Two of the additional things we do are: to ring everything we can - mainly bonxies (chicks and adults) and to census the island for breeding birds, especially fulmars.
With bonxies we either ring chicks - find them, catch them and ring them (they are fairly harmless and completely flightless) and any adults we can lure in to the fish-baited spring trap aka 'the fireguard'. Catching adults and/or free-flying juveniles is a whole different ball game.
Setting the fireguard on a lookout post
A flying juvenile bonxie up close
The mouth that can swallow a puffing whole.
Phil got his new species for ringing, with a bit of a love-bite as a reminder.
This five days later with the bite occurring through four layers of clothes.
Undertaking a census of the fulmars is typically done from land looking /viewing all of the cliffs /ledges as possible and noting the, by now, numbers of chicks.
The island derived walk counted 48 fulmar nets - an increase on last year. However, Andy and Lexie came back one day and took us on a full at-sea circumnavigation of the island. This added another.....70 nests. So a very good year for fulmars.
We also undertake some fishing:
Some whale watching:
This a basking shark, not my image (WalesOnLine.com) although our view was similar to this, and some birdwatching:
A sub-adult white-tailed was roosting locally, and we managed to view it almost daily. Again, not my photo (kilda.org.uk) shows a similar view. Bonxie, left, barn door, right.
Lastly for this section. On the island this year we found:
This was a 'rock' painted and decorated by pupils from Farr Primary School and Nursery at Bettyhill. We adopted it and now it will be placed somewhere else for someone to find.
And the very last. Working at night presents opportunities for star-gazing, satellite watching, space-station and solar flare watching. This year we were also treated to:
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