It has been a busy few months on the Calf.  The landscape has changed once again with the once vivid pink Thrift giving way to the muted purples and lilacs of flowering Heather, we have had dense and immovable sea mists cover the island for full days, glorious sunshine, and heavy rain and winds.  As it is often said on the Calf, “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.”

The guest season has been in full swing, and we have welcomed people from all walks of life and parts of the world into our own, smaller world.  As ever, we have been busy with infrastructure maintenance and biodiversity surveying, whilst still finding time to enjoy the slower aspects of island life.

Our vegetable garden has so far been (mostly) successfully guarded from snails and pests, and we are starting to enjoy the bounty of our efforts.  The courgettes are growing rapidly, the potatoes are nearly there, and we are inundated with peas, radishes, and spring onions.  Our brief moments of rest are filled with sun and sea swims, and reading quietly in the peace and quiet of the front courtyard, but as you may have read, we keep ourselves busy…

Continuing our efforts to entice breeding Puffins to the island, we have installed another set of speakers playing Puffin calls to our decoy colony by the lighthouse.  It is hoped that this will convince passing Puffins to land and breed on the Calf in the coming years, and we have already had several sightings in the waters surrounding the Calf, as well as several puffins landing here.

Bracken control is a near constant battle for the Estate Team.  We use the flail and bracken bruiser tractor attachments as well as brush-cutters to keep the paths and tracks free and open across the Calf, which allows day visitors and guests alike to enjoy the incredible scenery and vistas throughout the season.  Additionally, bracken control is important for wildfire prevention.  We have several firebreaks on the island, intended to stop or slow the spread of wildfire which is a major risk in dry weather.  It is for this reason that there is a no smoking or vaping ban across the whole island – not to mention wanting to avoid the unsightly littering of cigarette butts which we still disappointingly find. Bracken control also increases habitat heterogeneity on the Calf, providing short sward grasslands which the Chough love.

An exciting aspect of our biodiversity surveying work on the Calf is that we have been recording orchid species.  In the wetter areas of the Calf, such as around the Mill Pond and in the seepage area above Jane’s House, it is possible to see orchids such as the Early Marsh Orchid, Northern Marsh Orchid, Common Spotted and Heath Spotted Orchids, all members of the Dactylorhiza genus.  All orchid species are protected under law in the British Isles, and so it is important that we accurately record and document those present on the Calf.

Seal surveys take place once a month, with the two Estate Team members taking half of the islands coastline each and walking the cliffs at low tide to count the hauled-out seals.  In June we counted 129 Grey Seals and 4 Common Seals, whilst the July surveying effort recorded 124 Grey Seals and 2 Common Seals.

The drystone walls on the Calf have once again benefitted from the expertise and kindly lent hands of our dedicated long-term volunteers.  David and Pat have been working on a collapsed wall by the Lower Lighthouse, and Ned and Gillian have been labouring on the walls bordering the Upper Twin Field. These drystone walls are important cultural relics of the agricultural history of the Calf of Man, and great examples of native craftmanship hard to come by in other parts or the world. 

We have brought in the Cameras from the islet of Kitterland as a part of our biosecurity checks and biodiversity surveying.  Thankfully the biosecurity checks have come back clean, with no longtails recorded since our last incursion, but the camera traps did spot some really interesting species such as Heron and Curlew.

In early July our Assistant Ornithological Warden Ed moved onto a new project, ringing on an estate in Dorset.  Since his departure, the Observatory has been quieter, and whilst we were very sad to see him go we are all very excited to see where this next chapter takes him and wish him the very best of luck.  At the time of writing, the position has now been filled, and we are excited to soon be welcoming Matthew Livsey to the team.

On the 10^th of June a high-pressure system coupled with calm weather, along with the striking geography of the southern tip of the Isle of Man and Calf of Man, generated a fascinating and visually captivating meteorological phenomenon known as a “temperature inversion”.  In such conditions, a layer of warm air will trap cool and moist air beneath it, forming a stunning blanket of dense fog over the sea and low-lying lands.  We were treated to just such an event, and the sight is not one that will be forgotten by any who were lucky enough to see it. 

Having repaired a window that had blown out on the Upper Lighthouse, as well as a small window on the lower, we have painted the windows and boards in order to match the Lower Lighthouse and also to improve the weather proofing of the shuttering.  This will hopefully keep the elements out of the building, slowing it’s deterioration.  We have also been busy applying fresh coats to many of the gates and fences around the Calf, which again is hoped to extend the life of these features. 

Whenever we get spells of fine weather, with no rain and low winds forecasted overnight, we try to put out at least one of the moth traps that we have on the Calf.  These use light to attract any moths present in the area into a capture box where they take shelter in the nooks and crannies of egg cartons.  The morning following a trapping effort is spent methodically going through and cataloging species present and abundances, which is then passed onto the County Moth Recorder.  We have recently been getting lots of Garden Tiger moths, as well as Large Yellow Underwing and True Lovers Knot, all of which are rather spectacular.

The Festival of the Sea is a public outreach event hosted by the Manx Wildlife Trust through which members of the public can learn more about the wonderful and biodiverse seas surrounding our island home.  Kate Fox, the Estate Warden on the Calf, attended this year running a stall focused on the work we complete on the Calf and the beautiful seabirds that live and breed in the area. The whole event was a great success and greatly enjoyed by both members of the public and staff alike.

Once again we have hosted a team looking to film on the Calf.  A team from Visit Isle of Man spent three days on the Calf filming a vlog style video intending to showcase the inner workings of Calf life, as well as some of the work of the wardens.  The film crew spent time following us through our days, as well as enjoying what the Calf has to offer to guests who may be interested in staying.  The finished piece will be published in the Spring of 2026.

The Estate Team have been working on repairing the boardwalk that services the mist nets in the Withy area.  Several boards had succumbed to rot from the moisture in the Withy, needing to be replaced. 

The two Heligoland traps (essentially funnels you can walk and encourage birds into catch boxes at the end of) which sit outside the front of the observatory, have had some touching up recently.  The roofs have sagged in several places, and many of the horizontal supports that hold the roof had snapped in high winds.  The Estate Team have spent many an afternoon re-tying the roofs and also replacing broken supports and intalling new supports where needed.  The revamped Heligoland traps have already been put to great use by the Bird Team.

The Loaghtan sheep on the Calf are an acrobatic bunch, and as such do not especially respect the field boundaries enforced by drystone walling alone.  It is important for the overall health of the flock, not to mention the natural balance of vegetation on the Calf which is controlled by their grazing, that we manage to shear and check up on as many sheep as possible.  Therefore, in preparation for shearing and removal of this year’s lambs, we have been repairing the sheep jump fencing that surrounds the fields in which we will be trying to corral the Loaghtans.  We will wait and see as to whether or not they will abide by these reinforced restrictions.

On the 24^th of July we hosted Sean, Gary, and David from the Isle of Man Fire Department for our fire safety training.  During this, we learned how to operate the firefighting equipment on the Calf including hoses and pumps, as well as maintaining this equipment.  Now we just have to hope that we will never use this new information!

Occasionally on the Calf, we very sadly have seals and cetaceans wash up dead on the coasts. These strandings have to be recorded and measurements taken in order to understand the pressures and threats that these enigmatic and well-loved species are under, which will help us to better protect them.  Unfortunately, we had a harbour porpoise wash up on the shores of the Calf in Mill Giau. The measurements we have taken will be passed on to the Manx Whale and Dolphin Watch, who may use the information to aide and guide future conservation efforts for these animals we are lucky enough to share this part of the world with.

Once again, the time has come around for the next instalment of Fixed-Point Photography on the Calf. Following the improved instructions from last time, heavily reliant upon the new GPS coordinates of each point, we have again made the rounds and catalogued the stunning scenery of the Calf. This is a great way to get around and see areas of the island that we may otherwise not visit, though it does often leave the photographer with aching legs the next morning.

As the Observatory runs off-grid, and our water system relies upon rainwater collection, we are always looking for ways to increase our supply of water.  In the past this has involved carting buckets of water from currently uncollected guttering and pouring them into the water tanks, however there are plans in motion that will greatly improve our water security.  We have taken delivery of new water tanks at the observatory, and these new tanks will massively increase our capacity to store water, once we manage to have them plumbed in and get them filling up from collected rainwater.  The new tanks will more than double our water storage, and who knows, we may even be able to shower more than once a week once they are all set up!

If you have visited the Observatory before you may be familiar with the repurposed millstone table in the front courtyard, and be aware that it is home to a large colony of Yellow Meadow Ants.  On the 28^th of June the sexually mature flying ants emerged en masse in search of mates in an Attenborough-esque spectacle.  This explosion of activity has been capitalised on by many different species, and the ants present an important food source for all sorts of predators.  We have not as of yet had to resort to flying ants for ourselves. 

Following our successes in the vegetable garden with our peas, spring onions, and broad beans, we have started to reap the rewards of our efforts with the potatoes, and the lettuce is coming along nicely.  It has been a great pleasure throughout the season to see the pay-off for all of our hard work and care, and even more so to enjoy the fruits of our labour at the dinner table.

The summer has been idyllic here on the Calf, but it must be said that we are looking forward to the Autumn. We have a new member of the team joining us, seal pupping season to eagerly anticipate, film crews and journalists, as well as the end of the guest season rapidly approaching. Our time on the Calf is passing more quickly than I think any of us expected, though we remain excited to see what the rest of the season brings.