Facing down the weather bomb

Much of the West coast was braced for the "weather bomb" that was due to hit midweek. The swell chart below illustrates what we were looking at, red arrow pointing at where Oronsay is. It was fairly wild for a couple of days but nothing major.

Below, the storm damage - We will rebuild.

On Wednesday we went out and about in the land rover to see what was going on around the south end of the island, hoping for lots of birds.

Huge waves but not a lot else really - made for some good photos. Islay in the background there.

This lamb was brought into the shed during the worst of it. We found it a few weeks ago in a bit of a sorry state but it has made a remarkable recovery.

Female chaffinch in the woods today after the peanuts in the feeder that's out.

Another week gone

 Some how another week has flown by. Really don't know where time is going, busy busy. The calves are in the barn now, so it really feels like winter is upon us. The weather has turned bitterly cold this weekend too.



I took the dogs out this afternoon in the RTV to go round the south end of the island collecting driftwood for the fire. Was good to have somewhere to shelter from the intermittent hail storms.



This adult whooper with youngster, the best variety in terms of birds I could find today.

 A little bit of snow/hail on the paps of Jura now.

Tuesday already

Here are some pancakes, that's how saturday started:

Vegan of course. And yes, I ate that whole stack - to myself.

This is the view from my loft room in the cottage. Quite often see the pair of chough that breed on Oronsay from here. Just brilliant to be able to hear chough from bed.

Happened to notice this juvenile sparrowhawk while having a cup of coffee saturday morning, this was from the kitchen window - Just a little bit too far for my camera.

 I was after chough photos again for most of Sunday. Spent the morning over at the aptly nicknamed "chough beach" sitting in the landrover waiting for them to turn up.

Not a bad view while I waited.

I'm still getting to know my camera which I only got a few weeks ago, I'm getting there.

I also tried out an amazing pop-up hide we've got on the reserve. I set up where I'd seen the chough feeding earlier in the day. Only managed to sit in it for about an hour and a half as I didn't take enough layers and was starting to get chilly, but it's got great potential for getting up close views and photos of the chough.

Been sorting cows out the last two days. Calves are in the barn now for the winter.

I like turtles

Here's the cake I made for our volunteer's birthday this week!

Tups

The tups have gone out with the ewes on Oronsay this week. Here's one of the young hebrideans who has been jumping walls the last few weeks to try and make an early start on the season. He went over to a crofter on Colonsay today, will be causing mayhem over there now I'm sure.

Here's an arty post sunset landscape for you, moon already out;

Sheep work Monday

Today went to chasing sheep around Oronsay. All the ewes are coming in for treatments against nasty diseases and parasites and then being sorted into tupping lots. A lot of running about!

These two make the job a lot easier.

The weekend

There have been a few snow buntings on Oronsay this week. These two were just outside the cottage on friday afternoon. Great to see and these two were very confiding.

Saturday marked a year since I first stepped foot on Oronsay. After a bit of a lie in saturday, justified but heavy rain I swear, I spent late morning/the afternoon birding. The barnacle geese began to arrive back in October having traveled from their breeding grounds in Greenland. Anyone watching the latest David Attenborough series on the BBC will recognise these amazing birds. Nesting on huge cliffs, the day old barnacle geese fling themselves hundreds of meters from ledges to join their parents who provide encouragement from below. As if that's not enough, they then have to dodge hungry Arctic foxes. Really makes me appreciate them even more.

 I caught up with twelve chough feeding on the beach saturday afternoon. Managed to get a few colour rings read.

The remainder of saturday went to the rugby and dinner with everyone.

Sunday began with some unexpected sheep work, trying to round up a couple of tups which had managed to jump out of their field. Then on to the usual cattle feeding routine.

The priory on Oronsay is quite the picture, especially when the light is right. The cottage I'm living in is right next to the priory.

One of the hens recently hatched out ten chicks.

We spent the rest of the morning collecting logs for the wood shed to keep us going through the West coast winter.

Again, not a bad way to spend the day.

The humble house sparrow

The chatter is growing

Many of those who know me will be aware that I am particularly fond of a member of the crow family called a chough. The red-billed chough to be precise. My first encounter of a wild chough was while in was out birding a former patch in my native Cornwall. Ever since then I've been hooked. I volunteered with the RSPB helping protect and monitor nests around the Cornish coast and have developed what one might called quite a strong sentimental weakness for them.

The collective noun for a flock of chough is a chatter believe it or not. Now is a good time of year here on Oronsay to start seeing groups of chough feeding together. In the breeding season pairs will be on territories and keep themselves to themselves, often fiercely  policing other chough near their nest sites. During late autumn/winter on Oronsay, the chough will usually be found down on the beaches foraging in the washed up kelp and seaweeds which begin to rot. This provides an ideal substrate for kelp fly larva, which are a vital food source for Oronsay/Colonsay chough.

Having previously been a volunteer on Oronsay I was able to further my experience with my favourite species. A large portion of my job application for my current post was me banging on about how much I want to work with chough! I simply can't get enough.

Today I was out on the reserve undertaking my absolute favourite duty, not that I think of it as a chore I hasten to add. Chough colour ring reading. Many of the chough that hatch on Colonsay and Oronsay are ringed as chicks in the nest. These rings are placed on their legs in different colour combinations. This allows an observer to identify an individual with provides us with fascinating insights on a whole range of factors in a chough's life history. Having marked an individual, a "resighting" by spotting its colour ring combination allows us to age that bird and so much more. We can determine what survival rates are for an area, how the population is doing from year to year. Which chough has paired up to breed with which. The data that can be gleamed from a couple of colour rings never ceases to amaze me. It also allows us to follow the fate of an individual bird which is such an incredible insight to gain on a completely wild animal.  The idea sounds simple enough, but it does require quite a level of patience and determination to read rings accurately.

So in the photo we have a chough with rings on. We read the left leg first, then the right. Here we have Orange over Blue - Orange over metal. Admittedly the blue is somewhat faded which happens over time in the sun. The Orange ring on the bird's right leg has slipped over the metal BTO ring so it isn't currently visible. The metal ring is the generic ring placed on the chough as part of the BTOs ringing scheme.

Here we have Red over Blue on the left leg (again blue faded) and metal only on the right leg. A lot easier to see the rings when the birds are on short grass like this.

Quite often you'll find the chough digging around in the kelp so you have to patiently wait for them to "show off" their legs. This can be quite a frustrating task at times but perseverance usually pays off. Having good light and a decent spotting scope help too.

Photos can be a good way to read rings subsequently, but looking at these pictures it shows they can look like a different colour on the screen. The faded blue rings are readily identifiable in the field with good light compared to looking back at these photos.

Reading colour rings is very rewarding and provides brilliant data on the birds.

Not a bad way to spend an afternoon if you ask me.

Take one

So, I've finally got around to starting a blog.

Why now you ask?

My main motivation is that I'd like to keep a formal (or perhaps informal) record of what I'm up to and think that this could be an exciting and interesting way to do so. I follow a number of online blogs on a range of topics and have often thought what a great medium they are to document what a person is up to. I figure that this would be a brilliant way to keep track but also allow family and friends to gain insight on what's going on in my life.

So here it goes. I might be a weekly thing, might be more sporadic. Could just be a photo - Or perhaps a bloated pondering of what life is all about. I expect the posts will be dominated by my work and living on Oronsay, hence the title but I expect I will ramble about all sorts. From birding to music, might even get political. We'll see.

Something of a unique situation to be in really living on a remote Hebridean island with just five other people, working as a conservationist. Will hopefully be as fascinating to read about as I hope at any rate.