Happy on Papay!

So here I am, living and working on one of the smallest islands in Orkney - Papa Westray, known affectionately by the locals as 'Papay', and I'm loving it! Sure, I'm here on my own, living in a small, rather draughty little cottage (Rose Cottage - it's pink!), far away from all of the people I know, but it's a lovely place to be and I'm just enjoying being here!

Rose Cottage - my home until August

I'm the only RSPB staff living on the island, and I work to look after the RSPB reserve here called North Hill. It's a rather large area of land (25% of the entire island!) and is made up of a variety of habitats: squelching bogs, sheer cliff faces, boulder beaches, small pools, and the rarest of all - maritime heathland. This is a habitat seriously in decline, with Papa Westray holding one of the largest areas of maritime heathland in Europe - and it's not exactly a big island! This is the habitat that SNH (Scottish Natural Heritage - the Scottish equivalent of DEFRA) are working to maintain. This habitat is important not just because of it's rarity, but also because it is home to a wide range of species. In the summer the heathland comes to life as a carpet of wildflowers. In addition to this, many bird species like to nest in this habitat, including Skuas, Terns and a variety of waders, all of which I am required to survey and monitor in my new job as Warden here. In addition to my bird monitoring work, I also give guided tours of the reserve twice a week, maintain the bird hide and do counts of the diminutive Scottish Primrose. Only found in Caithness, Sutherland and 6 of the Orkney isles, the Scottish Primrose is one of our rarest endemic plants, and I have the task this year of surveying the whole of the North Hill reserve for these easily-overlooked little flowers. I am also responsible for looking after the RSPB reserve on Westray, our neighbouring island, called Noup Cliffs - home to 600 pairs of breeding Gannets, as well as thousands of other breeding seabirds. Since arriving here, I have been constantly busy with preparation for the coming season, survey work and guided walks, as well as with 'Bag the Bruck', an Orkney-wide event that involves removing rubbish (bruck) from the coastline. This took me days and days to complete and involved removing a variety of bruck, mostly empty drinks bottles but also rusty barbed wire, rope, cans, shoes, buoys and even an onion...

The Scottish Primose - Primula scotica

The results of 'Bag the Bruck' - there would have been 5 more of the large buoys, but they kept disappearing...

The biggest part of my job here is to survey the breeding seabirds, so that we can monitor the population and see how they are faring, which, unfortunately is not too well. Almost all seabirds are declining in the Northern Isles, due mostly to the lack of their favourite food: Sandeels. Most seabird species (Terns, Kittiwakes, Guillemots, Razorbills, Shags etc) like to eat Sandeels, and these small fish will form a large part of the diet of these birds. The only problem with that is there are few Sandeels left here, partly due to global warming and partly due to overfishing. Because of this, the seabirds have to eat a wider variety of fish, or travel further to catch fish. This is thought to be why the Gannets on Noup Cliffs are doing so well - they travel far and wide and will eat a variety of fish. However, most of the seabirds here just bring in less food, which causes another problem - Great Skuas. The Skua's feed by mobbing the other birds and stealing their food, but since the other birds aren't bringing in as much food, the Skuas are turning to another source - the eggs and chicks of the other seabirds. But the Skuas are protected - the UK holds about 60% of the population of Great Skuas so we would like to save them too, but it's difficult. What we need is more Sandeels! Or at least less global warming!

Black Guillemots (Tysties) sitting next to me on a survey of them!

But enough of the depressing stuff, I was writing about how much I'm enjoying it here! All of the birds here have Orkney names: Great Skua = Bonxie, Arctic Skua = Skooty Alan, Arctic Tern = Pickie, Sandwich Tern = Big Pickie, Black Guillemot = Tystie, Eider = Dunter etc. So if I cross over between names, you know what I mean! The people here are all lovely too, very friendly and welcoming! There's a real sense of community here, everyone helps out everyone else, and there are events throughout the week and all through the year to keep everyone together. Each week there are 2 main events: Wednesday mornings are coffee mornings (people here make amazing cakes!), and Saturday night is pub night, when they open up the pub cupboard! There's no dedicated cafes or pubs here, so it's good that they have these events each week. They also show a film every other Saturday, and in the summer there are regattas and even the Papay Fun Weekend, so I'm looking forward to a good season, filled with cake and alcohol!! 


As well as the birds, the people and the cake, people come to visit Papay for it's beautiful coastlines, sandy white beaches, and historical importance. It may seem like a tiny island, but Papa Westray has been inhabited for many thousands of years, and there are remains to prove it. The Knap of Howar is the oldest house in Europe and thought to be older than the pyramids! Then there's St Boniface Kirk, an old church which stands on top of an even older church, proving that Papa Westray was in important Christian site - used as a base from which to convert the 'heathens' in Shetland, Orkney and the far north of Scotland. There is also St Tredwell's Chapel, which stands on the site of an old broch and is named after a girl who plucked out her own eyes in order to preserve her chastity...crazy bitch. Plus, those visiting Papa Westray by plane will get to go on the shortest flight in the world - remember to ask for your certificate and bottle of whiskey (it's only a taster bottle)! So if you're ever up in Orkney, I would definitely recommend a visit to Papa Westray, hopefully you'll like it here as much as I do! Wish me luck for the season, and send some good weather my way!

The Knap of Howar

St Boniface Kirk

The remains of St Tredwell's Chapel

'Watch yae heed!' - low flying planes!

A New Opportunity!

Good news! I have a new job!! As of next Tuesday (10th April) I will be working on Orkney for the RSPB!


I travelled all the way up to Orkney for the interview, which I hoped went well at the time, then a few hours later when I was on the ferry back to mainland Scotland I got a phone call asking if I wanted the job! And of course, I said yes! So, as of next Tuesday I will be working for the RSPB as the Warden on Papa Westray, a smaller island off of mainland Orkney (see map below). I will be responsible for monitoring the progress of the seabirds breeding in two different colonies, on two different islands! One at Noup Cliffs reserve on the island of Westray, and the other at North Hill on Papa Westray, where I will also be living! I will be leading guided tours around these reserves as well as surveying the other wildlife present and protecting the rare and declining Maritime Heath habitat, and species such as the Corncrake. It sounds like a brilliant job and I'm told that the people on the island are all very friendly and welcoming, so hopefully it will all go very well! Now I just have to sort everything out for moving up there! It's going to be colder than a summer in the south, that's for sure, but at least I'll be closer to Jason! I'll still be two ferry journeys away, but that's a lot closer than I am now!

Currently I'm still living on Holy Island, on my own as Jason has gone back up to Fair Isle to work there for his second season. However, I am now living in the staff flat instead of the cottage, as the tourist season here has begun and there are now some working holiday volunteers living in the cottage and volunteering up at the Castle during the day. It's a nice little flat though, so I don't mind moving. I'll be sad to leave this island as I've really enjoyed it here and the people are all really lovely, but I'm really glad that I managed to find something paid for this coming season! I'm sure that I'll come back to Holy Island to visit people, and I hope that they have enjoyed having me and Jason here as much as we enjoyed being here! A really lovely place, especially when it's sunny! I feel that it's a good thing that we didn't discover how good the Pilgrim's Cafe (next door) is until recently though, or we would both be leaving with no money! Such a lovely little place. If you ever do visit Holy Island, make sure you stop in for a cuppa!


I feel like it's all going to be quite hectic from now until I get settled in to my new cottage on Orkney, but I will try and find the time to update again with some photos when I get there, and keep you all informed! And if your stuck for a place to go on holiday this year, come for a visit! Wish me luck with my new job and my new home in a new place!

A Rich Man's Career

Hello all, sorry that I haven’t updated this blog in over a month; I’ve been mega busy with sending in job applications and even going to the occasional interview! Not that it’s helped, as I still don’t have a job lined up for the summer, and it’s getting a bit late in the season now for any new jobs to be advertised as most jobs start at the end of March or beginning of April, but I’m still vaguely hopeful that something will come along and save the day! The problem is, every time I go to an interview, there’s somebody there with more experience than me, and they end up getting the job. But it’s just so hard to get more practical experience unless you can afford to volunteer for 6-12 months or buy all of the training that you need. Sometimes I wish that conservation wasn’t a rich man’s career, but there’s not much that I can do to change that! I have 2 options if I don’t manage to get anything paid:

1. I get a random job (e.g. go back to work at Hemel hospital) and volunteer on the weekends, which would get me a bit of experience as well as some money. However, I probably won’t get enough experience to make a difference for my job prospects and the work is unreliable, there’s no guarantee I’ll be able to get a job in a different sector.

2. I save up as much money as I can in this last month working for the National Trust on Holy Island, and use that money to do some residential volunteering on one of the RSPB nature reserves. I’ll gain loads of great experience but I’ll have to sign on so that I have enough money to buy food, and I’ll still have to find a job when that finishes.

What do I do?? Any opinions anyone? I’d love to hear other people’s view on this, so contact me if you have any advice, or if you want to offer me a job!!

Anyway, moving on... For those of you that don’t know, Jason is currently in Israel! He’s gone over there with the guys that he works with on Fair Isle to catch and ring loads of birds so that they can all get their ‘C’ permits, which means that Jason will be able to ring birds unsupervised (as long as he’s ringed that species before under the supervision of someone with a higher level of permit). At the moment we both have ‘Restricted C’ permits, which allow us to ring seabirds and their young unsupervised, but we are both working towards gaining a full ‘C’. Let’s hope that wherever I end up, I’ll be able to do some bird ringing! Jason should be back from his trip soon, so I’ll let you all know how it went, although I imagine it will have been pretty amazing!

Meanwhile, I’m stuck on Holy Island! I could easily walk across the causeway (at low tide of course), but where do I go from there? Berwick-Upon-Tweed is our closest town but that’s about 8 miles from the end of the causeway. So, I’m stuck. But I don’t really mind, it gives me a chance to explore the island on my own for a bit and see lots of pretty little birds. Although, I actually did get off the island earlier this week for an interview up in Inverness, and managed to see all of the people that I’d been missing, which was really lovely. Now just need to come back to Hertfordshire and see everyone there that I’m missing! Looks like I’m going to be coming back at the end of this job anyway, so I’ll see you all then!

We might be volunteering up at the Castle soon, as they need some more volunteers to help them out. We’ve been to visit a few places in the nearby area as well. We went to Chain Bridge Honey Farm, which is just up the road and makes some really tasty honey, so we ended up buying quite a lot! We’ve also been to visit the Barn at Beal, which is just at the end of the causeway and hosts a lovely selection of birds of prey. It wasn’t properly open when we visited, but they still let us come in, showed us all of the lovely birds that they have there, and even let us hold a couple of owls! They should be properly open now, with falconry displays and everything, so we’ll probably pop back in again soon. I was thinking of asking them if they need any more volunteers as well! We’ve been down to Alnwick a couple of times now and even visited Wallington, another National Trust property, which was a good day out. We didn’t go into the house, just looked around the grounds, but saw some lovely birds and enjoyed it all the same. I’ve been making a few cakes (thanks to Becky!), and been doing lots of reading as well, thanks for the book Nana, I finished it last week and really enjoyed it! Hope you and Grandpa are well; hopefully I’ll get the chance to come and visit you guys soon!

Other than that, there’s not a lot going on to be honest! Going for wanders, looking at lovely birds, applying for jobs, that’s my life at the moment! I've managed to add a few photos, those of you on Facebook may have already seen them, but I hope you'll enjoy them anyway! I will update again soon, hopefully with the news that I’ve got a job. Wish me luck!

Lindisfarne Castle

Looking at the village from the Castle

A view towards the mainland

Our cottage for the winter

The ruins of the Priory, built by Monks, destroyed by Vikings

Priory

St Aiden, who owned the island and used it as a base to convert the Northumbrians

Warning signs on the causeway

Our living room, really cosy, especially when the fire's going!

Our kitchen

It's amazing that anyone actually gets stuck, considering how many signs there are along the causeway

The rescue hut, for those that do get caught out when crossing the causeway

A frosty morning

Little stream

Some more ruins on the island

Looking towards the mainland on a still day

Looking back at the Castle across the harbour

The Castle, in all its glory

The Lime kilns next to the Castle

Looking back at the village and Castle from the top of the sand dunes

One of the sandy beaches

Waves in the sand

Fun times on the beach!

A young Shag at the bottom of the Castle, he got trapped inside all night!

My new binoculars! Thanks to everyone that gave me money to buy them.

The Journey to Holy Island...

After my job in Inverness had finished, I returned to Hemel to look for winter work as I was unable to find any in Scotland. However, I was unable to find anything in Hemel, and mostly spent my time volunteering for my local conservation group and visiting Jason in Norfolk, thinking that I’d be unemployed all winter. So imagine my surprise when Jason and I received an email from our boss from the Farne Islands asking if we would be interested in living and working on Lindisfarne over the winter! The National Trust owns Lindisfarne castle and some of the surrounding land, and keep the castle open during the winter, and they needed someone to live on the island and take the emergency phone in the evenings after the staff had left, and make sure that the castle doesn’t burn down! It’s a pretty simple job, with free accommodation, and with few prospects of a job elsewhere, me and Jason agreed to do it! A month or so later and all was sorted, we were moving up to Lindisfarne on the 8^th January to live in the National Trust’s holiday cottage and look after the castle in the evenings until 25^th March! All went well with the move up here, although it was a very long drive from home (thankfully, Jason has a car. It would have been even worse on the train)!

This is now our second week of living up here and the job is going very well so far! It really is simple. We get all day off to do whatever we want, which mostly involves exploring the island and looking for birds, and when the staff at the castle go home for the day we take the emergency phone. If it rings, we answer it and go up to the castle to see what’s wrong. We check the fire alarms, make sure there isn’t a fire, reset the alarms, lock up and go home again. Obviously, if there is a fire we call emergency services etc., but we have been reassured that there will almost certainly be no problem with the alarm system, and hopefully no fires, so it’s really just a precautionary measure, and we get our weekends off! As it’s only part-time, the pay isn’t brilliant, but as we get a rent-and-bill-free cottage to live in, so all we really have to buy is food, so the pay is not an issue really! And the cottage is really nice! It’s fairly old, so the floors are uneven in places and the doorframes are a bit short so Jason has to watch his head sometimes, but I like it, it’s quirky! And it's furnished nicely, with a little wood-burning fire so it’s really cosy! No broadband here, so we’re using a dongle which doesn’t get a lot of signal, and not a lot of mobile phone signal either, but it hasn’t been too much of an issue so far!

Lindisfarne, or Holy Island as it’s also known (due to the monks that lived here many hundreds of years ago), is a small island off the north Northumberland coast, very close to the Scottish border and the Farne Islands, which we can see from here on a clear day. Access to the island is via a tidal causeway, which means it is readily accessible by car 12 hours a day, but cut off from the mainland for the other 12. This means that we do have to be quite careful and check the safe crossing times before we try to cross the causeway; get it wrong and your car gets drowned in salt water, and you have to await rescue by the coastguard!! Apparently it does happen a few times each year, just look at these news stories, so we need to watch out for that! Also, we have to make sure that we’re back on the island in good time, or we could be stuck on the mainland all night! The causeway also means that our working hours change each day. None of the castle staff live on the island, so they come on to the island in the morning, work all day at the castle, and then leave before the causeway closes. As soon as they leave our job begins, so depending on the tides we may have to have the phone from 2pm onwards or from 8pm onwards. While we have the phone we can’t leave the island, as we need to be nearby if something does go wrong.

It really is a very nice island with areas of saltmarsh, sand dunes, ponds and fields, with the small village on the south-east side of the island, closest to the causeway and the mainland. Only about 150 people live here, with a small shop, post-office and a couple of pubs on the island, which remain closed most of the time during the winter, except for half-term week when they should be open for business. It’s pretty quiet here, but it gives us time to explore the island and look for interesting birds! A few days ago, Jason spotted a Green-winged Teal (a type of duck) on one of the ponds, which is a North American version of the Eurasian Teal that we get in the UK, as well as seeing some nice geese and a couple of Mute Swans with coloured rings on their legs (for identifying them). We have a couple of bird feeders up in our little garden, which have mostly been attracting House Sparrows, Blackbirds and Starlings, but just today we had a lovely little Tree Sparrow, which aren’t seen here too often, and several Greenfinches, which are really pretty! We are keeping our eyes open for more interesting birds, and will keep you posted on what we see, and our adventures whilst we're here! I am also applying for summer jobs while I’m up here, and will keep you updated on my progress, hopefully I’ll get something good again this year – wish me luck and watch out for my next post, which should include some photos!

Sun, Sea and A&E!

Hello all, I can't believe it's been so long since I last wrote a blog update!! I thought it had only been a month or so! So much has happened since my last update, this might be a very long post! So I'll try to stick to the interesting and important things. If you've been following the RSPB Loch Ruthven Blog, then you may know much of this already.

June
Our first brood of Slavonian Grebe chicks hatched out from a nest that we didn't even know existed, and were first seen by one of our volunteers on Sunday 5th. The chicks were right in front of the hide, cuddled up on the adult's back, occasionally poking their heads out from under their parent’s wings, and being fed tiny fish and invertebrates (such as midge larvae) by the other adult! Very cute. In addition to this, I set up traps to catch the midges at the loch, so that we can look at how their population affects the survival of Slavonian Grebe chicks, as well as looking at the fish population in the loch, and gathering data on the weather.

We installed five nest cameras across 2 of the 3 main sedge beds at the east end of the loch, so that we could watch for predators and keep an eye on the grebes. This meant that I had to lug some very heavy batteries halfway around the loch 4 days a week, so that I could change the batteries regularly! Now, these aren't those fancy nest cameras that you see on the likes of Springwatch! No live streaming, no colour picture, no nothing! They are motion-sensor cameras, which take 5 black and white photographs every time the motion sensor is triggered, using an infra-red system at night. Which means that looking through the footage is kind of jerky, and often large portions of the day/night are skipped! However, on very windy days the cameras were triggered much too often, by the vegetation surrounding the nests blowing in the wind! Nightmare! But I managed to get through it :) June also saw the first of my volunteers come to help me out, which made life a bit easier!

We also calculated the results of the first full loch survey that we completed in May (as mentioned in my previous post), and discovered that we had 13 pairs of Slavonian Grebes on Loch Ruthven this year! That's about double last year's population! Woo hoo!! June also saw us completing our second full loch survey of the season - another trek around the entire loch, through freezing cold water, deadly mud, and slippery rocks that cause many a twisted ankle. But thankfully, I didn't have to do this one! Kate and Stuart did this one alone, whilst I carried out several hours of brood watches and sedge bed watches. The results of this survey showed that a few of the birds had moved on, giving us a lower total than the first full loch survey, but it is the peak count of the population that really counts.

In June, I also started going bird ringing most weekends! This involves stringing up a special, very fine net (called a mist net) between two poles. Birds can't often see the net, so they fly into it and get caught. We rescue them, take a few weights and measurements, and put a small metal ring with a unique number carved into it onto the bird’s leg using special pliers. The idea of this is that when you or people elsewhere in the country then catch that same bird again, we will know where it has come from, and can learn all about bird migration, longevity, etc. All very interesting! Plus, it helps me to get better at bird identification!

July
By the beginning of July we had about 3 broods of Slavonian Grebe chicks hatched out, and by the end of the month we had 6! So a great deal of my time was spent at Loch Ruthven, checking up on the chicks, making sure they were being fed regularly, charting their progress towards adulthood, and trying to make sure that not too many got eaten by predators! And I was mostly successful in this! Yay me! :) July saw us completing our third and final full loch survey of the season! Just me and Stuart this time, as Kate was away, but I managed not to fall over in the loch or get stuck in the mud! I did however, get incredibly soaked when attempting to cross a very deep channel, and stupidly left the keys to the van in the other car at the opposite end of the loch - a 4 mile walk away (at least!). Not really what you want when you've been slogging through freezing cold water for the past three hours, trying to count and record all of the birds at the same time as actually keeping upright! So we had to call for backup. On the plus side, I saw my first Hen Harrier ever whilst we were waiting for our ride! On this full loch survey we were specifically looking for Slavonian Grebe chicks, so that we could work out the productivity (number of chicks per breeding pair) of the grebes this year. We counted 8 chicks on the survey, pretty good, since they only had 7 last year, but that’s not the end of the story! In July my first volunteer left me for a paid job in Leicester, but I acquired two new volunteers, one of which left after about a month to volunteer on an RSPB reserve in Norfolk, whilst the other continues to help me out at the loch on a regular basis.

On the first weekend of July, I travelled all the way back down to Hemel, so that I could go to a Foo Fighters concert at the MK Bowl. And I'm so glad that I did!! It cost me quite a bit to travel there and back, as well as the money for the concert tickets, but it was AMAZING!!! Definitely worth the money!! In addition to this, Jason (my boyfriend, for those of you who don't know), came all the way down from his island to come and visit me for about 10 days! Yay!! While he was here we went back to visit our old workplace on the Farne Islands, which was really fun! It was sunny for most of the time that we were there, we got to see quite a few of the people that we worked with last year, and got to see a lot of nice seabirds as well! A nice sunny holiday. Pity it was only for a few days though! The day after we got back from the Farnes, we went bird ringing, down at the local dump, and caught lots of birds, which is really good for Jason as they don't catch quite so many on Fair Isle (but they do catch more interesting birds!). We also went up to Chanonry point for some dolphin-spotting, and got to see some nice birds on the way too! Unfortunately, they weren't putting on a spectacular show for us (often they are seen leaping out of the water only a few metres away), but we did manage to see some dolphins and porpoise, so I was happy! :D I also took Jason up to Loch Ruthven, so that he could see some Slavonian Grebes and the reserve that I work at, as well as going out to restaurants, shopping, etc etc etc. I just wish his visit lasted longer, but he had to get back to work! :(

August
August saw the number of Slavonian Grebe chicks increase! A few weeks after the third full loch survey, I noticed another chick, much smaller than any of the ones we had seen on the survey, bumping our total up to 9! Then, at the end of the month, I noticed a pair of Slavonian Grebes taking weed into the sedge beds, building up their nest to protect their eggs from falling into the water and drowning. A few weeks later we had more chicks!! 2 in fact, giving us a grand total of 11 chicks!! Hooray! We also had a big meeting about all of the work that's been going on at Ruthven and the other lochs that Slavonian Grebes breed on, showing just how much I have to get done before the end of September! In other news, August saw the retirement of Christine, who worked in the administration department of the office. We had a massive BBQ for her, which was attended my many many people and enjoyed by all!!

Also in August, my dad came to visit me! He came on a trip up to Loch Ruthven with me and managed to see some Slavonian Grebes! Lucky really, since most of them are thinking about leaving in August! I'm glad he got to see them, as they aren't exactly common, with just 29 pairs breeding throughout the whole of the UK this year, and all of those within 40 miles of Inverness! In addition to this, we went on a coach trip to the Isle of Skye, which I really enjoyed, as it's somewhere I've never been before, and so beautiful! We got to see all the tourist sites, photos soon to follow! Unfortunately I had to work on the Monday that he was up here, but I really enjoyed his visit! In addition to this, I went bird ringing most weekends in August, and even went Cannon netting! This is when you fire a bigger, thicker net out of several cannons to catch waders and ducks! It's really fun, and I'm glad that I got to press the (not so) big, red button that fired the cannons!! Then it's a race down to the shore to get all of the birds out of the water and out of the net, put a ring on them and take a few measurements before letting them go :) I also managed to get to the cinema, to see Harry Potter and the Inbetweeners movie!

August also saw my first trip to A&E since I moved up to Inverness. It's not for anything too bad though! There seem to be a lot more ticks about in the Highlands than there are anywhere else in the country, and since I work outdoors and in long vegetation where there are lots of deer about, I often get ticks on me. Horrible little things. The main problem with them is that they spread Lyme Disease, a nasty little disease that sticks with you for the whole of your life. So the RSPB issued me with a Tick Twister, a genius device that allow you to remove ticks easily, and in tact, without burning/squeezing them which can cause them to vomit up whatever evil diseases and animal blood they happen to have in them - disgusting! This also increases your chances of getting Lyme Disease. So the tick twister is really helpful, as it helps to prevent this from happening. So, back to the A&E story, I was on the phone to Jason when I noticed I had a tick in my arm. No need to panic, I'll use the Tick Twister...Oh no...I've lost it!! So instead I tried to use regular tweezers to remove it, as this is recommended if you don't have anything else. But it was in a really awkward place on my arm, and I couldn't quite reach it properly, so I ended up acidentally ripping it's body off, leaving the head in my arm, spreading infection and disease. I panicked. I rang a friend from work, who suggested I call NHS 24, who told me I need to go to A&E - NOW!! So off I went, slightly scared, to get this tick head removed. It took all of about 10 seconds, as the nurse used a needle to hook the head out of my skin. Job done! And the moral is, id you get a tick DON'T use tweezers!! (or duct tape for that matter - you know who you are!) Thankfully, I did not develop signs of Lyme disease :)

September
Time is running out! I'm quickly approaching the end of the month, and the end of my contract with the RSPB! It's a race against time to find a job, but unfortunately there don't seem to be that many out there at the moment. So wish me luck in finding something, and let me know if you see something suitable! I have been out to the loch a few times this month to check on our two newest chicks, but they seem to be doing very well, keeping our total at 11 chicks from 13 pairs of Slavonian Grebes! Mega!! Last year they had just 7 chicks form 7 pairs, so we've really done well this year, despite the copious amounts of rain, wind, cold, and predation! Well done grebes!! My hire van has now gone back though, so I won't be visiting the loch too much more, and am now concentrating on getting everything that I have done written up into various spreadsheets and reports, so that the data I have collected can be analysed by the maths wizards, and so there’s a permanent record of my work. Wish me luck with this as well - it's a mammoth task!!

So far this month I have been out ringing quite a few times again, as well as more cannon netting. And I also have a new house mate, Martin! He will be moving into my room when I leave at the end of the month, so until then one of my other housemates, Fiona, who is also the owner of the house, has moved out to her parent's place for a month until I leave. I'm mostly applying for jobs this month, in the hopes of getting something (preferably in conservation, and paid) over the winter, but it's not looking too great at the moment. I will keep you all updated with my progress in finding work, and I'll let you know how I get on in the last few weeks of my job. I'll also add in some photos some time soon, I promise!!

First surveys of the season!

So, Kate and I have finally recieved our licences from SNH, which allow us to work closely with the Slavonian Grebes, which are a Schedule 1 species. This means that they have the highest level of protection that a species can have, and so it is illegal to disturb them in any way, especially during the breeding season, unless you are granted a licence to do so. Since we are carrying out important research on this rare breeding species, we have been given licences which allow us to photograph them on their nests, and to disturb them (which we will have to do in order to find the nests and set up the cameras). We will be carrying out nest searches next week, so that we can install the nest cameras as soon as possible, so that we can make sure to catch any signs of predators and to research the effects that all this rain and high winds is having on the grebe nests. We already know that a few nests have been washed out on other lochs as the water level rose too high and carried the eggs away. A terrible loss for this species, as every nest is precious due to their low numbers. But hopefully it is early enough in the season for them to re-build, and re-lay. As far as I know, all of the nests at Ruthven are ok, but I guess I'll find out when I go back tomorrow! Finger's crossed!

Last week Kate, Stewie and I completed the first full loch survey of the season! This involves walking around the edge of the entire loch and noting down any species that we see or hear, paying special attention to the Slavonian Grebes and the number of pairs of the grebes. This survey gives us a good idea of the number of pairs using the loch, as well as how many are nesting, and whereabouts they are nesting, which gives us information on their habitat preferences, as well as providing us with knowledge of which other species use the loch for feeding and breeding.

Completing the survey was fun, but pretty hard going! For the first quarter or so we had to trudge through mud by the sedge beds, which I managed to get stuck in! I sank in up to knee level and have to be rescued by Kate! But then we moved onto stony ground which was more slippery, but much easierto walk on, although we did have to wade through a channel waist deep to get there! So I ended up with my waders full of freezing cold loch water, but at least I didn't fall over in the loch! Anyways, the survey showed that we might have 12 pairs of Slavonian Grebe on the loch this year!! A brilliant result, as there were only 6 pairs that bred here last year! However, we are still analysing the maps, so we're not too sure on the number of pairs yet, but I'm hoping that 12 will be correct!

Whilst on the survey, we managed to see and hear some pretty good birds, like a Tawny Owl calling, a Red Grouse calling, a Greylag goose with 7 goslings, Sedge Warblers singing in the reeds, a Spotted Flycatcher, and we even saw a Short-eared Owl hunting over the grassland near to the loch while we were driving back to the office! We still have 2 more of these surveys to complete over the next 2 weeks, as well as having to find nests so that we can install cameras, as well as all of my regular work. In addition to this, we are having a visit from the RSPB Scotland Committee (very important people within the RSPB) this week, so I need to prepare for that! So it looks as if I'm going to become a very busy person in the next few weeks, as the breeding season kicks off at the loch! Wish me luck!

On the home front, everything is going well! I'm getting on well with both of my housemates, and enjoying living in Inverness, although I still don't really know many people. But I've started going to yoga once a week with two of the girls from work, and I'm planning to start up bird ringing again in the next few weeks as well! Also, if I get the time and I'm not too tired I might start volunteering with the SSPCA (like the RSPCA, but Scottish) on the weekends, as they have a re-homing centre close to where I'm living! Would be nice to spend some time playing with cats and dogs (but mostly cats)! I think that's about all that's happening at the moment, I'll update again soon if I get a chance to, so keep checking back!

A few snaps from Inverness



The East end of Loch Ruthven. All of the far shore seen in this photo is owned by the RSPB and part of the reserve.




The West end of the loch. None of this part is owned by the RSPB. Both ends of the loch are used by the Angling Association, who fly-fish from row-boats rather than motor boats to maintain the water quality of the loch.



3 Greylag Geese flying over the loch. They breed on the loch and now have goslings!

The reserve as seen from the car park. In addition to the loch, the RSPB owns an area of woodland and moorland, some of which can be seen here!

A pair of Osprey flying over the loch. The one on the left has a fish (caught by diving into the loch), and the one on the right is chasing it.

The East end of the loch as seen from the beach.

A Slavonian Grebe stretching

A Slavonian Grebe preening it's belly feathers

Slavonian Grebe

A pair of Slavonian Grebes on the loch on a misty morning. The one on the right is the male. You can see he has bigger yellow tufts and is slightly bigger overall.

A male Red-breasted Merganser - seen on the loch quite often!

Blaeberry (also called Bilberry) grows all over the reserve. The berries are edible and look and taste much like small blueberries. They are a favourite of Black Grouse, although there are none on the reserve or the surrounding area.

The woodland part of the reserve. The trees here are all covered in lichens, which indicate the excellent air quality found in the Highlands.

Highland Cattle! Seen quite often on my drive up to the loch

The beach at Loch Ruthven provides the best views of the East end of the loch.

A Wheatear resting on a post at the loch

April - May is lambing season, and there are little lambs everywhere at the moment!

The woodland walk that takes you through the reserve and up to the hide!

More photos will follow soon! Hope you have enjoyed these ones so far!

It's getting busy!

Hi Guys!

Sorry it's taken me so long to write another post! I've just been really busy lately! Everythings starting to happen at the loch so I've been going pretty early, and just too knackered when I get back to bother updating this!! If you want a more regularly updated blog documenting my work life, then visit the RSPB Loch Ruthven blog, which I update weekly!

All is going well at work and at home, and I'm really enjoying my job so far! There are now at least 8 pairs and 3 single Slavonian Grebes on the loch, so we've already improved on last year, when there were only 6 pairs! So let's hope that they all stay to breed! We also have lots of Common Sandpipers, Oystercatchers, Lapwing, Curlew, Common Gulls and Black-headed Gulls attempting to breed, and a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers hanging around the loch most days. Add to that all of the small woodland and moorland birds singing and nesting, Cuckoos and Great-spotted Woodpeckers calling and Grasshopper Warblers reeling from the moorland and that's a lot of activity! We completed the first in a series of surveys of the moorland and woodland birds on the site last week, and will be installing the midge and mink traps next week, as well as beginning the full loch surveys to find nests and install nest cameras, so I'm going to be even more busy very soon!!

As for home, I'm really enjoying where I'm living and so glad that I chose this place to stay at! My housemates are so nice, and know how to have a good time! They are determined to show me the nightlife of Inverness and introduce me into their circle of friends :) And my workmates are just as nice! Went out with them today for a walk along a river, before wading through it as we couldn't find the bridge to the other side!! So we all got a bit wet, but it was a good adventure!! And I saw a Dipper! :D Also, I went to visit Jason on Fair Isle last weekend, and had a really brilliant time! Saw loads and loads of birds, including a lot that I hadn't seen before, so I was really happy! Especially since I got to ring a few birds too!! Living in Scotland really is doing a lot for my birding life list!! So many new birds since I've come here, and there are still so many I want to see!! Trip to the Cairngorms anyone?

Photos of all of this to follow shortly, unless you're on Facebook, in which case you can see them all right now, instead of waiting fore me to get around to actually putting them on here! Missing everyone lots, and really looking forward to visits from Jason, Jon and Tahnia soon! (I hope!) xxx