Merry Christmas

Farne Islands Team 2011

From all the Farne Islands team, wishing everyone who reads and follows the blog a very

MERRY CHRISTMAS

and a

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I hope everyone has a great festive period and see you ion the New Year ready for another crazy season on the Farne Islands. Keep on following us!

A look back at the season...

Dusk on Brownsman with Arctic Terns

Numbers up this year - nesting Eider

1,800 pairs of Arctic Terns

A poor year for Sandwich Terns

Taking over - nearly 50,000 Guiillemots

Record numbers of Razorbill nesting

Fulmars approaching 300 pairs

One of the birds of the year - Black-headed Bunting

And we're off!

Last but not least - final day Seal pup (Ciaran Hatsell)

Kitchen looking clean for the winter (David Steel)


Bedroom all sorted (David Steel)

Closing time on Brownsman (Ciaran Hatsell)

Everything but the kitchen sink leaving (David Steel)

Boat being packed

Goodbye Brownsman (David Steel)

The team celebrate in the pub!

Thursday 8th December comments: We've made it. Sunday was an epic day as the Farne Island wardens eventually departed west to the mainland for the winter. Following an early start, the cottage was scrubbed clean, hovered and eventually locked down as the boat arrived to take the Seal team away. Eventually we docked in Seahouses and that was that, we had returned to the mainland and the Farnes season was over.

As usual, the team celebrated into the small hours of Sunday morning and following a slow start (a few sore heads), everyone departed for home, from Oxfordshire to Lancashire and beyond. It's been a brilliant year, the team have been outstanding and they have achieved so much. Over the next few weeks, I'll bring you some of those highlights and look back at some of the great Farne moments from 2011 but until then, enjoy our final day photos. Thank-you for following.

The Final Count Down

Bathroom surprise...a second coat pup back in the house (Ciaran Hatsell)

Yellow hands - its not just the pups with yellow dye on them (Anne Wilson)

Cleaning almost complete

Head warden totting up totals (Ciaran Hatsell)

Saturday 3rd December comments: Will we or won't we? Our final full day on the islands was another busy one, as we completed the Seal counts on Brownsman and Staple Island to finish the seal work for another year (full round-up soon!). The rest of the day was made up of cleaning the cottage as we give it the annual scrub down, ready for the winter. However as the windows rattled, it reminded us that not everything might go according to plan..

The wind was blowing stiffly from the north-west and with further predictions of strong winds, we may not be escaping for the mainland tomorrow. It's been a while since we've been to Seahouses and we're all looking forward to some home comforts and Christmas. However fingers crossed for a safe escape and I'll let you know if we make it... role on Sunday morning.