Mingulay Seabird Ranger

And quick as a flash, the 2025 seabird season is over! Surreal to to view Berneray, Mingulay and Pabbay in their full, resplendent glory from the the top deck of the CalMac ferry this morning.

WHAT a summer! 🤩👌👌👌

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The ‘our ocean’ podcast has some great #seabird content including guillemot jumplings and gulls - menace or marvel :)
Find it wherever you get your podcasts.
#NTSseabirds

Beautiful evening light on Mingulay 👌🦭🦭🦭🦭🦭

GO ON THE LIONESSES!!!!!!!!! 🏆🥇⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️💪🦶🥳🥳🥳🤩🤪🤪🤪

Feeling very lucky to have this as an office ☀️ 🌊

Cracking afternoon down in the southwest corner of Mingulay, looking out to a Berneray/Barra Head 🤩

Could hear one corncrake still crex-crexing #notgoneyet

Good haul of Grey Seals on Mingulay beach this morning. Love hearing them singing 🦭 🎶 🎵 🦭 🎶 🎵 🦭 🎶 🎵

July is peak month for Dark Green fritillary butterflies on Mingulay and I am HERE FOR IT! 🧡🟠🧡🟠🧡🟠🧡🟠🧡🟠

Super smashing to have Kirsty Marshall from Species on the Edge on Mingulay for a few days.

Kirsty is surveying the bumblebees here, including Moss Carder Bumblebees that she caught this afternoon in the old village. 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

A beautiful evening in Mingulay Bay 👌🌊✨

Fulmar chicks are getting old enough to be left unguarded by the adults on Mingulay now. Their presence is GREATLY cheering up the seabird cliffs as the auks are fledging and leaving the ledges looking very empty. 🐣🐦🤩🌊

Cracking couple of Garden Tigers in the Mingulay moth trap last night 🐅 🐅 🤩👌

intimate views of the #StKilda Gannet colony are a rare privilege, due mainly to difficult access, but we were able to land on Boreray a couple of weeks ago in order to conduct a census, for which the results will be shared when analysed. Glorious seabirds! 😍
#SuperSeabirdSunday
#NTSSeabirds

Always exciting to unpack the moth trap in the mornings. 22 Burnished Brass moths was a great haul today - they’re loving the nettles and thistles 🤩

THIS LOOKS GOOD 👀

Beauty of a day on Mingulay 👌👌

View from the top of Hecla peak at 219m. Looking out to Berneray/Barra Head in the south west and Pabbay, Sandray,Vatersay and Barra in the north. Two swifts for company at the top 🤩🐦☀️☀️☀️

One of many young Fulmars taking shelter under their parents during a grey and drizzly couple of days on #StKilda this weekend. #SuperSeabirdSunday
#NTSseabirds

A day playing the sound of calling European Storm Petrels into crevices in rocky boulder fields. If storm petrels are breeding on Mingulay, there’s a chance the real birds will call back to our portable speaker.

No luck today, but a brilliant way to explore the magical island 🤩

#NTSSeabirds

Another spectacular evening watching guillemot chicks on their maiden jumps to the sea below.

Godspeed little champion auk nuggets ☄️ 💥 💪

The smiling faces of 3 people who witnessed guillemot chicks fledge from the cliffs last night.

SUCH a privilege to follow these birds from egg laying in early May, to hatching, rearing chicks and to see them successfully fledging.

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!!

#NTSSeabirds

Fab NTS volunteers Kate and Yvette helping to collect guillemot diet study data.

Sandeels and Clupeids (herring and sprats) seemed to be the most numerous fish being fed to chicks today 🐥 🐟

#NTSSeabirds

Out on the seabird cliffs with NTS volunteers Kate and Yvette today. They’ve been completely brilliant at helping to monitor the Kittiwakes on Mingulay. Chicks ahoy! 🐣🐥🐣🐥🐥🐥🐣🐥🐣🐥🐣🐥🐥

#NTSSeabirds

A dreich day has meant that our fab NTS volunteers have been making and deploying chocolate wax blocks as a biosecurity tool for assessing if rats are here.

Rats would be enticed by the chocolatey smell and would leave teeth marks in the wax blocks.

Thankfully none found in our bait stations!🐀 ❌

Pufflings first weigh-in on #stkilda part of long term puffin monitoring. #SuperSeabirdSunday #NTSseabirds @stkildawhs.bsky.social

Garden Corncrake update: we have chicks! 🐣🐣🐥🐣🐥🐣🐥🐥

They are HIGHLY entertaining as they run around exploring their new garden home! 😀

Special thanks to Lydia on Barra for sending out some homemade Millionaire’s Shortbread. The ULTIMATE seabird-cliff snack that did well to last until 10:18am before being devoured 🏆 😋 .

Cracking day monitoring the seabirds on Mingulay with brilliant volunteer Tom.

Guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and shags ALL have chicks - 2025 seabird season is cooking on gas 🔥🧯🚒

#NTSSeabirds

Always cracking to see and hear the resident Twite whilst walking around the island 👌😍

A day of squally showers and rainbows 🌧️ 🌈

Huge WHOPPING thanks to Richard Luxmoore who has counted and mapped ALL of the Great Skua (Bonxie) territories across Mingulay.

Total number of apparently occupied territories is 74 - up from 44 for the last 2 years. Hopefully a sign of recovery from avian flu 🤞🤞🤞

#NTSSeabirds
#SuperSeabirdSunday