Steve off the island (on holiday!) - the two Richards on their own

Steve and family came off the island last Tuesday and this morning I received word from them as they were busy stocking up with food to go on a week's holiday on the mainland - East Anglia look out!

Meanwhile, back on Bardsey, Richard Brown, Assistant Warden, saw off our visitors this week but no one arrived. Weather was a bit dodgy but Colin couldn't guarantee they would get over, so unfortunately, one visitor didn't make the journey from the midlands. However, it may be possible for him to get over on Monday as the weather looks like improving.

Bird News on the island is that a few Swifts have been seen and a Grey Wagtail (not breeders on Bardsey) and at sea other non-breeders have been up to 50 Gannets feeding. Richard Else has now finished his survey of the Shearwater burrows he was to do this year but will be checking them all again for confirmation of breeding. I have asked him to write something about his methods which I will put on the website.

Richard Brown (Assist. Warden) was his usual cheerful self when he phoned but did say that it would appear that Steve had laid a few traps for him before he left (joke). Richard has had to repair the Lawn Mower twice (otherwise our composting toilets don't work) and he has also had to repair one of the Cookers. The one thing he hasn't been able to repair is the Obs. Laptop Computer (on which we put the log each evening) which has refused to boot-up. Fortunately, we have back-up and there is another computer at the Obs. This does, however, underline how much we rely on the computer these days and that we must budget for repairs and renewals on a regular basis. (Council take note for future budgets - or have we members or friends in the computer business who can acquire uptodate laptops at very reasonable prices?).

Our intention to have satellite broadband for the Obs. has been delayed as we have to get the permission from CADW to put dishes on or around Cristin so there will be some delay while the forms are completed, submitted and a decision is made.

Finally, Richard tells me that Steve Porter and his family have returned from their holiday on Madeira, so that means that their son, Ben (pictured here) will be keeping an eye on the two Richards and contributing to each evening's log again.

Bevan

Refurbished Shop and Information Centre plus Rose Coloured Starling

Neil, Bevan and Denise Healey plus me and my wife Diane, returned from a successful week at the Observatory carrying out refurbishment of the Shop and Information Centre. Plans had been prepared, materials bought and sent over to the island and under the watchful eye of the Warden and his wife Emma, the team did an absolutely splendid job which we hope you will like. We are of course, hoping that it will result in increased sales to all visitors to the island, whether staying ones or day visitors.

I will shortly be putting some other photos on the website of the team actually working. We had an "opening ceremony" when we invited all the residents on the island round for tea, coffee and biscuits (juice for the kids) and one of the Vice Presidents (alias the Bardsey Crier) cut the tape.

We all had a great week on the island - we all worked very very hard, Bevan Healey even beginning work at 5.30 AM on one morning. Bevan spent most of his time "up in the gods" i.e. up the ladder in the roof painting the wooden beams and putting up plywood between them all. (Me and the girls painted them first). It really does look great now. Neil (our skilled carpenter) built brand new table tops all round the room plus shelving on which to display our wares and Wall Displays to tell visitors about our work. Denise worked on the curtains in front of the table tops as well as helping Diane with painting walls, varnishing tables, and painting doors. I'm not sure what the VIP did - he certainly didn't get any serious birding done - in fact, none of us did.


The Obs. staff team is working well together and we saw a lot of our new Assist. Warden, Richard Brown and our Shearwater man, Richard Else. Our personal chef (who else but Bev Healey), ably assisted by Denise and Diane, cooked wonderful meals for us every night, with the two Richards joining us. Also staying at the Obs. during the week was Marijke Albus who cooked us a marvellous BBQ on the front lawn on the Friday night. Marijke spent most of her time finding out all about the island's commonest bird, the Manxie. She spent a couple of nights out with Richard Brown catching and ringing them. Richard Else spent every day we were there putting his arm down Manxie burrows playing calls to them to check responses. Marijke even managed to read the Manx Shearwater monograph from cover to cover during the week.

I was looking forward to an evening at another Observatory on the island - Steve Porter's astronomical observatory. But unfortunately for me, the whole family left the island on the afternoon of our arrival - bound for a well earned holiday in Madeira.

My book of the week is Christine Evans' latest one entitled just "bardsey" - Essays by Christine and photographs by Wolf Marloh (published by Gomer 2008) - a beautiful book describing in words and images how she has come to spend every summer over the last 40 years on the island. A copy came home with me.

Visitors this week have been fortunate to see an ADULT ROSE COLOURED STARLING which was present today 10 June. I am not too upset that it didn't appear last week as I have had one before on the island - but not a good Adult like today's bird!

Bevan