Week 1 on the Isle of Man

I have been lucky enough to receive a mammal internship fund from the People's Trust for Endangered Species to allow me to conduct a research project on Risso's dolphins around the Isle of Man. My work will involve deploying two acoustic devices in locations where it is hoped there will be Risso's dolphins present, and combine that with land based watches of the same areas to look at how much this species uses Manx waters, and any seasonality to area usage.

The acoustic devices I will be using are called C-PODs which are passive acoustic devices that detect the echolocation clicks of dolphins and porpoises. Alongside my grant from PTES I was also able to use crowdfunding to raise enough money to purchase a theodolite to use in my land based work. A theodolite is a surveying instrument used to precisely measure horizontal and vertical angles to an object, in this case a whale or dolphin, which allows you to accurately plot their location on a map. I will be doing all this work in conjunction with Manx Whale and Dolphin Watch, which is run by Tom Felce and Jen Adams, and helped by summer volunteers, at the moment Claire and Rosie, with more later in the season. My home for the next six months will be the lovely town of Peel, on the west coast of the Isle of Man.

Peel

Though I was supposed to catch the ferry to the island on Monday, a minor setback with my car meant I had to delay until Wednesday evening, enjoying a smooth, sunny crossing and arriving into my new home in Peel at about 10pm. The following day, after a morning of unpacking, I went in to the office to check out the C-PODs. One appeared to be working fine but will need a proper test to check it is detecting properly and both SD cards work. Unfortunately, the other has a broken battery connection. As this is a sensitive piece of equipment it isn't really something you can take apart and DIY fix, so it will have to be sent for repair which is fairly expensive. Following my successful crowdfunding for the theodolite, I have decided to reopen the page to try and raise some extra money to cover this unexpected cost. If you feel you could donate something to the project, however little, you can view the page here.

C-POD

Theodolite

On Friday morning, shortly after arriving into the office, we were called to say there was a dead porpoise on Peel beach, so we went down to check it out. When we arrived it was already being measured and recorded by Manx Wildlife Trust, who officially respond to marine mammal strandings. The specimen looked to be a juvenile, and though skinny, otherwise very fresh and in good condition externally. After the porpoise was removed from the beach, I took the theodolite out to teach Tom, Claire, and Rosie how to set it up, and have a practice with it. It's very easy to use and I'm looking forward to getting out in the field to put it in to action.

Newly hatched blackbird

Saturday morning I spent in the office plotting sightings of Risso's to work out the best locations for the C-PODs. Whilst at home for lunch I was lucky enough to witness the hatching of a blackbird in a nest opposite my bedroom window. Hopefully, over the next two weeks I will get to see it grow and successfully fledge.

Volunteer Claire is coming to the end of her time on the Isle of Man, so we took her to Close Sartfield, a reserve of the Manx Wildlife Trust, to see thousands of beautiful orchids in bloom, and lots of butterflies and moths.

Heath spotted orchid

Northern marsh orchid - I think!

Clouded border moth

Grey dagger moth

Small heath butterfly

We followed this with a windswept walk along Ayre beach right in the north of the island, spotting gannets, oystercatchers, and ringed plover. Claire, Rosie, and I then took mountain railway up Snaefell to enjoy the evening summer solstice celebrations, though it felt far from summery in the cold wind and mist.

Oystercatcher

Spot the plover

Beacon on Snaefell

Torches

Vikings in the mist

Two blackbird chicks

On Sunday I did a full test of the C-POD and both SD cards and all is working well, so now I just need to design a mooring for it and it will be ready for deployment. The afternoon was spent on doing some reading about Risso's for my project, and keeping an eye on the blackbird nest, which now contains two hungry chicks.

Monday I worked on mapping sightings of other species seen around the island, such as harbour porpoise, common dolphin, and bottlenose dolphin, as this will also be useful to relate to the C-POD work. I boxed up the broken C-POD and posted that off for repair and went in search of more weights for the moorings. We already have one and a half old iron wheels from the Manx electric railway which will be used for one C-POD.

My rope handiwork

The weather on Tuesday morning was pretty good so Tom, Rosie, and I did a  land watch at the Sound of Man at the southern end of the island. I chose a theodolite station and got set up, unfortunately we didn't see any cetaceans, only a few grey seals. In the afternoon, Matt, a friend of Tom's, helped me with the moorings and showed me how to splice rope, so I have one C-POD ready to go. Thank you Matt! We just need to confirm with a few authorities where the C-POD is going and we're in business. Our research boat has been out of the water for repairs, but those are all finished now, and we are just waiting on the crane to get it back in the water. Fingers crossed for Monday.

Wednesday, and again the weather was good enough for surveying so Tom and I watched at the Sound of Man, and again saw no cetaceans. There was a lot of sea bird action though, including a few noisy choughs. Tom and I then surveyed at Port St Mary after lunch and saw quite a few harbour porpoises including two only around 15m from where we were sitting. Once we had finished our survey, we joined Jen, Rosie, and Matt at the Sound where they had seen four common dolphins but whilst they didn't reappear we did have another good sighting of porpoises. I also had news that the C-POD I sent for repair has been received and is being worked on so it should be back with me in just a few days, which is brilliant.

So, a long blog post, but that brings me up to today and my first week on the island. We're having a bit of a rest day today in preparation for a busy weekend manning a stall at the Queenie festival, and the hope of improved weather next week to get out on the boat, deploy the C-PODs, and do some surveying!