Yesterday we explored the rocky west coast of the peninsula here – known as Sgeildighe. Rona is mostly composed of a type of rock called gneiss, which has formed vast cliffs and caves around the island. The edge of Sgeildighe is an impressive cave that penetrates into the heart of Rona, if you follow the cave up its entire passage, you emerge in the ‘blow hole’, where a number of our study females like to hang out. At low tide we were able to enter the opening at sea level. It was wet and slippery and bright pink. Large male seals lurked all around. The cave is pink because it’s covered in pristine Corralina algae,exposed at low water and the seals watched us curiously while we explored and took photographs (while also sheltering from the rain!).
So far this field season the photo-ID tools wielded brilliantly by Amelia have identified over 130 individuals who have been photographed previously. Of these, approximately seventy are from our study catalogue of named females that Paddy can recognise by eye, without the aid of the computer. By using the computer programme to help us to match photos we have almost doubled the number of “recaptures”. This is a powerful tool to allow us to look at the history and movements of animals that we hadn’t “known” previously. Great news!
Updates: Look at Des – he’s getting fatter by the day. Also scarf colour number 3 has been reached! Some heavy work days lie ahead, we’re keeping our fingers crossed for reasonable weather. Well, you can but hope…
