The sound of silence

A strange thing happened today and nobody knew. We have had fog for a couple of days, the fog horn had been our constant backing sound track, and I was quite worried that I might not actually be able to see the island before we leave on Friday. The view from our kitchen door was often restricted to just the front yard.

Out to sea a boat had appeared just off Pen Cristin and we heard on the grapevine that it was a Trinity House lighthouse ship, probably delivering water and fuel to the lighthouse. Then mid morning today both the lighthouse and the ship blew their foghorns in rotation, then both fell in to an eerie silence in the white out conditions.

It was only later that someone, surfing the net, discovered that the Bardsey Light foghorn had been decommissioned permanently. Modern shipping, apparently, no longer needs a foghorn signal. Well, maybe ships don’t, but what about the rest of us?

Mel Stacey has penned a poem to mark the passing.

Elaine

Sound Silenced

A notice came through in April

And I received it two days late, too late.

The sound once intermittent, then persistent

Had been silenced.

No reason given, no consultation, or explanation.

Merely stark information.

No further notice will be given.

By Order

That evening, when news reached me,

I had strained my eyes

Through milky sea-merged Ceredigion skies

For a one-fifth flicker of the beam.

And in searching for the light

No sound came;

And now to mourn

Not being there for its passing.

On south end, west side, beyond the stack and horn

We dodged the thistles and thrust

The spectral birds out into evening’s veil.

As fog drenched down a cabin-fever day,

What option, but time trial races,

Around the tower and cottage compound

To beat the horn?

Has what we say and how we say it

No meaning anymore?

Must spoken word and soft inflexion give way?

Must we alone rely on looking, seeing, but not hearing?

You cannot tell by sight alone

So close your eyes and listen, listen, listen.

To

Chiffchaff and Blackbird’s announcing song

And solitary Redshank pipe.

As east wind brings the rumbling trundles

From Great Western trains

Holiday children clamour for steam and whistle cries.

And under night’s thick felted blanket mist

Tucked in around the cliffs

Through island sleeping

The foghorn cores its note and rhythm

Deep into my soul.

Mel Stacey

22^nd May 2010

On the silencing of the Bardsey Fog Horn 19^th May 2010.

Shiants Auk Ringing Group logo clothing

This is not another opportunity to have an excuse to get yours truly on the blog, but an attempt to save on upload time here on the island. If you’re not a member of the Shiants Auk Ringing Group, then you need read no further. If you are, then please carry on . . . .

We now have a great new Razorbill logo for SARG, designed by ringing friend Pete Leonard that can be added to clothing & other items stocked by Design Plus Ltd. You can either order direct from them by following the directions on their website: http://www.designplus.co.uk/ or for those going to the Shiants this year and/or living in Notts, I can put together a single order and bring it to the Shiants for you. This will save a fair bit on postage, which I can then apportion across the order. If you want to take up this latter option, then you must have your order with me no later than Sunday, 23 May; we can settle up when you get the gear.

As an example order, for the gear, I’m wearing in the picture above; I’d need the following information for whatever you desire:

· Polo shirt - Black XL K405 £10.95

· Baseball Cap - Sunflower BB15 £4.45

NB VAT & postage will be added to this. Logo comes in just the one colour scheme.

Cheers

Jim

Closure in the withies

Plas Withy - regrowth

Plas Withy - freshly coppiced

Cristin Withy - regrowth

Cristin Withy - freshly coppiced

Cristin centre ride - before

Cristin centre ride - during boardwalk building

Cristin centre ride - boardwalk completed (view from opposite direction)

I mentioned down the blog, that there were still the lowland withies (Plas, Cristin & Ty Pellaf) to coppice and boardwalks to fix up there. When I first offered to do this, I was probably naive about what I was taking on. Since February, I have spent more than a hundred hours coppicing, removing a lot of the resultant brash and derelict boardwalks. Then there was repairing and replacing the boardwalks in the mist net rides, this included reusing 150 posts from earlier defencing work, laying about 60 metres of boardwalk, scouring the island for bits of wood to use, adding chicken wire to potential slippy areas, and hammering in 12 kg of nails & staples – I think I may have RSI from this☺. Next was the shredding of about half the willow prunings which produced 35 sacks of chippings, which are now being used as mulch on the soft fruit in the island’s gardens.

This would have been much harder, but for all the fetching & carrying by Steve & Ben Porter with the quad & trailer. Also, things speeded up towards the end with great help from Dai & Gwyn Stacey, and Richard Else on the chipping.

Along the way I ripped my wellies and waders (puncture outfits are not just for push bikes), got more cuts and bruises than I care to remember and soggy socks most days. However, I’ll also remember coppicing in the sun & snow, watching warblers flitting about within feet of me and hearing their bills click as they took insects on the wing, and being able to put up mist nets safely and in places where they’d not been for several years.

Jim

Spring flowers

Marsh Marigold and Bluebells in Plas Withy

The 'Cristin' apple

Lady's Smock

We’ve not spent much time on the island in springtime before, so it’s great watching the latish spring unfold here. The gorses have been blooming all the time; no wonder they say “lovers can kiss when gorse is in flower”. Every couple of days we see another plant come in to flower, both in the gardens and in the fields. The yellows of Celandine, Marsh Marigold and Dandelion; the blues of Viola, Squill and Bluebell; and the pinks of the fruit trees, Lady’s Smock & Thrift.

Jim

Knit one, Make one

My winter pastime, knitting, has actually led to slightly more than the title might lead you to believe. So far I have enjoyed making the following; three jumpers, two hats, two pairs of gloves, two pairs of bootees, seven pairs of socks, four dishcloths and eleven Manxie chicks! You will have to visit the BBFO shop to see the latter!

My daughter has kept me very well supplied with gorgeous wool for all these projects; at times my wool bag has looked like a colourful collection of jewels – thanks Jen. And a friend sent me a fun poster based on the wartime exultation… Keep Calm – Carry Yarn … which has continually raised my spirits and a smile – thank you Isabel.

Elaine

The tractor boys

A new sport may be about to take Bardsey by storm; tractor tyre rolling! This afternoon Steve and Jim were to be found practising down at Cafn perfecting their technique in time for the inaugural event. Return match as soon as the tyre is patched and returned to the island!

Elaine

We now live in a gated community!

Out with the old . . .

. . . . and in with the new.

We’re now living in a gated community, but not the sort that is socially exclusive. Over the last week or so, the Trust has been replacing some of the battered (literally) wooden gates and rusted out iron gates around the houses with new replicas. They are a bit shiny at the minute, but once the galvanised finish has weathered for a couple of years they will be painted black as before.

Jim

Change in the weather

The delayed spring has retreated and bird migration has pretty much stopped. The spell of sunny, settled days has left us for a bit, and we have fog and wind.

Jim

Blue sky thinking

The skies over Bardsey are often streaked with contrails from passing aircraft heading to Ireland and beyond. They fan out over the Irish Sea and sometimes provide stunning sunsets. However, it has been quite lovely without them; we have been blessed with very blue skies and the lack of white plumes has added to our sense of isolation. Whilst feeling for those inconvenienced by the volcanic out pouring from Iceland, we do think, rather smugly, that we have been lucky to have enjoyed our own blue skies in our special place; no passport or airport waiting room required!

Elaine

Changing rooms

We have an ambulant lawnmower!

Jim and I have been moving house again; we are back where we began back in October, Plas Lloft. The Observatory last week welcomed the first of the season’s visitors and they have been treated to a freshly decorated and newly furnished accommodation; Cristin looks lovely. The seasonal migrants are also making a return to the island, we now fall asleep most nights to the wonderful, unique call of the returning Manx Shearwaters. Already some are in their burrows on the mountain and in the field banks.

We like our new home; it gives us a different aspect to the island, a different alignment of the walls and a different view of the beaches and lighthouse. Our barn is part of the wonderful vernacular Plas outbuildings and we are set more into the fields which are currently full of expectant ewes. Just over the wall is the birthing field, then the lambs and their mums get moved the day after giving birth to the nursery field, which is next door. I never realised lambs were so mad; they form little groups of up to about half a dozen, and rush headlong about playing ‘follow my leader’ along the tops of the banks, so madcap and so funny. Steve and Jo, the farmers, regularly patrol the fields during the day, late into the night and early every morning to ensure that all is going well or to help out where needed. The cows have also started to calve this week, up at Nant, so we hear the quad going up and down the track as they are checked each watch too.

We have had some of the worst weather of the winter in the last week, snow, sleet and strong winds. The barn is small and fairly easy to heat up, but as we have no electricity we are missing the luxury of our electric blanket at bedtime! However, we keep hoping that spring will arrive soon and that we can really enjoy the warmer weather before we leave Bardsey in seven weeks time.

Elaine

The Dirty Dozen

We did eventually let everyone else have a drink!

(c) Liz James

On a cool St Patrick’s Day evening, the island’s residents met to formally open the re-vamped ringing hut for business. We are all very busy cleaning, decorating, lambing ‘live’, settling in the newly arrived goats and generally getting Bardsey ready for the coming season – hence the soubriquet Dirty Dozen, but once the ribbon had been cut by Steve we were able to find the time to raise a toast to ‘all who ring in her’!

We started the ringing hut back in the autumn by removing the old ceiling and shelving and storing the ringing equipment in one of the adjacent barns, for use should Jim catch any birds over the winter. Once again Jim had measured up what was needed in the way of ply and hardware back on a previous visit in the summer, so he had all the necessary to hand once he got going and Screwfix helped with the rest.

The first job was to refit the ceiling and in doing so create a new storage area in the roof space; to ensure this stayed fairly clean the roof was lined with plywood and then a ladder built to access the space. Once all this was in place the walls were painted, several times, and the floor given a new coat of red paint. Then the ringing equipment, cupboards and table were returned to their new home.

Jim decided he would like to mark the occasion with a traditional ‘topping out’ ceremony so an evergreen branch has been suspended in the hut and a few glasses of bubbly were enjoyed too.

This project has been close to Jim’s heart for a variety of reasons; as he has already said his ringing career started on Bardsey more than twenty years ago and the ringing hut has been a special place for him since then. I too ringed my first bird there, a Brambling.

Elaine

Early bird

Last night, while walking up to turn off the generator, I had the good luck to hear my first Manx Shearwater of the year as it flew along the mountain. It'll be a while before they come down to their burrows on the island, but here's an old pic to keep you going.

They're a special bird for me as it was the first species of bird I ever ringed and that was on Bardsey. Also, I caught the 50 year old Manxie on the island a couple of years ago.

Jim

We're no longer alone . . . .

Connor, Emma, Liz & Steve

It had to happen, the dream could not continue; the Observatory staff are back! On yet another fabulous sunny day Benlli III crossed the Sound bringing back Steve, Emma and Connor for the new season. Accompanying them was Liz James, on her second tour of duty as a volunteer to get Cristin ready for the summer.

The Stanfields did not travel lightly and were laden with food and equipment for the nine months ahead of them on the island. We spent the remainder of the day and the following one squirreling the stocks away in their food storage area and trying to find homes for all the new books and Christmas pressies they have brought back with them.

Now it is all hands to the deck as we spring clean and decorate, where required, the Observatory building in readiness for the arrival of the first visitors in a few weeks time.

Yep, Jim’s still in the ringing hut.

Elaine

Anticipation . . .

A strange feeling has settled over the island to my mind; we are waiting. Bardsey has been truly beautiful over the last few days; the sky could not be bluer, the sun has not stopped shining and the sea has been so calm. But it feels as if we are waiting for the party to begin.

In about a week’s time the lambs will start to be born, the migratory birds are probably already on their way, following ancient routes back to their breeding grounds, certainly the Manx Shearwaters must by now be on their way from the South Atlantic to find their old burrows on the mountain and in the banks, and the human visitors will soon be arriving for a day trip or a week’s stay.

The island will change; maybe it could be described as coming alive, Jim and I have been very privileged to have seen at its most secret time.

Elaine

Death in Solfach

Steve Porter found a dead Chough on his morning sheep check a few days ago in Solfach. It had been hanging around for a few days on the beach, looking bedraggled with missing seconadries and bare patches. It's hard to say whether it was poorly because of fighting with other Choughs or being attacked by a predator, or if it just succumbed to the winter, but it was very thin. The bird had been ringed as a nestling about 20 km at Cilan on the Llyn, which is a pretty typical recovery distance for a first winter Chough.

Jim

St David’s day

Happy St David's day to everyone.

Bagsy I don't do any more bags!

130 bags; bring on the birds.

They have been turned inside out and shaken to get rid of the feathers, sorted into saveable and beyond hope, washed and hung out to dry. Once clean we then set about identifying the requirements of each bag; did it need any sewing and or did it require re-stringing. When that was finished all that was needed was to make up any gaps in the sets, then put them together into bags of tens to be stored in the ringing hut waiting for the night when there is a lighthouse attraction and the bags are put into use to safely calm the birds that succumb to the light and drop to the ground on their migration.

Bag Lady signing off; I wish well to all who roost in them.

Elaine

Bird catch up – part 3

Market day at Cristin

Avid followers of the bird sightings on Bardsey will no doubt be following Ben Porter’s weekly accounts on the Bardsey Wildlife blog. However, I thought I’d jot down some thoughts on how the birds reacted to the harsh weather over Christmas and the New Year and my experience of it. The temperature during this spell hardly went below freezing here, which must have made the island attractive to the displaced waders & thrushes who were seeking refuge from the bad weather on the mainland.

Leading up to New Year it was really noticeable that the Stonechats and Dunnocks were much more confiding as they risk assessed feeding versus predation. Then around New Year there was a significant build up of birds. Ben noted Lapwing arriving from the west, and there were 100 plus of them and Golden Plover on the island, together with good numbers of Snipe and Woodcock. The Woodcock, in particular, were in the gardens and around the farm buildings and one(?) was hanging around the Obs generator shed. On any walk you’d be regularly flushing the Woodcock & Snipe, and getting within 50 metres of solitary Lapwing & Golden Plover. With the Lapwing arriving from the west one sensed they were in real trouble, as the milder climes of Ireland are usually a bad weather refuge for them. This concern proved to be justified as soon the Lapwing and odd Golden Plover were being picked up dead. Some headless birds had obviously been predated, but others had simply crawled under garden bushes to die and then the Wood Mice set about recycling them! We found c15 Lapwing corpses, but feel there was more than this as we are still finding them.

There was also a build up of thrushes. It was a little strange making phone calls on Pen Cristin with small flocks of Mistle Thrush going over, and tame Redwing and Songthrush all over the mountain. The back garden scrub at Cristin was alive for two days with 50 plus Redwing that fed voraciously on the unfrozen leaf litter, and then they were gone.

Since then, there have been precious few Stonechat about Bardsey, but as there’re partial migrants it’ll be interesting to see how they fare on the island and after this hard winter.

Jim

Bird catch up -part 2

A couple of weeks ago Ben Porter had noted several Jack & Common Snipe in the wetter lowland fields, and as it was calm for once I put up some nets to try and catch them at dusk and dawn. Nothing at dusk and nothing just before dawn, but as I walked up to the nets at dawn I flushed a Common Snipe in to the mist net. Just the one bird, but a real pleasure to look at in the hand and the first ringed on the island for a couple of years.

Jim

Bird catch up – part 1

I’ve not blogged much about birds on the island lately, so this is a bit of a catch up. For better information on species and numbers see Ben Porter’s excellent updates on the Bardsey Wildlife blog.

Ringing here at Cristin has been pretty slow on account of the weather, few birds being about and those that are here being already ringed and knowing their way around the heligoland. However, I netted this interesting Chaffinch on 23 December. It has Knemidocoptic mange or ‘canker’. Chaffinch, Sedge Warbler and Dunnock are occasionally caught with it. We do not ring them in case the disease spreads and envelopes the ring. Bar extreme cases, the birds do not seem unduly bothered by it.

Jim

Short shore leave

Just a nice sunset a couple of days ago.

We’ve been away – did you miss us?

We left the island for about ten days last week in order to say ‘Goodbye’ to a dear friend, and took the opportunity to see familiar faces and to meet our own latest family member, Tyr, our daughter’s adorable puppy. While we were back on the mainland we took the opportunity to have a bit of a ‘service’; teeth – filled, hair – trimmed, feet – filed. We sound like the island sheep that Steve has been getting ready to lamb in the coming weeks!

It was strange being back on the mainland; even though we live in a quiet village the first night home seemed very noisy after the peace and quiet of Bardsey. The first time we went shopping in the local town neither of us took any cash or cards with us, not having needed any of that stuff for the last few months and, as we knew we were not going to be home for long, it was as if we were camping in our own bedroom. Still, it was rather nice to be able to go shopping and pick up a few essentials and treats for the coming months.

After a week the call came from Ernest that the boat would being going over on Friday so we drove through blizzards and sunshine to finally get back to the island during the Friday afternoon. It is lovely to be back and we feel rejuvenated by our little break; ready for the coming weeks. Jim has started straight back into work mode and is fitting out the ringing hut and I have started the spring cleaning. We have quite a bit we still want to do and we will keep you up-to-date over the next few weeks.

Elaine

Magic wand

I was going to show you my efforts with basket making, well I still am (but only because we need a picture)! But, instead of trying to tell you how it is done I am just going to direct you to Jo Porters website http://portersonenlli.blogspot.com/. Jo, from the farm at Ty Pellaf, gives you a wonderful master class in not only how it is done, but what wonderful items can be achieved with a simple willow wand.

As you can see from my efforts, the willow is still in control in my case! Still I do feel quite Ray Mearsish.

Elaine

Stile guru

. . . . afterwards.

. . . . during . . . .

Before . . . .

As we have already mentioned, we have been working to do a bit of spring clearing at Nant and Ty Capel withies. Part of that work has been to replace the old aluminium ladder into Nant Withy to make access for the bird ringers a lot easier and safer. So Jim, with his usual recycling hat on, has made a new ladder stile out of old wood to access the withy.

Elaine

PS For my sins, I was once a member of the British Standards footpath stile working party. So it had better be good - Jim

Gameboy

The worktops inside the kitchen at Cristin are fine and dandy, but sometimes you just need to move on – or out. So, if you need a bit more room, feel a little warm or have something especially messy to do, then it is outside to the wall that you go. Over the years we have prepared cooked lobsters and crabs, gutted fish and today Jim did his ‘hunter/gatherer’ thing on the wall by the kitchen window. We hadn’t been culling the island birds, but had been given two brace of partridge and a pheasant via the farm from the mainland. So, with much feather flying, Jim spent an hour or two plucking & cleaning them up. Cold work but someone had to do it - and it wasn’t going to be me!

Elaine

Christmas came late, or is it early?

Saturday was a special day. Our friends, Mel, Dai and Gwyn Stacey came over to the island for lunch. They have been planning to get here since before Christmas and had done a lot of shopping for us. However, due to weather and other commitments from all concerned, they finally made it a month later than expected. Their floor at home had been a temporary, but rather long term storage space for our pre Christmas wish list. So it was that we finally received some Christmas crackers, a bottle of port and a festive tin of peanuts amongst all the other lovely goodies they had kindly run around getting for us. We spent a hectic two hours together; so much to talk about and things to show them even though they know the island well. Then Ernest was ready to get back to the mainland and so they left for the return trip to Carmarthen. A long journey for such a flying visit, but we hope they enjoyed themselves as much as we did. Thanks you guys!

Elaine

Now I'm a bag lady

How many bird bags does a bird observatory need? Well I think I know the answer and this is about a quarter of them, washed and hanging out ready for a little work with the sewing machine. Watch this space.

Elaine

Basket cases

With the advent of bright, cold weather, we thought it was time to get stuck in to more of the conservation tasks we’d talked ourselves in to doing. This time it was pollarding the willow osiers in the withies at Nant & Ty Capel at the north end of Bardsey. The osiers were traditionally cut by the islanders to take willow wands to make their lobster pots. The wands would have been cut on a two/three year cycle creating a sustainable supply of material that also creates good habitat for migratory birds and wildlife. With the demise in the demand for willow for lobster creels, the withies have mainly been managed for the birds and can quickly become overgrown. However, Jo Porter at TY Pellaf has revived basket making for new uses like washing and vegetable baskets. With this fresh incentive to manage the willow withies, we set about cutting the willow in Nant & Ty Capel withies. It involved about half a day cutting and pruning. As well as selecting willow wands for weaving ,we also pruned the willow, especially some of the old growth, to encourage whippy regrowth that will be suitable to cut in the next year or so. Out of the wood we took out we made seven good bundles of willow wands that will be woven in to various design of basket on the island by Elaine, Emma & Jo. We then chipped most of the wood that was left, which will be used for composting the loo at the farm at Ty Pellaf.

Jim