Well here we are… safely onto the islet…

Over the last almost two weeks we’ve slowly settled into islet life. Slowly being a relative term as it has been super busy, but taking one aspect of the research at a time and catching up with everything we’ve missed out on over the last month or so!

Those who are following Ben’s blog (see here) will have caught up with the amazing work he’s been doing at night over the last few weeks – collecting all the remaining GPS’s which were deployed in early January and also deploying a few too. There are no words to truly do justice to the constant pattern of the 1/2hrly trip around the islet until deep into the night, with the ever hopeful adrenaline of maybe there will be a bird… But perhaps it is capture in the ecstatic excitement when an adult bird has been found in the nest and the logger can be retrieved and downloaded!

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These pictures perhaps give an idea of the weather over last two weeks… down jackets and many layers have featured above shorts and t-shirts…

The first week can be summed up by strong windy weather meaning we couldn’t safely reach some of our more exposed nests. But thankfully a few calmer days appeared. We’ve now caught up on the latest happenings in all the artificial nests! Many of the early laid eggs/hatched chicks are now loosing weight and fledging! Pleased to be back before some of the ‘favourites’ fledged and we are all also establishing new ’favourites’ from the chicks yet to fledge.

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We’ve done our first two rounds of the natural nests – it still feels like hunting for ‘wheres wally’ but without the stripy t-shirt, but thankfully my internal map was still fairly accurate! I’ve put my newly given endoscope to the test, which was great fun :). And excited to be back in time to see some of the natural nest chicks before they also started fledging this week!

With the calmer nights (in reality two…) we managed to get out for some half-night mist-netting! Ok so it is very quiet now… the soundscape change was one of the first things we noticed upon return – there are hardly any stormies calling and only sporadically little shearwaters! But it was good to be out, catch a few stormies and enjoy watching the stars (as well as the net!).

We’ve also got a couple of newly built internal cameras up and running. The pièce de résistance of the footage captured was catching a GPS logger bird on camera coming in a 3:45am… Ben had his work cut out catching that one! It’s great seeing the adult-chick interactions in the nests and seeing the array of times the adults return during the night!

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The second week back can been summarised as ‘damp’ – this being a major understatement and instead probably should be more bluntly summarised as 48hrs of solid rain… needless to say the rain water tanks are FULL and both the newly redone house roof and our tents made sure we stayed dry, at least whist not dealing with a few leaks, flooding flat roofs and an overflowing rainwater bucket… we also managed to mostly stay sane inside whist all our laptops slowly died and phones used sparingly… activities included the much needed organising of grim vrs decent garlic bulbs, the organisation of around 50 feather samples from earlier in the season and games of jungle speed by candle light.

VERY thankful to say we have FINALLY had some sun bringing much needed heat, drying of stuff, positive outlooks and most importantly, solar power!

The latter end of the week we’ve picked up the rest of the different aspects of research and now, after the rain, back into the routine of morning chick checks and afternoons of data entry and sorting of camera footage and GPS files and then evening nest rounds for the final few GPS tag retrievals :).

Amongst the crazy weather of the last few weeks and settling back into life over here on the islet, this blessing/poem has hit home to me…

To all that is chaotic in you, let there come silence.

Let there be a calming of the clamoring, a stilling of the voices that have laid their claim on you, that have made their home in you,

that go with you even to the holy places but will not let you rest, will not let you hear your life with wholeness or feel the grace that fashioned you.

Let what distracts you cease. Let what divides you cease. Let there come an end to what diminishes and demeans, and let depart all that keeps you in its cage.

Let there be an opening into the quiet that lies beneath the chaos, where you find the peace you did not think possible and see what shimmers within the storm.

Blessing in the Chaos, Jan Richardson

“Let what distracts you cease. Let what divides you cease... Let there be an opening into the quiet that lies beneath the chaos, where you find the peace you did not think possible and see what shimmers within the storm.“

Is there something shimmering within the storm for you at the moment… just waiting for an opening to be revealed?

Until next time!

Hannah 🙂