Welcome to the third Ramsey weekly newsletter.
Firstly, the full list of land mammals permanently resident on Ramsey are;
- Bank Vole
- Common Shrew
- Rabbit
- Sheepdog Dewi
- Welsh Mountain Ponies
- Welsh Mountain sheep
- Red Deer
- Homo sapiens
- Bats (OK, I have to give it to Daf Rees – 9 species of bat have been recorded on Ramsey and some do indeed spend half their day roosting in our barns, making them semi- terrestrial!!)
In bird news – Spotted Flycatcher and Wood Pigeon are nesting in the willows at the bottom of the farmhouse garden. Both are FIRST breeding records for Ramsey.
Puffin sightings in the area around the Puffin decoys and sound system have increased over the last two weeks, especially early morning and early evening. We would expect numbers to peak over the next month when more pre-breeders visit the coastline, prospecting for a burrow and mate of their own.
The full Manx shearwater survey was finally completed yesterday, much to the relief of all concerned. I don’t think my knees will ever be the same again! We’ll be crunching the numbers over the next few weeks to come up with a new population estimate for the Ramsey. And so to this week’s competition. We are taking your best estimates for the 2016 Manxie population. Take a look at the graph and remember – rats had been eradicated from the island by spring 2000.
Have a good weekend
Lisa and Greg