So, after last week’s blog I thought I’d better start with those mischievous sheep.

We have 24 lively young Shetland sheep and 4 elderly, calm and sedate Hebridean sheep.  One of the Shetlands, nicknamed ‘Toffee’ thinks she is a dog and puts her ‘paws’ aka hooves up at you and wants to be stroked.

The sheep are here to act as a conservation tool, which sounds cold and mechanical but basically means that they keep the vegetation down and create patches of disturbed open ground.  They particularly like nibbling the new growth of brambles – brambles that would otherwise swamp the island and its grassy ledges.  These ledges need to be open to provide space for the gulls to rest and nest.  Gulls which at the moment are being very noisy and waking me up with their calls as they pair up ready to breed, but more on them in a future blog.

Still, those sheep, they are mischievous. We often find tracks like these on the beach...

Yep, like us, they do enjoy a day, and sometimes a night, beside the seaside.

They also have breached the barriers to Jetty Cottage gardens but luckily they haven’t found their way to munch though our vegetable patch… yet!

The teeny weeny stuff

Buzzzz...

Bees continue to bumble around the flowers.  Did you know that bumblebees are ‘furry’ and that they can warm themselves up by shivering their flight muscles?  That’s what helps them to fly and forage in cooler weather.  They can even be found in the Artic circle and the Himalayas!  OK it’s not that cold here but spring time nights are chilly.  So each day it’s a delight to spot bees. Identifying the species is new to me … and pretty tricky but using my Bumblebee Conservation Trust book I’m pretty sure I spotted a red-tailed bumblebee in the garden – it was that or a red-shanked carder bee but those are rare, so my money is on the commoner species.

I love butterflies.

They make me feel happy.  I guess it’s the colours and their graceful wings.  They remind me of being a small child happily playing in the back garden – when, of course like most wildlife, there were more butterflies around.  Butterflies also make me happy when they pose nicely on Cornwall Wildlife Trust way markers...

But apart from an early flurry of Peacocks and Commas plus the odd Red Admiral, things have been quiet so far this year.  Often I check back through my nature diary to see how things are going.  In 2019 by end of March we’d seen 7 species – the 3 above plus, Brimstone, Speckled Wood and Holly Blue.  Having this information to hand helps anticipate what we’ll see next and I can’t wait to see what turns up.

The greeny stuff

Scurvy - not word that you would automatically  associate with a pretty white-mauve flower, nor is it a grass.  It is in fact a crucifer – a group of plants with 4 flower petals arranged in a cross pattern.  The leaves are full of Vitamin C – a deficiency of which causes the affliction of scurvy.  It was used to help sailors on long journeys ward off the disease.  As it’s very tolerant of salt the plant is found in dense swathes along the island’s coast.   It’s also famous for being seen along motorway central reservations – not quite so picturesque!  It grows well there due to the salting/gritting of the roads in winter.  Then the draft of speedy cars seems to help spread the seed along the road.

At the other end of the plant scale are the island’s trees.  This is a great time to watch the unfurling of the fresh buds and leaves.  One tree that I have learnt to appreciate is the sycamore.  Many conservationists disapprove of sycamore – mainly as it’s an introduced species.  Its’ winged seeds have helped it spread across the country where it grows fast and can dominate woodland.  Indeed Sycamore have thrived here on the island but with careful management we have found it really rather useful.  For now though, rather than talk of the merits of this tree, let’s enjoy it’s spring time colour.

Now that’s just as rich and gorgeous as an autumn leaf show, don’t you think?

The feathery stuff

Let’s talk ducks. And let’s start with mallard.

Most of us associate mallards with farmyards and park lakes.  So island visitors can be surprised to see mallards on the island and in the sea.  It’s the other way around for us.  A few years ago we created a new pond.  It’s in the garden of Smugglers Cottage and is fed by rainwater off the roof.  We hoped to encourage lots of invertebrates but the mallards had other ideas.  One morning we couldn’t believe it – a mallard was on the pond with her chicks.  We decided it was like a training pool for the real thing – the sea!  And now, we regularly spot ducklings having swimming lessons.

And mallards aren’t the only ducks we see around the island.  Another regular is the Eider.

Male Eiders are stunning ducks.  In Cornwall they are supposed to be rare winter visitors and then in Spring they move up north to breed.. But, hey, there’s always one who doesn’t follow the rules, right?  After talking to regular island visitors and local birder, Derek Spooner we realised that ‘our’ Eider was called Eric. Eric was a lone male eider duck who appeared to stay around Looe area all year around.  He often seemed confused as he hung out with gulls.

We’d regularly look out for him and then Eric appeared to be joined by Enid, a female eider.  But in 2019 we had a further surprise when we saw a group of Eider ducks waddling off the beach into the sea. Oh my! Was it Eric? Was he now a father?  Whatever the answer it was amazing to see such a sight.  And it hasn’t stopped there as this winter groups of Eider have been seen around the island and this pretty female was spotted just off the Jetty last week.

The salty stuff          

The other day we needed to make a visit down onto East Beach.  As with all the beaches we try not to go there too often as we don’t want to disturb the resting, feeding and in some cases, nesting birds.  So as we carefully we picked our way along the beach we were fascinated to find bones.

Not bones of birds, which often turn up on the beach, but of a cetacean.  In this case bones which we guessed were from a dolphin that sadly washed up dead a while back.   When we originally found the animal we took photos and reported it to the Marine Strandings Network (MSN).  We are volunteers for the MSN, so although it is sad to see a dead animal we understand the importance of collecting such information. It all helps to understand the threats marine wildlife are facing and using the information Cornwall Wildlife Trust can campaign for changes to manage and mitigate these threats.

Last week I spoke of seals hauling out in unusual places, and would you believe it, there’s been another.  This time a mature seal decided a morning rest on the rocks off the back of the island could wait.  It couldn’t wait as it hauled out high tide, only it was a low high tide, if you get what I mean.

At first it was doing the banana pose  - yes, that does mean holding its head and tail head up to create a banana shape.  Eventually it slumped asleep and stayed put over low tide, only sliding back into the water later that evening. Spending all that time out of the water meant I could take lots of ID photos.

Now, before you ask, I’m sure some of you noticed that last week I failed to name the seal that had been watching me, watching it in the sea.  Well, Sue Sayer of Cornwall Seal Group Research Trust was on the case, and confirmed it was a female called Lighting who was first spotted off the island back 2009. More excitingly, last year she was spotted on the Lizard with a pup!

Sure to be coming soon…

• Piping Oystercatchers
• Holly Blue Butterflies
• Flowering Ramsons
• and... naturally, more seals!