Back to the Island :)

Hi Gang! I have been back on Round Island since Friday and thought I would write a little note to let you all know the happenings of the week so far :) Our trip over was very nice, we came by boat and there was a Coast Guard change over on Flat Island (an island just west of Round where many Tourist take Catamarans to snorkel and enjoy the beautiful lagoon and beaches!) so we got to stop there and get off for a little walk on the beach! It was very nice to get a chance to see Flat Island up-close after seeing it from afar for so long.

We navigated the landing rock with ease and carried all our equipment back to the field station on Friday. The remainder of the day was spent quarantining all our food and equipment to insure nothing was brought back to the Island. Saturday we spent the morning cutting back the planting cages for the plants that had out-grown them and were now growing through the side of the cage; a hot task, but a very important one!! In the afternoon we GOT RAIN!!! It hadn’t rained here since I have been on the Island (8 weeks!) so the 4mL we received Saturday was a welcome change! Between the showers we got some plant nursery work done, moving plants around to make room for the new ones and get ready for the influx of plants to begin the planting season in January.

The last couple of days have been very hot here. It was 28 degrees Celsius at 8 a.m. Monday we watered the plants in the morning and then spent the afternoon we tended to some invasive weed sites. In these sites invasive weeds had been previously found so we monitor the sites monthly to insure they are no longer occurring in those areas. Over the original area where the weeds were we placed heavy black plastic held down with rocks. The plastics blocks out the sun and heats the weeds to extreme temperatures. This hopefully will kill all the plants and seeds.

Tomorrow there is another lot of 10 Mauritius Fodies coming to the Island to be trans-located!! Some of -them are adults and will be hard released immediately. The others have been hand-reared and need to be kept in cages for a couple days to get used to things before being released. We spent today filling the cages with branches so everyone will be nice and comfortable in their new homes! Well it’s about time for supper here so I better go! I will let you know how everything goes with the Fodies tomorrow, fingers crossed everyone!

P.S

I hear it is starting to get a bit cold in Canada, brrrr, just thinking about it gives me goose bumps!

Pictures from Ilse au Aigrettes

Petrels, Sea birds and Fodie, OH MY!

Hello Everyone,

Its been a very busy time here on Round Island over the last few weeks. The first exciting news is that Round Island is now home to some Mauritius Fodies!! The second lots of birds were brought over in a Helicopter and release a week or so ago. The population seems to be doing well and the Fody team is working hard following them to see how they are using their new home! Two more lots of birds are scheduled to come over in December bringing the population on Round into the twenties!! It was a very exciting time and a great honor to witness their introduction to Round Island!!!

Over the past 10 days we have been busy busy on the Warden team working with Malcolm Nicoll. He was visiting from the University of Reading (UK) to train us in distributing geo-locators to the Round Island Petrels. Little is known about these birds migration patterns and there is lots to be learned using these little tools. The locators are placed on bands on the birds' legs and record sunset and sunrise information as well as sea temperature. This information will then be entered into a computer program when the locators are removed next fall to see where they have been over the past year. We got extensive training in taking blood samples from the birds and correctly placing the geo-locators. Though the week involved a few bloody fingers from the snappy birds, it was an amazing week learning about the species and the project!

In the week leading up to Malcolm's visit I got to participate in the monthly Red-Tail Sea Bird survey they do on the island. This involved walking around to 50 different nesting site and collecting information on the residence of theses humble abodes! If there was a bird in the site we would catch it up, take the ring number or give a new ring to any un-ringed birds. It was the middle of chick season so there were many little 'punk rocker' looking chicks found. They are very adorable but make the most ear shattering noise I have ever heard!! It was great to get to handle these birds up close!! They look so majestic and huge flying over the waters near Round Island that it was really something else to get up close and personal with these Island Residence!

Other then that we have been busy with the Island maintenance. Weekly watering of the plants and tortoises and weeding of the older planting sites takes up a lot of time on Round Island and is a great way to see the Island and has resulted in some major leg muscles...since most of it required a hike to the summit :)

I am starting my 2 weeks back on the mainland and will be able to post some pictures once I am back in Black River! I will be returning to Round in a couple weeks with the next group of Fodies to be released...this will be my FIRST HELICOPTER RIDE EVER!

Hope everything is going well in Canada! I hear it is getting colder by the day!