Yesterday a plane flew over the island – this is the first aircraft we’ve seen here, and it wasn’t just any old plane, it was our colleagues from theSea Mammal Research Unit – Callan Duck and Chris Morris. They are photographing grey seal colonies to help estimate how many grey seals there are in Scottish waters. Over the years it has been found that the number of grey seals has been increasing in Scotland. However, the situation in North Rona is different, as the population here is declining. Therefore, linking the findings of the aerial surveys and our work is particularly important, as any discoveries we make could help us to understand factors influencing changes in colony size and structure. For example, does the decline in number of animals breeding at North Rona lead to a shorter breeding season?
Over the past few days we have extended our photo identification surveys to the north of the island. We were surprised on our first visit to “the north” to find a strange grey seal ecotype: the “croco-seal”. These animals are very similar in appearance to our familiar greys, but have a habit of submerging in the deep pools found at this end of the island, waiting to surprise naïve researchers. One such seal, shown here, almost had us in the pool with her, so severe was our reaction to her unexpected emergence to breathe! From adventuring around the island for these photo surveys, we have continued to identify a lot of old faces – seals that return to North Rona to breed. We found Banana up north – she hadn’t been seen in the south for a few years.
We have also been continuing with our “Cammy” tests and have now managed to successfully test 6 individuals, and are having much better luck with pot-holes- good progress!
Other miscellaneous points of interest: rainbow count now somewhere in the millions; scarf colour number 2 has been reached; rum is running worryingly low (as is water…come on rain!); Amelia is STILL obsessed with ‘Bananagrams’ and has been playing by herself recently, and we have just discovered how to take panoramic views of the island using Charlotte’s camera.