Ranger's Blog 2026
Hi everyone! I’m Carla, I was Ranger last year and loved it so much I’m back again for the 2026 season! It’s great to be back on Fair Isle, and within a day of being back it felt like I’d never left. We have the whole staff team from last year back which means we’ve all settled back into a routine very quickly, running like a well-oiled machine even after a few months apart.
After being stuck on Shetland for two days (staying with Karen, one of the FIBO directors who generously fed and housed AW Tom and I for the time we were stuck while her new puppy kept us entertained!) and fearing not making it over due to a lot of snow in the morning, it was a relief to make it back and to reacquaint ourselves with the lay of the land with a walk around the south road loop. A Greenland White-fronted Goose by Skerryholm was a nice start to the season.
So far, it’s been a busy few weeks of mostly indoor jobs for me, following on from some display board content I put together at the end of last season, so I’ve spent several hours guillotining and laminating and guillotining again before sticking Velcro to the back of each piece of text or photo. My next job was arranging these Velcro-ed parts on the boards then walking away quickly before I can scrutinise how straight (or not as the case may be) each element is. I’ve also been working on some talk slides for the coming season as we work on getting a regular talk schedule up and running, in between other odd jobs.
It’s been a windy start to the season, making for a slow start bird-wise, but also limiting opportunities for outside jobs. On the few calm afternoons we’ve had, it’s been nice to get out and help our Assistant Wardens, Luke and Tom, with some jobs around the isle, including translocating some irises to the Obs Scrape that had been dug up from the Walli Burn to prevent it clogging up, and fixing the catching box on the Double Dyke trap after a disastrous escape by a Black Redstart a day earlier. We’ve also partially rebuilt the Gully trap, a big job that took several afternoons, and spent a couple of afternoons spreading seaweed on the Skadan crop in the hope that it will fertilise the soil and help the crop to grow with more success than last year. Some calm mornings offered an excellent opportunity for Tystie surveys, the east coast one morning and west coast the following morning – two very early starts in a row for the Ornithology team! Tystie surveys are slightly unconventional in that they are carried out by shouting down cliffs. This encourages the birds out of their deep and inaccessible nesting cavities down the cliffs and onto the water, where they sit patiently to be counted, the large white patches on their wings standing out against the sea surface. In terms of birds, the highlights so far have been a White-billed Diver and a Woodlark, and I was also very happy to get to ring my first Snow Bunting!
A view well worth the 5am alarm during the west coast Tystie survey!
Snow Bunting in the hand, one of my favourite birds and one I was very pleased to get to ring!
In terms of more Ranger-y outdoor jobs, I’ve done my first biosecurity box check and my first Shorewatches of the year. I’m pleased to report that we remain rat-free, and my first venture to the South Light shorewatch site (somehow I only did Buness shorewatches all season last year) resulted in a Porpoise sighting! I have also completed my first few guided walks of the year, including testing a new walk route up Vaasetter. This is a part of the island I don’t venture to often enough, and I forget how good the view from up there is, besides it’s also pretty cool to see Sheep Rock up close! I’m excited to get up there a bit more this year, if I can work out a route around the Bonxies in the summer!
One of the best views over Fair Isle, from the top of Vaasetter
We’re having a bit of a competition between the obs staff this year – who can see the most bird species this season? Our whiteboard in the staff corridor is covered in some very long tick lists, one for each member of staff, and when something new is spotted a queue often forms as everyone heads to update their list. As expected, the wardening team have begun leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else, their mornings spent on census giving them a distinct advantage. Though my list is slowly growing, I’ve still got some catching up to do – bring on more guests and more guided walks!
Puffins have been returning in dribs and drabs, with the first on land of the year spotted on 9th April, and numbers of other birds such as Wheatear and Bonxies are climbing. I’m eagerly awaiting the first Arctic Skuas of the year, my favourite Fair Isle species, and due any time! It also won’t be long before the first cruise ship arrives in early May – here’s hoping I keep up my puffin success rate of last season where I managed at least a couple of puffins for every ship that came in!
See you all soon for another update!
Back in one of my favourite spots with the Buness Puffins