New Management Team

At the end of April we said goodbye to Georges and Margaret Norah who are off to pursue other projects. As many of you know, Georges and Margaret have had a very long relationship with Bird Island, since 1976 in fact! They will of course be missed by the clients and staff alike and we thank them very much for the years of service that they have given to the island. Best wishes to you both from us all on Bird!

We are pleased to introduce Nick and Jo Savy. As the son of Guy and Marie-France, Nick is very excited to be taking over the management of the family business and is keen to make his mark whilst at the same time always maintaining the wonderful balance between nature and simple hospitality that so many of you come to Bird for. There will always be a focus and commitment to the magical blend that creates the Bird Island experience. Jo comes to Bird having worked in the environmental charity sector in the UK and with a passion for sustainability. With them is Dylan, their 11 month old son. He is lucky enough to be being looked after by Marilyn, Nick's old nanny, and he is already crawling at full speed after the crabs on the beach. We are sure that it will not be long before he is up and running after the birds too! We want to take this opportunity to thank every one of you for your custom and we very much look forward to welcoming you to the island over the coming months and years.

Computer Problems

We have been experiencing some computer problems of late and as a result some people may have received a failure message when sending us an email during March and April. We are very sorry about this and apologise for any inconvenience that it may have caused - as always with these things it was out of our hands. The problem has been resolved now and hopefully it will not happen again.

On a similar note we apologise for the long delay in getting the April and May news pages to you. Again, due to circumstances beyond our control Jo did not receive any training on how to use the website software until very recently and therefore could not put the news onto the website. Just as with our son Dylan, lets just put it down to teething problems!!

Finally, I have been told that a forum used to exist for Bird Island clients to communicate and share information and stories amongst themselves. From what I understand there was a technical problem many months ago and all of the files were deleted. However, I am told that it was very popular and so over the next couple of months we are going to look into reinstating it so watch this space!!

Weather

Well the South East trade winds have started, albeit reasonably calmly, and they have brought a welcome relief from the soaring temperatures in April. What they have not brought however is any rain. The South East tends to be a dry time however we were hoping for a bit of rain as we have had very little for the past three months and the trees and plants are starting to get thirsty. For the months March through to May we totaled just 156mm of rain on the island compared to 476mm for the same period last year. Check weather figures for previous years here. Fingers crossed we get some nighttime showers over the next couple of weeks!

Robby

Robby, our conservation officer, is currently on Farquhar Atoll in the the southern islands to receive training on ringing birds with some fellow naturalists. This is a requirement in order for him to be given a licence to ring the birds on Bird Island. It is also an opportunity for him to get together with a few fellow conservation officers to share information and discuss issues that are of common concern. We look forward to his return in the second week of June.