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!