Summer has arrived early on the Calf, with the month of May bringing fine weather, exciting days, fresh faces, and an explosion of new life.  The Swallows have returned, the Bluebells have been in bloom, the Bracken is shooting up, eggs are hatching, and insect life is striding into focus.  The Estate Team and volunteers have been hard at work preparing and maintaining the Observatory and island in expectation of the coming guest season, conducting various biodiversity surveys and related projects, welcoming journalists and film crews, and generally enjoying the bustling life of the Calf in the warm early summer.

The month began with the Calf hosting a film crew shooting several scenes for an upcoming thriller “The Catch”, starring John Rhys-Davies and Lucy Russell.  The film crew shot scenes at South Harbour and at the beautiful historic lighthouses.  Stephen and Quentin, the captain and crew of the Scraayl out of Port St. Mary through whom visitors can arrange trips to and around the Calf, made special guest appearances. A journalist from the BBC also visited the Calf intending to write a piece on small island life.  His finished article can be found here: https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20250523-calf-of-man-uk-island-off-limits-for-half-the-year. 

Manx National Heritage have an ongoing project of Fixed-Point Photography on the Calf. Photographs are taken in fixed positions and orientations at set times of year to portray how the island changes through and over the year. This has involved traipsing across the wild landscape of the Calf following shaky written direction such as “Stand near the obvious rocky outcrop” and taking landscape photographs, but also this time noting down GPS coordinates and elevations to ease future efforts.  The project has been running for decades, and it is hoped that these images will one day illuminate how the Calf of Man has changed over the years, and how it fluctuates through a year, but we also aim to catalogue and preserve the scenery of the Calf.

As mentioned in our previous blog post, we have had several volunteers over on the Calf.  Matt and Cathy, our resident Aussies have been instrumental in conducting our longtail camera trap checks, as well as working very hard in the garden removing the potentially invasive pendulous sedge grass, not to mention getting stuck in with all aspects of the Estate teams day-to-day.  Rebecca has been over on the Calf surveying and mapping Eider duck nests, as well as lending a hand with bird ringing and surveying other native biodiversity.

The gorgeous May weather has caused an eruption of plant life on the Calf, with the bracken flourishing especially.  Towards the end of the month, we have been blessed with a bit of rain, and consequently the bracken has grown a great deal.  In most cases we see this as a good thing, however it had in many places almost completely covered the walking tracks and fire breaks of the Calf, requiring control using the bracken bruiser and flail. This has improved the accessibility of several of the tracks around the island, as well as increasing habitat heterogeneity, boosting biodiversity.

Out the back of the Observatory we have our allotment area.  Fending off the slugs and snails is a constant battle, one that we may be losing, however in spite of their best efforts to destroy our crops we are making progress growing a wide variety of vegetables and greens.  We have potatoes, peas, broccoli, beetroot, radishes, broad beans, onions, courgettes, strawberries, and an assortment of different lettuce varieties, all coming up well in the garden.

In preparation for important quay repairs to South Harbour, the Estate Team and volunteers have been hard at work building bunds and taking delivery of a large amount of aggregate. This has been very hard physical work, putting both the crew and the crane through their paces, though we have now managed to take in and safely store several tonnes of both sand and gravel.

The pleasant and warm weather that we experienced in the first weeks of May was perfect for moth trapping.  Moth trapping involves using a mercury vapour lightbulb and a dark box to lure in nocturnal moths on warm calm nights, and our efforts have led to several species of note being recorded.  The rather spectacular Elephant Hawkmoth and Poplar Hawkmoth were caught for the first time this year, as well as the Peppered Moth of secondary school biology fame and most interestingly the Dew Moth, a first for the Calf. 

Unfortunately, towards the end of April the Calf was once again invaded by Longtail.  A young male swam over The Sound on a calm night at low tide, and was picked up on our dedicated camera traps on the night of the 22^nd of April. This was potentially disastrous, as in the past the Calf has been inundated with Longtail, who decimated our ground nesting seabird colonies that are only now beginning to show signs of recovery following a strict eradication program.  At the time of writing (05/06/2025), we can now happily report however that the efforts of the Estate Team have been met with success and the island is now once again free from Longtail.  The individual was caught after more than a month of trapping effort on the 2^nd of June, though we remain vigilant guarding against further incursions.

Basking Sharks have returned to Manx waters.  We have had several sightings from the Calf, which is especially exciting as sightings have been low for the past few years.  Last year there were no sightings from the Calf at all throughout the year, so the 6 that we have seen in May alone have caused a great deal of excitement within the team.  Basking Sharks are huge, averaging around 6 metres though in some cases reaching up to 11 metres, and are great indicators of the overall health of our special marine ecosystem off the Isle of Man.  Report any sightings to the Manx Whale and Dolphin Watch through https://mwdw.net/species-basking-shark/. 

May was incredibly dry overall, and as such our water system, which largely relies upon rainwater collection, was in peril.  We were down to fortnightly showers, and were being very careful with our waste-water (not to mention lamenting our languishing vegetable garden).  We had also to switch over to our back up ground water well, with the help of Geoff and Oz, though the water table was getting lower each day.  Thankfully, the heavens have since opened and replenished our stocks, which has been very welcome indeed. 

Our long-time and returning volunteers, Ned and Gillian Bowers and David and Pat, have donated more of their time to come over the Calf repairing several of our traditional drystone walls which are artefacts of the Calf’s history as agricultural land.  David and Pat have shared their skills through courses on the main island through which you can learn the techniques and traditions associated with this special craft, the likes of which are hard to come by anywhere else in the world.

Life on the Calf continues much as it has over the past months.  We end most days in front of a wood fire discussing the days activities and logging our records, making tentative plans for the coming day, week, month (more often than not, plans disrupted by large spanners thrown into the works with surprising vigour and accuracy).  Each month that passes here is unlike the last, ever showing us unimagined aspects of our island home, and promising yet more to come in the next.