So, my old nemesis wind reared its ugly head throughout October and there was no opportunity to do any surveying. I did, however, have a trip to the
Calf of Man to look forward to at the end of October. On the 29th I, along with two other volunteers, Emma and Steve, caught a boat from Port St Mary over to the small island off the South West coast of the Isle of Man.
 |
| Calf of Man |
On arrival, previous seal volunteer Mike (who had been stuck there for an extra 10 days due to bad weather!) showed us around half of the island's sites before jumping on the boat and making his long overdue getaway! Emma, Steve, and I found our own way around to check out the remaining pupping sites and to the observatory which was to be our home for the next week.
 |
| Observatory |
Beginning the following day we easily fell into a routine of breakfasting, arming ourselves with a thermos of tea, and heading out to one side of the island to do a pup count and conduct a three hour behavioural survey at one of the pup sites. Watching the fluffy pups and their protective mothers for three hours results in much 'aahing' at the cuteness and amusement at the sometimes unnecessary aggression of the feisty mothers. We would then return to the Observatory for lunch, before walking round to the other side of the island to complete the daily pup count.
 |
| Surveying at Grant's Harbour |
 |
| Surveying at the Puddle |
All the seal pups born on the Calf are named, with a different letter used each year. This year was 'N', and we were able to name six pups during our visit which was very cool, but tricky to come up with new N names when 47 have already been taken! We discovered four new pups on 31st October, known as
Hop Tu Naa on the Isle of Man, so named one pup Naa in honour of the festival.
 |
| An 'almost finished' pup, Noosh |
 |
| Brand new pup, Naa |
 |
| Aggression between two protective mothers |
 |
| Young pup suckling |
The observatory is also home to the Calf warden, Nick, and an ornithological warden, Jodie. Jodie very kindly showed any interesting birds she caught for ringing each morning, which included a beautiful woodcock and the adorably tiny goldcrest, both of which were firsts for me. She also kindly let each of us ring a blackbird on our last morning, again something I have never done before, so a lovely bonus to the seal work.
 |
| Beautiful woodcock |
 |
| Tiny, tiny goldcrest |
 |
| Ringing the blackbird |
Whilst walking around the island and sitting for hours surveying the seals, there was plenty of other wildlife to keep an eye out for, mostly avian but there was an abundance of rabbits too, as well as the
Manx Loaghtan sheep. I was delighted to spot at least one female hen harrier every day, but am still yet to see a beautiful grey male. I also spotted ravens, kestrels, curlew, grey wagtails, rock pipits, and stone chat.
 |
| One of many, many rabbits |
 |
| Raven |
 |
| Spot the robin |
 |
| Manx Loaghtan sheep |
After a beautiful week on the Calf, I came back to a day that was finally calm enough to get a bit of surveying done. In an hour at Port St Mary I had a few sightings of harbour porpoises, including one group of three with a juvenile. After enjoying a long overdue cetacean sighting, it was time for a little bonfire celebration on Peel beach. My C-PODs are due to come out of the water next week, so I will be keeping an eye on the weather for an opportunity to get out on the boat and retrieve them.
 |
| Peel castle |
 |
| Toffee apple by the bonfire |
 |
| Grand finale! |
 |
| Oooh! |
 |
| Aaah! |
