The surreal effects of living on an islet…

For those not up-to-date with their Doctor Dolittle books, this is a quote from ‘The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle’ after they’ve picked their voyage destination and discover that this island they plan to visit doesn’t have a fixed location because it is a floating island!

Now don’t worry, the islet I am working on does have a fixed location and it doesn’t float. However, when it’s really rough weather or even when just staring out at the sea it is possible to sometimes feel like you’re moving!

Ok so it might sound like I’m going slightly insane after 10 weeks in! Perhaps I was…

I am now safely back to the islet, after a very welcome two week break. But, to take you back to mid-June…

After my long-weekend over on the mainland, my next assistant and I made it safely back to the islet for a whistle stop 9 days of fieldwork! I was excited to be measuring chicks and finding newly hatched chicks during the daily nest checks.

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With one of my assistants, we worked our way around the islet mapping and running acoustic play-back response methods (requires playing a specific set of storm-petrel calls and waiting to hear if you get any responses from surrounding burrows)…

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Also, after much much effort, time, planning, trial-and-error, editing and help from a fellow PhD student back in the UK, I am excited to say we got a raspberry pi camera set up and working in a nest! This we have now been putting out more frequently in order to catch on video the different behaviours and interaction that happen in the nests.

Amongst all theses different activities we also fitted in two mist netting seasons and there were times to rest and reflect a bit too…

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All too soon I was packing up for a 2 week holiday in the UK. I headed back to the UK with one of my assistants in various staggered stopovers, and amongst lots of travelling we managed to fit in a 1/2day birding tour in São Miguel to (successfully!) see the Azorean bullfinch! A privileged moment to see two Azorean endemic species (the Monteiro’s storm-petrel and the Azorean bullfinch) in the space of three days!

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Words are failing me to try and describe the weird and bizarre feeling of returning to bigger and bigger islands with more and more people, busy with their own, seemingly fast paced lives. The novelties of flushing toilets, hot showers (that don’t have a water limit) and just being able to pop to the shops, are just a few of the mundane/accepted ‘norms’ of western life that very much excited me as a temporarily non-marooned PhD student.

It has been a whirlwind tour of Cardiff and Cornwall and such a delight to spend time with friends and family after months of being away. Seeing trees was also very much a novelty!

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But soon enough it was time to head back… 4 days of travelling, lots of waiting and queuing, but soon back to the ‘back to nature’ rhythm of life on the islet for the second half of the summer stint!

I am so so thankful to all my assistants who have come to help thus far and looking forward to welcoming more as the weeks/months progress! It has been a very busy first half of the season, where were were laying down the ground work, but this is now done and I am excited and privileged to be party to such close, daily, insights into the life of the storm-petrels (and other wildlife) over here on the islet!

Until next time!

Greetings from the mid-Atlantic!

Hannah 🙂