The visit of 2021

 It was good to be back.....

...fortunately the island looked very much as it did before - the sheep were still there and the buildings still standing. The island was 'dry' with vegetation having grown little with, fortunately, very little signs of 'the midge!' As it was dry there was little evidence of sundew (we said we'd look for it) although butterwort was present, as were the orchids. This year for some reason there was a noticeable increase in the numbers and variety of mushrooms.

The sheep were still roaming about with lots of youngsters while, at the other end, a few signs of old age death. One unfortunate, near the camp site, had to be moved a little further down-wind.

There had been changes though - brought about my two winters of absence - with some rock falls causing noticeable differences. At the end of what we call, The Gully, there had been some movement which, after a scramble, gave a view of the Arch - which wasn't possible previously.

This year a team of seven eventually found itself on the island (thanks to Jean) with a few late drop-outs due to ill health. We had a hardy nucleus with us as some ventured a sea swim - on more than one occasion. 

Although we were on the island for the Storm Petrels we did do other things. We set a moth trap, performed a fulmar survey of the island (numbers much reduced on 2019) and undertook a play-back lure census of Storm Petrels around the buildings and at various other sites on the island (next post). We also collected every Bonxie pellet that we could for plastic ingestion analysis. Although the Barn Owl was still on the island (seen) we could find no evidence of any pellets. We also sampled for springtails and spiders - because we could - and started to catalogue the lichens, both on the buildings and rocks.