Back on the island
It has been a very long winter away from North Ronaldsay, to where I now return for my fifth year working at North Ronaldsay Bird Observatory, and my second year trying my hardest to fill the role of Assistant Warden. Having left the island at the beginning of December last year, at the time I was looking forward to getting away from the short days and very long nights, but now I have been back a couple of weeks the novelty of the place has returned and the cold northerly blasts of wind fill me with anticipation for the year ahead. My winter away was mostly uneventful and contained very little actual birding. It was mostly spent at my parent's house in the depths of Yorkshire, with a few weekends away catching up with people and life that so quickly gets abandoned when I return to the island. I find getting motivated to even pick up my bins almost impossible when I am away, without the neatly defined little areas of the island I am now very lucky to call my patch. Looking back at m...