This year has been one of the best years of my life, no exaggeration, sure there have been bad bits but the good bits more than make up for them with interest.
My 2014 started off on the island of St. Agnes in the Isles of Scilly where I was at the half way point of a rat eradication voluntary post. Now rat eradication sounds pretty extreme, but you have got to consider that rats aren’t native to the UK and they cause a lot of damage. This damage is magnified on islands which generally have a pretty unique and specialized flora and fauna which don’t adapt to change all that easily. Rats on St. Agnes were decimating the breeding sea bird population as well as causing havoc with islanders livelihoods so the rats had to go. By New Year’s Day 2014 the rats had all disappeared so my task was monitoring the island in order to confirm they had all gone. It turned out they had (there is still 2 years of less intense monitoring to go until it can be declared ‘rat-free’ however). The news looks good, in 2014 Manx Shearwaters bred on St. Agnes successfully for the first time in years; look at the link at the bottom of the post! Aside from the task in hand living on an island archipelago was just the best place to live. The scenery was stunning and the locals were the incredibly friendly and made us feel really welcome.
An added challenge was living through one of the worst winters in terms of storms for 50 years, the storm of early 2014 which destroyed a lot of the south-west coast of England also destroyed sections of coast line on St. Agnes. In one area 2-3 metres of coastline complete with footpath were washed into the sea (along with our rat baiting stations!). Was incredibly dramatic to watch.
I got to go to places where most people would never set foot on; for example the island of Annet which is just stunning and full of wildlife.
Copyright: Alex Cropper
I only spent a few hours on Annet but I reckon I could easily have stayed on there for days (OK, it would be a tad difficult seeing as though it is uninhabited). There was so much to see, Fulmars, Grey Seals, Kittiwakes, Guillemots, Razorbills. Best of all were huge cushions of Thrift which you could literally bounce on like a trampoline. Was a great day (Just don’t mention the word ‘rigid-inflatable boat’ though!).
Was the best start to a year anyone can hope for and led directly to my next position, my very first paid conservation job!
Grass-roots Wildlife 