BMR
31 Jul 2023
Hello and welcome to our 7th and 8th week on the reserve as your summer rangers! Here’s a video of week 7 for you to follow some of our activities for that week, with a concise description to guide. We also have our usual weekly blog for week 8. Enjoy!
Week 7
Here we are, joining skipper Danny on Stingray to take some lovely tourists from the Netherlands through our reserves’ waters. We gave our friends from across the North Sea a brief history of our neighbouring coastline, our many harbours historic uses and our best shot at the geology of our cliff faces! We saw many of our beautiful bird species, such as guillemots, gannets, razor bills… however, we knew our Danish friends (and ourselves quite honestly) were very much hoping for some sea mammal action. We had just arrived at the head of St Abbs, and were not long for departure back to the harbour, when we saw them! Harbour porpoises. Whilst not entirely clear in the video, from our 15 minute observations there was at least 2 adult porpoise and 1 young juvenile/calf. As you can see, shortly after a curious seal followed our boat for some time. All around, a wonderful day on the boat for marine bird and mammal lovers!
The following day, we headed down to Killiedraught bay to continue our marine monitoring transects. As previously described, the importance of our transects cannot be understated. Collected each season, annually, the data gathered may provide important information regarding any changes or adaptations that may occur in our reserves environment as time passes.
Such species seen in this intertidal environment include:
Hermit Crab, Serrated wrack, Limpets, Gutweed, Thongweed, Black tar lichen, and so much more! See if you can spot some.
The following clip shows some of our stage 4 youngsters having their morning feed. These are around 3-4 months old, unlike the far smaller larvae stages that are in the neighbouring hopper, some less than a day old! So, if you find yourself nearby or in Eyemouth, come down and see our baby lobsters, and join in on any activities occurring that day!
Week 8
We have had a busy week at the Marine Education Centre, with lots of people enjoying the baby lobsters. Our young lobsters still have amazing appetites and are ever growing. There have been many visitors enjoying the craft activities, marine mammal items and colouring.
On Tuesday Sarah led a rockpool ramble at Eyemouth Beach and headed out with a group of children and adults to discover the different types of life in the rockpools of the reserve. We found lots of crabs from tiny to large as well as blennies and shrimp darting too and fro. How many crabs can you spot in the picture below? We also discovered the different types of seaweeds that are found on the shore and spoke about their uses in day to day products we all use!
Charlotte and Seren headed out to the Chain Bridge celebration event on Wednesday. A great place to connect and engage with lots of different people. We had some eager nurdle hunters (nurdles are tiny pieces of plastic less than 5mm in diameter) and our very our ‘smack’ of jellyfish were created. Although the day started with heavy rain and grey skies, Charlotte and Seren were also blessed with the sunshine too.
Also, out and about was Seren, rockpooling with a group of budding explorers, joined by the National Trust for Scotland at Starney Bay. There are still more sessions happening in August so check the St Abbs Head National Nature Reserve Facebook page for more information.
This week is the Eyemouth Herring Queen Festival and we will have a Herring Hide and Seek activity all week in the Marine Education Centre. Also on Wednesday 2nd August is our Bioblitz taking place at St Abbs Head National Nature Reserve, if you would like to come along head to our Facebook page to find out more!