Who stole the sun?!

So the centre opened on Sunday 15^th May and we had quite a few local people come out to visit the cliffs and have a coffee.  Since then the weather has taken a major turn for the worst. The thermometer hovers around zero degrees Celsius during the day, the cattle are sheltering beside the centre and the pigs/chickens have confined themselves to their respective turf sheds. There is snow on the lower ridge and we had a slushy white covering down by the centre for some of the day.

The eider ducks have started coming up onto the land now in search of suitable nesting sites and luckily we had just finished constructing a new eider shelter, split into 18 separate nest areas so there is some shelter from the weather (and predators) for these lucky ladies. When we built it on Tuesday the sun was out and it was t-shirt weather, how things have changed!!

The arctic terns are now here in force and are getting more defensive each day. Not at the stage of diving at people yet, just circling over head and “shouting” at you as you walk to the car or up the track. They too are at the stage of looking for suitable nest sites and hopefully soon we will see them on eggs.

On the sustainability front Izzy has been dabbling with making fresh bread and the home brew has been siphoned off and is now in phase two of the settling process.

The weather makes it hard to get out to do anything on the reserve as you are soaked to the skin and frozen to death after spending 15 minutes outside!

Our first SEEDS (http://www.seeds.is) volunteer group arrives on Saturday night so hopefully the weather will improve so we can get out to do some work with them on the reserve.  I am under no illusion that the wetland dam will require further repairs after the continual and heavy rain we have had.

On the positive side we have now seen two separate pairs of Arctic Skua around the reserve so I should have at least one pair (if I can locate a nest) to study over the summer. We also have a lovely roaring fire downstairs which keeps the house nice and warm and reduces our energy bills. (No coal, only driftwood from the sea and scrap wood from town)

Time to huddle in front of the fire, drink tea and try not to think about the weather outside until it has all blown over…

Bjarki and I working on the Eider shelters

Almost complete...18 nest sites to rent!
Comfortable nest, with sea view and protection from aerial predators and the weather!

Roaring, warm log fire!