Last weekend of May: the planned coppicing for this year was completed in the area near the pond 60' net.
Early June: front porch door was replaced with clear double glazed modern door, easy to lock and open, and easy to use telescopes through! Mowing of all paths around the island in the continuing absence of rabbits was completed. First day trip was on 4th, the first of 4 over the next month. The biggest was on 18th June when the North Down and Ards National Trust Members' Group visited. It was one of the best day trips we have ever had. The war against the Himalayan Balsam began in earnest on that date too. On 20th, three new gas cookers were wheeled up and installed.
Late June: the two old wheel barrows were refurbished and brought back into use, bringing the total up to a much needed six. Window frame maintenance was done too. The new and heavy handrail steel bars and connectors were brought out and sized up . More Jetty concreting was done and the step edges painted white.
Early July: saw the usual vegetation management team out for a week. With 3 mowers now in use and 2 other specialised cutters, more people can be involved and the work proceed more quickly. More people were trained in their use. The wheeled strimmer was particularly good for the balsam control, though hand-pulling remains the best, which went on to the end of October. The work on recreation of the island's special marine sward, which was nearly lost over 20 years ago, started in earnest almost 10 years ago. The north garden has now a great spread of centaury, eyebright, brookweed, self-heal, heath bedstraw, sheep's sorrel and new this year - mint. However the most spectacular result of the mowing programme has been the fabulous display of orchids, almost all Northern Marsh Orchids. By the beginning of July, there were nearly 700 flowering spikes and approximately 2000 non-flowering young plants. We wish we could say which aspect of the timing of the mowing has particularly favoured the orchids but we can't. Another display came from the foxgloves along the under-cliff.
In early July: two long bench seats brought out to the island and placed along the front of the house beside the front door. These (a donation) seem to have been instantly popular. The dorm 4 lighting was repaired.
The first Arctic Tern chick to be reared on Mew Island for about 45 years was located by telescope from the observatory on 8th July. Another two were observed a week later, so 2 pairs managed to rear 3 young, a good start. All were flying by the 12th July. Hopefully the increasing rabbit population will make Mew Island more suitable for terns. Pre-myxomatosis, the island held a colony of 4 species of terns totalling tens of thousands. It was also noted that the sea purslane had a very lush year in the creeks of Mew.
In mid July: a big project was undertaken by a team of stone-age workers! Large sandstone tiles were retrieved from beneath the granite blocks at the lighthouse and laid to perfection along the front of the buildings outside the front door. The new bench seats were then placed on top of the pavers. This was a major project.
Late in July: the balsam war continued by day, while at night, good numbers of Storm Petrels were ringed. Another new bed was introduced to dorm 2. There is now at least one proper bed in each of the 4 dorms, particularly good for people staying a full week or more, when a room each is nice to have.
At the end of July: a new large gas powered fridge was installed. This is intended primarily for week-long stayers as there is a freezer section. The smaller fridge in the men's washroom is still available, as before, for weekenders' milk, meat etc. The first stage of handrail construction began at the Gavney jetty. A huge amount of spring-cleaning was done in the buildings, including vacuum cleaning just about everywhere - a first for the buildings in 50 years! Other sprucing up was done in readiness for……….
Early August: The long awaited and long planned for Second International Workshop happened during 3 days in the Ulster Museum, and over 4 other nights on the island. A full report on this will appear in our Annual Report for 2005 due out in March 2006. There were 80 delegates (most from overseas) at the workshop and 21 managed to visit the island for at least one overnight. It all went off very well, was very useful and stimulating. Everyone had lots of ideas for future projects. With so many experts there, there were some stunning catches of shearwaters, 200 on one of the nights, and plenty of stormies too.
In August: there were several sightings of a basking Shark. The drought continued on the island, lasting to mid September, resulting in difficulties with the water supply to the flush toilet. The new pond dropped by about 9 inches. There was plenty of rain on the mainland. Mowing of tracks through the shearwater sub-colonies was done in readiness for the shearwater chick-ringing season. At the start of August, a peculiar and unpleasant taste and smell from the well water alerted us to the presence of a dead eel in the well. After removal and drainage, it took some time for visitors to start using the well water again! (about a month)
Late August: A general repeat of sward and path mowing had to happen again as the rabbit population still had not recovered to normal. A big effort to ring the young Manx Shearwaters began from 27th.
September: The chick emergence season coincides with the period when the "red beast of Copeland" bites visitors and this was a particularly bad year (see the archive). Luckily most of the week-long visitors were hardly affected. Passerines were poor during this period, but a tremendous effort was made at ringing the young shearwaters, resulting in a total (to be confirmed exactly) of 1135 being ringed prior to departure for South America. One spell of 5 days during this time saw a daytime work team doing a wide range of jobs, including the making and installation of a new weather vane, a new door closer was attached to the back door, preparatory work was done for the installation of a second solar panel generating system, gully trap maintenance and repair, grassland management, elder coppicing along the under-cliff, further concreting at the jetty, trundling granite blocks to the jetty on a home made barrow, further protection and weather-proofing of the Chris Bailey Hide, new light in porch wired to the 24V system, concreting in of the new notice boards, firewood retrieval from coppicing, painting blue of internal doors, putting a light in the flush toilet, kitchen improvements, door and glass replacement in the in the old buildings, improved roofing over the tool shed, continuing balsam removal, and, best of all, the installation of a lovely new flush toilet, which uses very little water.
Birdwise, a Gannet was found dead on the north rocks with an Icelandic ring. As the season progressed into October, migrants trickled through at a lower than average rate, with Goldcrests being especially poor. If you look through the Recent Sightings link, you will see that things were not as bad as this brief summary might suggest. Numbers may have been low but variety was quite good, even if there were no big rarities.
Hopefully the final part of the year's story will be placed on the web site by early November. Updating of sightings should be done by the end of October. Unfortunately, no "CBO e-news" have been sent out to members and friends during the whole of the second half of the year due to computer problems.
The period from the 13th to the 16th April proved to be one of the worst spells on record for the observatory at this time of the year. With northerlies and frequent rain, the only migrant seen was one House Martin on 15th. Nevertheless, much maintenance work was done and shearwatering happened on most nights up to the 15th.
The weekend party which arrived on 15th was removed somewhat reluctantly on Saturday evening as Sunday was forecast to be SE 8 with heavy rain. This forecast was actually correct, so the party probably eventually realised that it was the right decision, especially as Monday 18th continued quite windy and with steady rain all day. Planned mowing proved impossible even on 16th, which had been forecast to be a nice day but in the event started windy and continued rainy.
Compared with last year, the start of 2005 has not been so exciting. The main problem has been cold and blowy weather which delays migration and even when some is occurring, few or none use the island as a staging post. Nevertheless, there have been a few notable sightings. The details are already on the website for up to the 9th April in the Recent Sightings section.
Highlights have been:
300 Meadow Pipits on the island on 20th March, 35 Magpies on 27th and the first Swallow. Up to 4000 Razorbills passing on several days, some Goldcrests almost daily from 27th March until 5th April, but maximum of 25 on 31st Mar was not a very large number. The first Willow Warbler was on 1st April, when a Redwing was also ringed. The 2nd brought 10 Willow Warblers, the first Chiffchaff, 2 Fieldfares and a Sand Martin. On 4th a Greenshank and a Wheatear showed up, while the first Blackcap appeared on 5th. Very little appeared from 6th to 11th due to adverse conditions.
There have been frequent sightings of birds of prey including close views of Hen Harriers (3 on 10th) and many other common species, especially finches, but the most interesting of these was the arrival of 7 Twites on 1st April which stayed a few days enjoying our hospitality in the form of wheat, millet and niger seed.
Stock Doves have been abundant, up to 40 daily. Finally on 12th another Blackcap and Redwing indicated a bit of passerine movement restarting.
Meanwhile night-time activity proceeded apace, especially around the time of the new moon on 8th April. Approximately 500 have been handled so far and a significant number of new ones, a bit less than 100 have been ringed.
Quite a bit of maintenance work has also been undertaken. A replacement window has been installed in the east lounge wall. Waymarking signs for new-comers and day trippers have been discretely placed at strategic places around the island.
Dog Violets are now flowering well, the first bluebells are out and there are a big number of cowslips flowering around the south side of the island, helped by the collapse of the rabbit population over the winter due to a return of myxomatosis. It seems there about 16 flowering heads of this species which is very rare in Northern Ireland.
Perhaps the most commented feature of the island for the human visitors so far this season has been how cold it has been. This can always be a problem early in the season, tolerated well enough by those who are used to it and are fully kitted out for the cold and damp buildings. The interior temperature has been averaging around 8°C. By May, the beds, walls and floors should all be dried out and warmer.
| © Copeland Bird Observatory, 2005 |