Research on the Isle of Rum

Exactly a month ago I was lucky enough get the opportunity to help out a PhD student with some GPS tracking work on Manx Shearwaters. So I took the chance to take my Suzuki SV650 on its first proper long roadtrip up to Mallaig and back.

Scotland

 A fantastic week was had with some very lovely people met. We were living in a hut up a mountain (Hallival) with just a stream for amenities.

Manx Shearwaters are seabirds and they spend their days feeding or rafting out to sea and then come in at night to their burrows when there is less chance of being predated on. We had a set number of burrows that were being monitored and the chicks in them were weighed each day.

GPS trackers were being fitted to the backs of adults and geolocators were being fitted to their legs so their movements could be tracked, where they were going to feed and such. Gripping new research! 

So an excellent week had by all involved, and the weather was very good to us (which I'm told is a rare thing for Rum!) with us only having one night and day of unpleasant weather.