE.’  are just some of the questions I deal with on a regular basis. But really, it’s not as bad as everyone seems to think it is! They see that I’m in the frigid north and assume it’s just me and the polar bears for miles around, living in a bleak, sunless wilderness, suffering through grey days and greyer nights, with no hope of brighter days to come. And yes, it is getting colder, winter is coming, but it’s not so bleak as you might think. The reserve here is lovely, and I really do enjoy being surrounded by countryside! I much prefer rolling green hills, farmland, woodland and lakes to the depressing urban jungle that defines our towns and cities across the land, with their towering buildings, rat-infested parks and  rubbish tips, where the streets are paved with dog poop. I enjoy the quiet relaxation of the countryside, its peacefulness and the friendliness of its residents. And that’s exactly what I get in my current role! Don’t get me wrong, it is nice to spend some time in our towns and cities, meeting up with friends, going out clubbing, shopping, drinking, eating out, and generally being a bit more classy and whatnot, but I’m very glad to get away from it all by working outdoors in these lovely remote places.

The loveliness of rural life

‘So what’s so great about this nature reserve?’ I hear you cry. Well, it’s just a bit different from everywhere else that I’ve worked before really! Whereas the reserves I was working on in Orkney and the Farne Islands are seabird reserves, tall cliffs covered with nesting seabirds and smelling a bit fishy, with some nice vegetated bits and lots of nice birds and wildlife a bit further inland, and Loch Ruthven was a large loch surrounded by woodland and heathland, Blacktoft Sands is basically one big reedbed with lots of pools, big and small, throughout the reeds. It’s set in between two rivers, the Ouse and the Trent, jutting out into the channel where the two rivers meet to form the Humber, surrounded by Scunthorpe, Hull, York, Leeds and Doncaster. My nearest town is Goole, an industrial little place known mostly for it’s part in the ship-building industry, and I regularly spy ships coming up the Ouse, past the reserve, past my house, and on towards Goole. Which is slightly surreal actually, as from street level it looks as if the ships are carving their way through fields… Anyway, the reserve is pretty big, although only a small area is open to the public, as the majority of the reserve is reedbed. Despite that though, there are 7 bird hides, each one looking out onto a different pool, with different birds on each, except Ousefleet hide, which looks out onto the grazing marsh, a drier bit of land that’s grazed in by cattle and used by breeding waders and wintering wildfowl.

Here’s an aerial photo of the reserve, showing the rivers, the pools that the hides look onto, the areas where the reeds have been cut, and the extent of the reedbed.

A typical view from one of the hides

Some lovely trees as well

The reserve is best known for the Marsh Harriers which breed and over-winter in the reedbed. They have been very successful over the past couple of summers, but over winter they get large numbers of these beautiful birds of prey roosting in the reeds overnight, along with a few Hen Harriers too. These birds have come in from the continent and need a nice place to sleep for the night, and where better? They all start arriving as the day turns to dusk, with as many as 30 Harriers seen in the sky at once, then one-by-one they drop into the reedbed to have a little sleepy – a wonderful sight to behold! The roost is only now beginning, with about 8 Marsh Harriers and 2-3 Hen Harriers seen coming in to roost recently, but these numbers will build as winter deepens, with the chance of seeing Owls as well! What could be better?  But during the day, there’s a wide variety of waders, ducks, geese with Bearded Tits, Reed Buntings and TreeSparrows flitting about, and Redwings and Fieldfares passing by overhead. I’ve seen a nice variety of birds since I’ve been here, and I’ve only been here a month!  I think some of the winter birds have been the nicest birds so far – Whooper Swans and Pink-footed Geese and Brent Geese. But the waders have been great too and I’ve learnt to recognise a few species that I couldn’t identify before, which is always great!

In addition to all of this though, we’ve also got four lovely Konik ponies. These are an ancient Polish breed of horse, much better adapted to life in a wetland environment than most other breeds are. They are used in Poland to graze and manage the large areas of reedbeds, as they are happy to wade around in water and are less susceptible to getting foot problems from spending a lot of time in water – a big problem for some breeds. They are hardy little guys, and they love to eat the reeds, so they are helping to manage the habitat here! They eat the reeds back and help to create pathways through the reeds and shorter areas of reeds that many reedbed birds and wildlife like to feed and shelter. The Koniks are here for three years as part of a wider project to find ways to manage the habitat more naturally. Most of the habitat management work that goes on here is done by machinery, such as brushcutters. Plots are cut in the reedbed each year on a rotation so that each area is cut every few years. This helps to provide a mosaic of habitats, with areas of younger shorter reeds for birds like Bitterns to feed in, as well as taller, older stands of reed for birds like the Bearded Tit to nest in. In this way, we can keep the reedbed at its best and provide habitat for all of its residents!

A very nice photo of a very photogenic Konik pony. Unfortunately not one of my photos though!

This photo shows some of the plots where reeds have been cut in previous years, and the ditch that feeds all of the pools.

This reed cutting work will be continued again this year, as this is what me and the team will be doing for a lot of the winter, creating a more varied habitat for the reedbed residents, both the permanent and over-wintering ones. In addition to this we’ll be carrying out a few more habitat management and maintenance tasks to keep the reserve looking its best, so both people and wildlife can enjoy this wetland wonderland!

A Yorkshire Lass

Unfortunately I wasn't able to find a paid conservation job for the winter, despite applying for several! It’s a very competitive career, especially in the winter as there are far fewer jobs than there are in the summer and almost all of the jobs that come up involve a lot of practical work, which I just don’t have a great deal of experience in! Practical work on reserves is habitat management work, which can be anything from painting hides to building fences to digging ponds, cutting down trees or cutting back heather and gorse. The type of task really depends on the habitat on the reserve, and each reserve is different depending on what species it focuses on, but with all reserves the vast majority of habitat management work takes place on reserves over winter, as there are no birds breeding then. I have gained some experience in practical work by volunteering with the Box Moor Trust and other organisations but the fact is there are just a lot of people out there with more experience than me in this area. I would have loved to have stayed in Orkney over winter, but there just isn't a lot of habitat management work that they need to do up there, and they have the necessary staff to complete the tasks that they do have.

So, what now? If you can’t get a job because you have no experience, how do you get the experience? Well, the answer is volunteering. I managed to save up enough money whilst working in Orkney this year and last year so that I can afford to volunteer for six months. It’s going to be tight, as I don’t have a lot of money, but I should be able to just about do it! So I got in contact with the volunteering department at the RSPB and they set me up with a lovely Residential Volunteer Intern placement at their reserve at Blacktoft Sands in Yorkshire! I moved up at the end of September and will stay in this placement until the end of March or until I find a paid job elsewhere. It’s a pretty good deal really – I get a house where I don’t have to pay rent or bills, I get to experience life in a part of the country that’s new to me, and I get a lot of good practical experience out of the deal, which will really help me to find a permanent job or a job over winter next year! Plus, they are going to train me up a bit! I’m being sent on a brushcutter course later this month, where I’ll learn to safely use a brushcutter (like a strimmer but with big metal blades on the end instead of the plastic string) and I’ll get a certificate to prove it! I’m also being sent on a Child Safety and Welfare course, but that sounds less fun; no machines to play with on that course. So all I really have to pay for while I’m here is food and any trips that I want to take on my days off, a pretty good deal really!

I’ve been here a week now and really enjoying it so far, but they’ve kept me pretty busy with building fences, installing barriers, cutting down trees, chopping firewood, and several inductions. Only one hiccup so far – I accidentally cut down the wrong trees! Luckily, it’s not been too much of an issue, and I have since cut down the correct trees, but still felt pretty silly cutting down the wrong ones! I’ve also been trained up to do some visitor work, which should be good. Lots of membership stuff and showing people the birds – which are mostly waders, ducks and Marsh Harriers here, a bit different to Orkney, so I’m definitely learning some new birds! The staff are all lovely here and I’m also working with (and living with) the short term volunteers, who come and stay at Blacktoft for a week or two and do pretty much all of the same things as me! The house that I’m living in is pretty nice too – it’s a two storey semi-detached house in a little village about a mile from the reserve. Big kitchen/dining room, and the living room even has a TV! The luxury! Now I just need to find a bike that I can fit on (#shortpeopleproblems), and then I can get around the local area and even start cycling to the reserve every day instead of getting a lift – I WILL get fit!

Anyway, I’m really enjoying my time here so far, and really looking forward to finding out what else is in store for me here. I don’t have Wifi here though, so I have to use the office computers to use the internet, which means I won’t be updating this blog as often as I would like, but I’ll try to update at least once a month! And hopefully I won’t make any more big mistakes – next time I’ll make sure I’m definitely cutting down the right trees! Photos to follow in the next blog!

End of Season Round-up!

Well, that's it now, the breeding season is over and I'm no longer in Orkney. So how did the season go for our breeding birds? Well, in short, it wasn't great. Due to the cold weather lasting throughout May and well into June, many of the seabirds were late to start nesting, and we saw fewer pairs returning to the cliffs to nest this year; this may be because the adults weren't able to find enough food over winter and were therefore in too poor a condition to breed this year, or it could be due to other circumstances - the large wrecks of seabirds over winter may have had an effect. Whatever the reason, they didn't do so well. However, some others did do fairly well, so here's a quick species-by-species run down. I monitor the seabirds in 7 plots along the cliff face on the North Hill reserve, and the following results relate to those 7 plots.

Only 1 pair of Kittiwakes attempted to nest this year. However, this pair didn't complete their nest and laid no eggs. No fledged young were seen around the cliffs on Papa Westray at all this year, so it is likely that none fledged at all from anywhere along the cliffs. This is a species that has declined massively in the past 10 years or so due to the lack of food availability - they need Sandeels to be close to the water's surface in order to feed, but due to climate change there are fewer Sandeels at the right depth for these birds.

Kittiwakes on nests

Guillemots also did badly this year, with no chicks fledged from the 78 nesting pairs that I monitored. This was mainly due to high levels of predation of Guillemot eggs and chicks by gulls and skuas, although lack of food almost certainly played a part. Fewer birds returned to nest this year, which is always an issue for Guillemots as they adopt a 'safety in numbers approach' - cramming as many nesting birds onto the breeding ledges as possible to reduce the chances of predation. But as Guillemot numbers drop, protection from predators drops, and so the number of fledged chicks drops.

Guillemots with chicks - not a common sight on Orkney this year

Razorbills fared slightly better though, with 5 chicks fledged from 27 pairs - very similar numbers to last year, showing that their choice of nesting spot (within small cracks in the cliff face) is beneficial to prevent predation of young.

Razorbill pair with egg

Shags did well as they always do, and had the highest productivity (number of chicks fledged per pair) of all of the breeding seabirds this year! From 9 nests, 13 chicks fledged! Shags tend to do much better than other species as they eat a wider variety of prey, they can dive quite deep to catch their prey (up to 45m!) and they defend their nests quite viciously so predators ususally go for something a bit easier!

Shag on nest

The Gannets nesting on Noup Cliffs also did quite well this year, with the number of nesting birds increasing to 673, with 464 chicks fledged! Gannets are our largest seabird, and they will eat anything they can find, diving deep if necessary, so they usually do better than our other seabirds!

Gannets nesting on Noup Cliffs

Fulmars are another species that usually do well as they spit horrible smelly fishy oil at any predators that get too close to their nest, but this year and last year they have shown very poor productivity. Only 6 chicks fledged from 137 nests this year - a terrible result. We think this might be due to the Ravens that have moved to the cliffs on North Hill predating the vulnerable chicks whilst the parents are away fishing, but it could be due to poor weather conditions when the chicks are small , or due to the lack of food around Orkney and Shetland. Research has shown that some of the Fulmars nesting in Orkney will go as far as Norway to get food for their chick! A long journey indeed!

Fulmar nesting on Papa Westray

Great Skuas are one of those Marmite birds - you either love them or hate them. Personally, I love them! They're such beautiful birds with so much character! But I do understand why some people don't like them - they are a big predator of our other nesting seabirds. However, they only predate the seabirds as they can't find enough fish to feed their chicks, so they have to resort to taking the eggs and chicks of other seabirds in order to raise their chicks. It's a strategy that works! From 24 pairs, 17 chicks fledged! And as there are only about 10,000 nesting pairs globally, about 60% of which nest in Scotland, I call that a win!

Awwww! Cute Great Skua chick on North Hill

Unfortunately though, our other skua species, the Arctic Skua, did not do so well. They are one of the species predated by Great Skuas as well as gulls, and they have been declining for some time now. This year we had just 17 pairs nesting and no chicks fledged, giving the first year of zero productivity since they first started nesting here.

Unfortunately I seem to be unable to get a decent photo of an Arctic Skua, so I've taken this one from a Google search.

Arctic Terns also had a very bad year due mostly to the poor weather at the start of the season. They didn't start nesting until early June this year, and only 2 colonies laid eggs. Most of these nests only had 1 egg however, a sign that the adults were in very poor breeding condition (most likely due to a lack of food over winter and before breeding), as they didn't have the energy to produce more than one egg - they usually lay 2 or 3. They are also predated by both Arctic Skuas and Great Skuas, and probably by the gulls as well. They didn't manage to fledge any chicks this year, the fourth year in a row with no fledged Arctic Tern chicks.

A beautiful Arctic Tern

It's not all doom and gloom though! Black Guillemots showed an increase in pre-breeding numbers, and with further study we will be able to relate this to the actual number of breeding pairs. The population of nesting Dunlin also increased to their highest number in the past 10 years, and the small colony of Sandwich Terns on Papa Westray (the only colony in Orkney as far as I'm aware) raised between 16-18 chicks from 20 pairs! Twite also did very well, with most pairs seen with chicks later on in the season. The pair of Golden Plovers did well too and managed to raise 3 healthy chicks, so it looks like the cold, wet season was good news for our breeding waders!


'So what now?' I hear you ask, 'You're finished in Orkney, where are you jetting off to next!?' Well, at the moment I'm back at home while I sort things out, buy some new equipment, catch up with family and friends, and apply for jobs! But hopefully at the end of September I'll be going up to Yorkshire to stay at Blacktoft Sands RSPB reserve as a Residential Volunteer! I'm going up there this Friday to check it all out and see what the reserve is like. I know they have a few other people that they're talking to but hopefully I'll get the placement! It's not paid, but I get free accommodation on the reserve, my travel will be paid for, and I'll get loads of useful experience which will help me to get a paid job next winter! So wish me luck!

P.S. - A massive CONGRATULATIONS to my best friend Connie who got married last weekend! You look amazing in that dress, I'm so happy for you both! :D

Time-lapse Papay

Ever wondered what Papa Westray looks like on a regular week? Well, during the Great Auk AAKnowledge weekend, we had Site Eye Time-Lapse films come up to Papay to show us their 3D film of the Papay Great Auk and to shoot some new footage for a short film they are going to show at the Orkney Science Festival in September. They set up time-lapse cameras at several points across the island and filmed at various points throughout the week and during the Great Auk festival. They have now begun work on producing the film, but they've published a short clip on their website, so take a look!

Just click here to go to the site!

Thanks to Brian McClave and co for making this film!

My social life on a small island in the North Sea

So the question I get asked the most while I'm out here is 'What do you do in the evenings?' and I often get comments like 'You must be so bored/lonely/depressed living out here totally on your own. I mean your completely ALONE aren't you. So lonely and alone'. And I'm like, 'Well, thanks for your encouraging comments there, but actually I have a relatively busy social life up here!' There's the coffee morning each Wednesday, where I catch up with the islanders, meet some of the visiting tourists and recruit people for my guided walks, all whilst consuming copious amounts of cake and coffee! There are cinema nights some Friday nights (more often outside of the busy period), and the pub on Saturday nights, usually with live music! I've probably mentioned all of these activities before, but as well as these social activities, there are also the big events each year. In my last post I spoke about the Great Auk weekend and the Orkney Nature Festival stuff, but there's also the Papay Fun Weekend - the highlight of the social calendar! 

Every year in July, the whole island celebrates how awesome island life can be with a big party! There's loads of activities going on all weekend, from craft afternoons to races to eating, drinking and dancing! And of course, it's part of my job to help out with community activities like this, so my usual Saturday tour was cancelled and off I went to help out with Fun Weekend activities!It's definitely a busy weekend for everyone involved, and I got pretty involved with it all this year! It was a good weekend, with amazing weather, made all the better because a few of the RSPB staff from Mainland and a couple of other islands came up to enjoy the weekend too!

Friday - I made dragonflies at the craft weekend, which turned out to be a pretty popular event! Then it was dinner and a dance in the evening.

Some happy customers making draongflies!

The finished result! Pretty good for some pipe cleaners and beads!

There was also T-shirt printing at the craft afternoon! Mine's the one with the Black Guillemot - I ended up doing quite a few for people!

Saturday - Saturday is sports day! There are all kinds of races, from tattie and spoon to sack races, with a football match and tug-of-war afterwards, plus lots of food and cake to be had all day! I didn't really experience much of the races though, as I was painting faces all day! Plus another dance with more food in the evening!

I volunteered to make sandwiches for Saturday lunch, so me and Lorna spent all morning making 2 loaves of egg sandwiches!

Some of my face painting work

Catching some rays out of the wind!

'HEAVE! HEAVE!'

Sunday - More food, more fun! Home-made carty races 'doon the brae', pipe bands, sandcastle competitions and a concert in the evening!

The carty's! Only 3 rules, they must have: brakes, steering and a helmet!

Carty's coming back up the hill after the time trials - now for the one-on-one races!

Some of the visiting RSPB staff were used as judges and got to present prizes for the best looking carty's!

One of the RSPB's contributions to the sand castle competition - a dragon!

Mine and Amy's contribution, and the winner! A Walrus in honour of the one that visited North Ronaldsay over winter

All accompanied by the pipe band of course! A really great weekend!

The weekend after this it's the Westray Regatta! A sailing race between Westray and Papay! Last year I went along with a little RSPB stall at the pier, but this year we decided to skip it out, so I did my regular tour duties instead. But that's not all! On top of this, it's the County Show this coming weekend, so I'll be off to Kirkwall to help out in the big RSPB tent there, selling tombola tickets and encouraging people to roll up, roll up and play our games! In between eating lots of Orkney Ice Cream of course!

In addition to all of this, I do lots of little social things week to week. I go to dinner with the islanders, I go to people's houses for other little social gatherings and things, I go in to Kirkwall for events and to go on nights out, and to catch up with staff and go bird ringing! 

My visit to the club in Kirkwall...the only club. It wasn't amazing, but not too bad.

Walking home at 4am. Yes, it really is that light at 4am here!

Socialising with the Captain and ferry staff in the wheelhouse on my way to Kirkwall

Terrible photo of a Storm Petrel (left) and Leach's Storm Petrel that we recently caught. They only come close to land at night and have great night vision which I didn't want to ruin by using the flash! This is my first ever Leach's Petrel!

And when I'm not out doing social things in the evenings, I'm ususally doing surveys, writing up reports, sorting out plans for the coming week, painting the house, fixing up the inside of the house, doing general housework, or just relaxing! Watching films, reading books etc., there's always something for me to do, so I'm rarely bored here!

P.S. - Thinking of you Nana, hope you get well soon. Love you xxx

Surveys, seabirds and sunshine!

June is the busiest month in any conservation job. The breeding season in in full swing, with birds either sitting on eggs or looking after their newly hatched chicks, visitors are everywhere, and there are about a million surveys to do. But it's even busier on seabird sites, as June is when counts, surveys and monitoring of the breeding seabirds begins! I've been kept incredibly busy since I first arrived back here in April, but since the start of June I've been twice as busy as before! I'm doing seabird counts and monitoring two or three times a week, which involves sitting and watching the birds or an hour or two at each of my seven monitoring sites, and waiting for them to move slightly so that I can see whether they have eggs or chicks - it sounds tedious, and it can be if the birds aren't cooperating, but most of the time I enjoy it! Especially if the weather's nice! 

Nesting season also means attacking season for some of our seabirds! This is a Great Skua, and he's very annoyed at me for being in his territory! Photo taken just before he hit me in the head with his feet!

I've also been continuing with my surveys of all of the other birds that nest on the North Hill reserve (on Papa Westray), doing my guided tours twice a week, and of course doing paperwork and going to team meetings! June is also THE time to count seabird colonies, and that is exactly what me and the RSPB team spent last Saturday doing! Read more about this on our RSPB Orkney Blog. So, I've definitely been kept busy so far this month, and I'm sure there will be many more things for me to as the month continues!

It's not all work, work, work though, and I have found the time to go to many of the social events here on the island! I go to the cinema nights and pub nights whenever I can, and I really enjoy the Coffee Morning on Wednesdays - some of the best cake I've ever had, not to mention the cheese scones! And I was even asked to bake for the coffee mornings a few times now - a high honour indeed!

I made Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake Brownies. They seemed to go down well, what do you think?

I've even had a visitor come to stay, which I feel would have been more interesting if I hadn't been working the whole time, but despite that, it's still a wonderful place to come and visit! But the main social event of the year so far has to be the AAKnowledge weekend, commemorating the last pair of Great Auks in Britain, which bred on Papay. The male of the pair was killed in May 1813, the female was killed the year before, so this was the 200th anniversary of it's death which we commemorated. It was a lovely weekend, with dances, dinners, a farmer's marknet, a walk up to the Great Auk statue, and talks by a variety of people, including a very informative talk by Dr Jo Cooper, who looks after the Papay Great Auk at the Natural History Museum in Tring. We even had a 3D representation of the Papay Auk, as unfortunately it is too fragile to make the journey all the way up here. A wonderful weekend, which hopefully helped to spread the story of the Great Auk and it's extinction, and to point out the many similarities between it's extinction and the current decline that we are seeing in our seabirds up here and elsewhere across the UK and Europe. The weekend was made even nicer as a few people from the office came up to stay and join in the festivities! 

The AAKnowledge Poster

Commemorative tea-towel - everyone on the island drew an Auk! Can you find mine? HINT: I did a Black Guillemot

The Papay Band playing on the Sunday night after the talks and a mighty feast!

The 3D Auk. This is the actual one that was killed on Papa Westray in 1813 and is the only surviving British specimen. It looks better when you actually see it in 3D!

Even the beer was Auk themed!

The AAKnowledge weekend was part of the larger Orkney Nature Festival, ran by the RSPB with support from various other organisations to get people more interested in Orkney nature and wildlife, and to get people out to look at that wildlife! The festival lasted just over a week and included a wide variety of events both on Mainland Orkney and on several of the islands. Unfortunately I didn't get to attend very many of the events as I had walks and surveys to do, but I did manage to get to the events on Westray up at our Noup Cliffs reserve, and was lucky enough to go on the boat trip around the cliffs - a lovely and unique way to experience this seabird city! I also went to a few events on Mainland, including a guided walk and market!

Approaching Noup Cliffs on the boat trip for the Orkney Nature Festival

75m high and covered in seabirds!

Me on the boat trip round the cliffs! (Won't let me make it the right way up...)

Anne's amazing mural on the wall of the office for the Orkney Nature Festival's marine day

In bird news, the season has been off to a very slow start, with the cold weather continuing well into May. We saw many late migrants coming through, and noticed that most birds were quite late in nesting and egg-laying, a trend which is evident all across the UK. However, things are starting to look up, as all species are now either on eggs or with young chicks. The species that seems to have been worst affected by the extended cold spell seems to be the Arctic Terns. Many passed through in late May as the weather got a bit warmer, but our breeding birds didn't return until early June and are only now starting to lay. Their numbers are much lower than last year, across both Westray and Papay, but I'm hoping it's just going to be a late season for them. Another species that seems to have been greatly effected is the Corncrake. Orkney is one of the few places in Britain that Corncrakes still breed, but this year we seem to have a lot fewer birds. Last year there were 12 males on Westray and 1 on Papay, but this year it looks like there's just 5 on Westray, and none at all on Papay. It's likely that the cold weather put them off of their migration, and that they just stayed in Europe to breed rather than making the extra journey over here. It will be very interesting to see how both of the species do over the season, but I'm hoping that things get better for them soon! The weather has significantly improved now, with many warm, sunny days, low winds, and general niceness, and long may it last!

An amazing sunset after an evening spent surveying Curlews across the island

Winter 2012 / Early 2013

Hello everyone, sorry that I haven't posted anything in a while, I was having issues logging in! Anyway, that's all sorted now, so I can give you all a very brief catch-up of what I've been up to over the winter and what I'm doing currently. I've noticed that my blog post about Poland seems to have disappeared which is quite annoying, but I'll re-write that one later.

So as you may know, after leaving Orkney in August last year I went on a weeks trip to Poland, which was simply amazing! After my lovely week in Poland, I went back to stay with my mum and sister in Hertfordshire as I didn't manage to find any paid conservation work over the winter, although I did manage to do quite a lot of volunteering! I volunteered with my local conservation charity, the Box Moor Trust and did lots of practical volunteering like clearing out ponds, cutting down trees, and generally keeping their areas of land looking nice and ensuring that the habitat is good for the birds! They're a lovely group, the work is pretty fun (when it's sunny anyway) and it's a really good workout! I definitely enjoyed volunteering with them and will be returning to help them out again next year!

Clearing out a pond with the Box Moor Trust

I also volunteered at RSPB Headquarters at Sandy, Bedfordshire, answering emails and letters about the Big Garden Birdwatch survey that they run each year. This survey takes place at the end of January each year and simply involves counting all of the birds in your garden for an hour. Over half a million people got involved in the survey, which provides the RSPB with a lot of data and helps them to spot trends, such as the decline in House Sparrows and Starlings which we have been seeing in recent years. It's a lovely way to spend an hour, so get involved next year! In addition to this, I also spent some time volunteering at Verulamium Park in St Albans, showing people the Herons that breed on the island in the middle of the lake there. Unfortunately I didn't manage to see any chicks as I had to leave to go back to my summer job, but I'm told that they had quite a few chicks, despite the cold weather!

So despite not finding a full-time job over the winter, I did still manage to do some volunteering and had a lot of fun! I even managed to go to Birmingham for a weekend of bird ringing with my trainer. We caught a wide variety of species over the weekend, the nicest of which was seven Great-spotted Woodpeckers!! An amazing catch! I do have some photos of the ringing activities, but they're all on my phone...I'll add them in once I get the cable! (I managed to email a couple of photos to myself from my phone)

A Willow Tit, quite rare in Britain now.

One of the 7 Great-spotted Woodpeckers that we caught. This one's a boy, as it has red on the back of it's head.

Shortly after leaving Orkney, I decided that I definitely wanted to return to the job and the island in 2013 for a second season, so I didn't really spend much time over winter looking at advertised cosnervation jobs! Early this year, I accepted the post as Orkney North Isles Warden. I bought some new gear (including some rather expensive new walking boots) and then made the move back up to the islands in late March! I decided this time to do the journey as cheaply as possible, which turned out to be an overnight coach from London to Aberdeen, and then the ferry from Aberdeen to Kirkwall (Orkney). I won't lie, the journey was pretty rough and I was knackered by the time I got to Orkney (at 11pm) but it was cheap! Only £33!! I stayed over in Kirkwall that first night, then got the ferry over to Papa Westray, as I had a lot of luggage and would have had to pay extra if I'd taken it on the little plane! Over the winter, Amy (the Corncrake Officer last year and again this year) stayed in Rose Cottage, my little house on Papa Westray, so it was lovely and clean and warm when I arrived - bonus!!

Back at Rose Cottage!

I've only been here a few weeks so far, but I'm really enjoying being back! It really is a wonderful place to spend the summer, and although it hasn't been the best weather (pretty windy) it's much nicer than it was 'doon sooth'! The community seems to have welcomed me back with open arms, so it actually feels quite like I never left, which can't be a bad thing! Since I've been back I've mostly been sorting stuff out for the up coming season, getting everything organised, and doing lots of Black Guillemot surveys! Black Guillemots are one of my favourite birds. They are auks, which means that they are related to Puffins, Razorbills and Guillemots, three species that also nest up on the reserve here. But I think the Black Guillemots (known up here as Tysties) are my favourites of the group, although Razorbills are a close second! Tysties are just so beautifully coloured though. Pure black all over, apart from a little white blob on each wing, with bright red feet! They are best seen in the early mornings and late evenings when they can be seen in large groups on the sea around their breeding grounds, whent hey can be heard making a wonderful whistling noise - much better than the strange growly noises that Puffins make!

Black Guillemots down by the pier on Papa Westray

Black Guillemots nest in 'burrows', by which I mean gaps between large boulders, under rocks, in caves, and generally anywhere rocky and inaccessable, which is probably why they are doing quite well in comparison to other seabirds that nest on the open cliffs. It does make monitoring them much harder though, as they usually nest in places that people can't reach! So this year, I have made some 'Tystie Cairns' - piles of rocks with a little entrance hole and some sand/gravel in the middle so that the egg/chick will be comfortable. It also means that monitoring them might be a bit easier! Let's hope that they choose to use at least some of them!

One of the Tystie Cairns. You can just about see the entrance, down and to the right of the number 1

I think that's about all for now, I'll try to update this blog much more regularly now that I can actually access it again, and will keep you all updated on Orkney life!