In Full Bloom

As we have entered into May we have continued to have stunning weather, with the only exception of two days. The flowers around the neck are gorgeous and as you are walking around you can smell them too. There is a variety of sea campion, meadow campion, bluebells and violets. It is a carpet of colour!

This past week I have been around the island doing my normal tasks of recording deceased Manx shearwaters (by cutting primary feathers), audio recording shearwaters, puffin counts and burrow occupancy and collecting great black backed gulls pellets for the diet study. This is done whilst angry parents swoop down at me and have me continuously shrinking lower and lower to the ground in order to save my head from being hit. But to top it off one of the gulls has even pooed on my shoulder as it was diving for me, haha!

We have also recently been putting the moth trap out at night. It works by attracting the moths via a light into a box filled with empty egg boxes that the moths then rest in. The light is set on a timer and turns off in the early hours and whoever is up first puts some tea towels over the gap to stop any escapees before sorting out the species and number of individuals. So far we have had 15 different species and I would say that my favourite so far is the campion moth because of its patterning. It has wonderful pink lines running through it.

Another favourite of mine is a day moth, that's right I said day! It's called the cinnabar moth and it's a bright red/pink moth with black stripes and there are loads flying around the neck. Combined with the flowers on the neck it really does make for the perfect scenery.