Rebecca Steggles, Isles of Scilly AONB Assistant joined the team at St Agnes this week and explained her experience. Find out more about the work the AONB does on the islands at www.ios-aonb.info/‎ 

‘I was lucky enough to be invited by the Isles of Scilly Seabird Recovery Project Team to help lend a hand during the project’s monitoring phase. I helped check rat-bait and wax-monitoring stations, at the Browarth Pool area, to check whether rats are still present.  Rat activity has not been picked up for a few weeks, so it was unlikely we would find anything. After a morning’s work it was conclusive that rats had not taken any bait, nor nibbled any of the monitoring wax cubes in this area, suggesting that they are not present. This is great news for the project, as the results generated, are building evidence to show that rats are being successfully removed from St Agnes and Gugh.

It was really great to get hands on with the project, meet the team, and learn a little about the work which has been carried out on the ground. It is amazing to think that the detection of rats has slowed down to a grinding halt, only 5 weeks into baiting. I’m hopeful that this summer will be a successful year for the seabirds, who are so dependent on this work being carried out’.