Bye Jo

Our friend Jo will be back in South Africa today and about to start her big African adventure. Jo travelled up to St Helena with us on the dear old RMS, was a co-survivor of the captain's table and was the originator of the "crab in a blowhole" syndrome. We miss her here (though infant bananas are now safer - sorry, bit of an "in" joke there). Have a great trip Jo, hope you meet that African chief (and that they have clearer chat-up lines than the old raised eyebrow used here!) but we are a bit worried that having been on an island with virtually no harmful animals (a slightly toxic spider and a scorpion) you managed to be terrorised by a small green grasshopper and a fast-growing vine: and now you head off to a continent where the wildlife is just a tad, well, wild (and most of them have big teeth too, even the plants). We look forward to your blog updates (at least they will mean we know you're still alive)

Jo (right) with her co-worker Carolyn at the Longwood Fair

Jo, 5 seconds later. Carolyn with the slightly puzzled expression all too common on people who spend time around Jo

The Buggers

Over Easter we had three entomologists (people who study bugs) from Buglife visit. The three Rs (Richard, Rosey & Roger) had come out as part of a scoping project towards looking at developing a larger project involving conservation of St Helena's unique invertebrate fauna. We had fun with them, and they seemed to enjoy themselves - at least they regularly (every 5 to ten minutes) got very excited about some very small obscure six-legged critter. Mind you, many of the invertebrates on the island are endemic and so there are a lot of things to get excited about.

The three Rs looking out over a cliff and wondering how they would get bugs off something that is vertical, windswept and about 100m high!

Roger and Richard either sunbathing or looking at bugs on a beach. Since Roger's got a specimen jar in his hand I guess they're hunting inverts

One of their techniques was the innovative use of a reversed leaf-blower to vacuum insects ....

 .... though Roger seemed blissfully unaware of the symbolism of this tool.

They searched long and hard. Rosy sweep netting a very lonely wild mango

Richard sought them here ...

And Rosy sought them there too

They caught things too! Roger with Isometrus maculatus - in other words, a scorpion

The endemic hoverfly Loveridgeana beattiei, a regular visitor to the flowers of endemic Saint Helena plants and probably one of the most important pollinators left

And just to remind any entomologists out there - without plants you wouldn't have a job

For Sale - Rennovator's Delight

Seriously, Solomons Company are looking for business partners to develop business opportunities with the historic "Rock Rose" building.

Rock Rose exterior

The tastefully decorated interior

It makes a great photographic subject though

So what are we doing here (Part 1: High Peak)

High Peak is one of the main sites we are working. Here there is one of the last fragments of cloud forest on St Helena which is home to many threatened plants and invertebrates. Unfortunately it is ridiculously small, and getting smaller all the time due encroachment by exotic plants. We are weeding (often by hand) selected troublesome weeds and replanting with lots of endemic plants

High Peak. The good bits are the dark areas towards the top. Most of the rest is grass and NZ's own flax

A closer view of a remnant cabbage tree woodland (the "Dell") on High Peak. One of the best patches remaining on the island and also one of the last places where the spiky yellow woodlouse is found (more on these beasties later - hopefully!)

Volunteers planting endemics at High Peak during a recent open day. Checkout the contrast between the green highlands and the arid coastal zone

Some Saints planting endemics

Young Saints planting in a dense grove of the hybrid "rebony" Trochetiopsis x benjamini (T. ebenus cross with T. erythroxylon)

Views from nearby

Recently we both accompanied Marine Unit personnel on a survey of cliff-nesting seabirds. The views of the coastline were simply extraordinary. Mike took nearly 1000 photos during the 4 hour trip on rough seas in a small(ish) boat. After much anguish, the following 17 photos have been selected as the best of the day:

Approaching Jamestown foreshore

St Helena's fishing fleet moored in Jamestown Roads. It's a big sea and an even bigger sky before the next piece of land

St Helena's fishing fleet and coastal cliffs

Munden's Battery and the Bahrain prison perched on cliff near Jamestown

Cliffs underneath Flagstaff in the north of St Helena

Approaching the obviously-named Turks Cap in the east of St Helena. Strangely, when you walk along the coastal slopes it feels a lot steeper than pictured

Shore Island

Shore Island with Great Stone Top in background

George Island with backdrop of Great Stone Top (highest coastal cliff in southern hemisphere)

George Island, an important seabird nesting site

Shore Island

Waves battering a headland at Sandy Bay, in the east of St Helena

The dike swarms in the cliffs of St Helena are renown to geologists worldwide. This is a view of a swarm (the dark lines) under Man O' War Roost in the south-east

Speery Island (in the south). People climb this island to harvest guano for their gardens

Another view of Speery Island

Black noddies (Anous tenuirostris) busy replenishing the guano supply on Speery Island

Man and Horse cliffs. Some areas of the coast have a lovely appearance of crushed velvet. I've heard tale of two fisherman scaling this cliff when the sea became rough and started to swamp their fishing rock. They climbed it in the dark, with their fish