And quick as a flash, the 2025 seabird season is over! Surreal to to view Berneray, Mingulay and Pabbay in their full, resplendent glory from the the top deck of the CalMac ferry this morning. WHAT a summer! 🤩👌👌👌

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/o... The ‘our ocean’ podcast has some great #seabird content including guillemot jumplings and gulls - menace or marvel :) Find it wherever you get your podcasts. #NTSseabirds

Beautiful evening light on Mingulay 👌🦭🦭🦭🦭🦭

GO ON THE LIONESSES!!!!!!!!! 🏆🥇⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️💪🦶🥳🥳🥳🤩🤪🤪🤪

Feeling very lucky to have this as an office ☀️ 🌊

Cracking afternoon down in the southwest corner of Mingulay, looking out to a Berneray/Barra Head 🤩 Could hear one corncrake still crex-crexing #notgoneyet

Good haul of Grey Seals on Mingulay beach this morning. Love hearing them singing 🦭 🎶 🎵 🦭 🎶 🎵 🦭 🎶 🎵

July is peak month for Dark Green fritillary butterflies on Mingulay and I am HERE FOR IT! 🧡🟠🧡🟠🧡🟠🧡🟠🧡🟠

Super smashing to have Kirsty Marshall from Species on the Edge on Mingulay for a few days. Kirsty is surveying the bumblebees here, including Moss Carder Bumblebees that she caught this afternoon in the old village. 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

A beautiful evening in Mingulay Bay 👌🌊✨

Fulmar chicks are getting old enough to be left unguarded by the adults on Mingulay now. Their presence is GREATLY cheering up the seabird cliffs as the auks are fledging and leaving the ledges looking very empty. 🐣🐦🤩🌊

Cracking couple of Garden Tigers in the Mingulay moth trap last night 🐅 🐅 🤩👌

intimate views of the #StKilda Gannet colony are a rare privilege, due mainly to difficult access, but we were able to land on Boreray a couple of weeks ago in order to conduct a census, for which the results will be shared when analysed. Glorious seabirds! 😍 #SuperSeabirdSunday #NTSSeabirds

Always exciting to unpack the moth trap in the mornings. 22 Burnished Brass moths was a great haul today - they’re loving the nettles and thistles 🤩

THIS LOOKS GOOD 👀

Beauty of a day on Mingulay 👌👌 View from the top of Hecla peak at 219m. Looking out to Berneray/Barra Head in the south west and Pabbay, Sandray,Vatersay and Barra in the north. Two swifts for company at the top 🤩🐦☀️☀️☀️

One of many young Fulmars taking shelter under their parents during a grey and drizzly couple of days on #StKilda this weekend. #SuperSeabirdSunday #NTSseabirds

A day playing the sound of calling European Storm Petrels into crevices in rocky boulder fields. If storm petrels are breeding on Mingulay, there’s a chance the real birds will call back to our portable speaker. No luck today, but a brilliant way to explore the magical island 🤩 #NTSSeabirds

Another spectacular evening watching guillemot chicks on their maiden jumps to the sea below. Godspeed little champion auk nuggets ☄️ 💥 💪

The smiling faces of 3 people who witnessed guillemot chicks fledge from the cliffs last night. SUCH a privilege to follow these birds from egg laying in early May, to hatching, rearing chicks and to see them successfully fledging. WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!! #NTSSeabirds

Fab NTS volunteers Kate and Yvette helping to collect guillemot diet study data. Sandeels and Clupeids (herring and sprats) seemed to be the most numerous fish being fed to chicks today 🐥 🐟 #NTSSeabirds

Out on the seabird cliffs with NTS volunteers Kate and Yvette today. They’ve been completely brilliant at helping to monitor the Kittiwakes on Mingulay. Chicks ahoy! 🐣🐥🐣🐥🐥🐥🐣🐥🐣🐥🐣🐥🐥 #NTSSeabirds

A dreich day has meant that our fab NTS volunteers have been making and deploying chocolate wax blocks as a biosecurity tool for assessing if rats are here. Rats would be enticed by the chocolatey smell and would leave teeth marks in the wax blocks. Thankfully none found in our bait stations!🐀 ❌

Pufflings first weigh-in on #stkilda part of long term puffin monitoring. #SuperSeabirdSunday #NTSseabirds @stkildawhs.bsky.social

Garden Corncrake update: we have chicks! 🐣🐣🐥🐣🐥🐣🐥🐥 They are HIGHLY entertaining as they run around exploring their new garden home! 😀

Special thanks to Lydia on Barra for sending out some homemade Millionaire’s Shortbread. The ULTIMATE seabird-cliff snack that did well to last until 10:18am before being devoured 🏆 😋 .

Cracking day monitoring the seabirds on Mingulay with brilliant volunteer Tom. Guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and shags ALL have chicks - 2025 seabird season is cooking on gas 🔥🧯🚒 #NTSSeabirds

Always cracking to see and hear the resident Twite whilst walking around the island 👌😍

A day of squally showers and rainbows 🌧️ 🌈

Huge WHOPPING thanks to Richard Luxmoore who has counted and mapped ALL of the Great Skua (Bonxie) territories across Mingulay. Total number of apparently occupied territories is 74 - up from 44 for the last 2 years. Hopefully a sign of recovery from avian flu 🤞🤞🤞 #NTSSeabirds #SuperSeabirdSunday

Completely loving the Wheatear fledglings appearing across the island at the moment 🤩 #Notaseabird

Top of MacPhee’s Hill on Mingulay. Looking northwards towards Pabbay, Vatersay and Barra 👌💥🌊

The Old Schoolhouse. Home for the summer on Mingulay 🥰🏡🌊☀️🦅

Today was the day for censusing seabirds on the cliffs of Berneray/Barra Head from a boat. Spent a LOT of time being aggressively seasick into the North Atlantic Ocean, but would’ve been absolutely fuming to miss it - the seabird cliffs were stonking! Deep thanks to colleagues & fab boat crew 🙏

I got asked how the resident garden corncrake is doing…..he had a brief dalliance with a female and was seemingly quiet for a few days after taking her into the depths of the bracken. But now he’s back on his crexing fine form again 😆💚

Lots of Puffins at the end of the rainbow on Dùn today for #SuperSeabirdSunday #NTSSeabirds

Super special to share the Old Schoolhouse with historian Ben Buxton and his family for the last couple of nights. Ben was celebrating 50 years since his first ever visit here to Mingulay. His wonderful book really brings the island and its inhabitants to life 📖 📕

So good to collaborate with Nature Scot colleagues today and do a seabird census count of Berneray/Barra Head. My first visit to the island - what a place! 🤩👌

Winds have calmed throughout the day. It’s a simple joy to be able to stand up on the west side of the island 💨 💨 💨 💨 💨

Swell funnelling into the seabird cliffs on Mingulay. Lost some kittiwake and shag nests on the lower ledges but the full picture is still to come. More astonishing is seeing evidence of where the waves reached yesterday and the sheer amount of nests still going strong. Seabirds are hardcore!

A day of seals in the surf and no boats. Watching the waves is addictive! 🌊 🦭 🌊 🦭

Have LOVED the last week hanging out with NTS colleague, pal and all round GOLDEN egg, James Crymble. It’s James’s last week working with NTS and he was on Mingulay researching how Puffins and Great Skuas might be building resistance to strains of bird flu. GOOD LUCK in your new job, James 🏆🥇💪

Big skies 🤩

Courtesy of a relative who was on Mingulay this week

Mingulay and Berneray are proudly rat free! 🐀 Wonderful to welcome Rachel Cripps and Reid the dog from Biosecurity for Scotland to the islands today. Reid found no signs of rats during a sweep of the buildings and the boat landing areas. This is GREAT news for our seabirds! #NTSSeabirds

HUGE props to the legendary Zoë Stevenson who has used her two weeks downtime from rocking it as First Mate on the Silurian in order to bring the FULL Northern Irish Ulster craic to the seabird cliffs of Mingulay. Seal appreciator; puffin grubber and BRAZEN Pass-the-Pigs competitor. Thank you Zoë!

Grey seal and Atlantic puffin kind of a day on Mingulay. What a place to get to spend some time 👌🤩👍

Grey Seals loving a stiff westerly wind - counted over 400 sausaging on Mingulay beach today. Love hearing them sing 🎵 🦭🎶🦭🎵🦭🎶🦭🎵🦭🎶🦭🎵🦭

BONXIES IN THE MIST! First Great Skua egg of the Mingulay 2025 season found today by ultimate champion volunteer Zoë Stevenson. #NTSSeabirds #SuperSeabirdSunday

ELITE levels of Thrift on Mingulay at the moment! Can’t get enough of it 👌👌👌