A special place... The Isles of Scilly are one of only two places in England where Manx Shearwaters breed
Under threat...The Isles of Scilly hold 3,000 fewer pairs of breeding seabirds than 25 years ago
Friday 13th sailing was lucky for some! The passengers saw dolphins, puffins and Manx shearwaters.
Today the project delivered a field trip to Cornwall College, New quay. Second Year students from Marine and Zoology Conservation Courses learnt about invasive species and how the project is protecting our important seabirds.
New member of the team Holly Paget-Brown will be coordinating this years surveys, so this was the first week of field work for Holly and her team.
Thanks to HLF funder Claire for joining the project - monitoring our work and lending a hand with surveys. Claire joined the 'ecological monitoring for wider species work' across the three sites on St Agnes, Gugh and Bryher; assisted with St Agnes school field trip; met community members and the volunteer coordinator; saw a basking shark on our boat trips between islands; surveyed Manx shearwater burrows; visited Tresco home of our ‘date with nature walks’ . Phew – thanks Claire.
The 'ecological monitoring of wider species ' May week ended with vegetation surveys and 'fixed-point photos' on Bryher. We just made it in the last light of the day.
Project volunteer Martin Prothero is a 'sound man' whom the school children of St Agnes were delighted to meet. They also met 'Bob' whio is Martins sound dummy invention! We took Bob to the Manx shearwater burrows to capture sound of the Manxies and other birds which we recorded on route (12 species in total).
We are delighted to have featured in Summer 2016’s edition of RSB’s Natures Home magazine.
Today the project delivered two workshops to the community of St Agnes and Gugh - how will the islands remain rat-free post 2017 when the project ends.
Today we were visited by both our MEP Julie Girling and MP Derek Thomas to showcase how we are protecting seabirds in the South west.
