By Tara McEvoy-Wilding
Due to foggy weather on Friday, the helicopter day was moved to Saturday, which altered by plans for the day as I had to do ground crew!
Because of my tie to the helicopters wildlife encounters were few and far between... but I did keep a 'luggage list' (list of bird spotted whilst collecting and delivering luggage!).
- On the way to Old Light I saw 10 Mallards, many Herring Gulls and lots of Starlings attempting to steal the sheep's breakfast
- There was a Pied Wagtail by the shop
- A Peregrine was sat on a Chimney at the Castle
- A Skylark and 2 Meadow Pipits were hanging out by Hamners
Meanwhile Simon conducted the weekly Butterfly transect, but sadly saw no butterflies. The Treecreeper remained in Millcombe throughout the day, and was spotted by Eleanor, Thomas and Greg at various times. Greg also spotted a Common Dolphin pod feeding behind Rat Island!
After the last helicopter (hopefully the last of the season!) had left and we had delivered all the luggage I did the 'Above and Below the Waves' talk in the wheelhouse, it had been very well advertised today so the room was full!
In the evening we all met up to see if we could catch and ring any Manx Shearwaters on the west coast. We walked carefully through the colony but unfortunately the moon was too bright so most of the Manxies were reluctant to come into land or to come out of their burrows due to the risk of predation. We did get a glimpse of a couple flying past us though! Because the visibilty was so good we could see all the way down to the rocks below and as the waves were breaking they were sparkling- it was the bioluminescence! This is caused by phytoplankton creating light through a chemical reaction in their tiny bodies, they typically use this for defence, so when they are spun around in a breaking wave they mistake it for something swimming along trying to eat them. Despite the lack of Manxies it was a good trip out and made a good practice run- now we just have to wait a couple of weeks for the new moon!
My only (not very good) photo from the day- the West Coast Slopes at Night! Red lights are used so we and the Manxies don't lose our night vision