Sheepies on the move! Tomorrow is our annual sheep meeting in Edinburgh bringing together researchers from across the country for all things Soay Sheep 💻🐑 . #SoaySheepProject #research #ecology

Rut Team 2024! Xavier, Rebecca, and Lucy have (just about) finished a four week trip to do our autumn data collection: censusing, behaviour, and vegetation sampling, as well as setting up some extra wind loggers for the winter 🔭🐏 . . #fieldwork #stkilda #soaysheep #ecology

Every cloud has its sliver lining! Today the Rut team were supposed to be heading home but weather conditions have meant we get an extra day on St Kilda and some bonus data collection 🔭🐏 . . #fieldwork #research #stkilda #soaysheep #ecology

RT @adhayward18: Do you or your promising undergrad/MSc student fancy a PhD involves fun fieldwork, evolutionary theory and one of the best…

What I see vs what the scope sees. The unsung hero of our field work, our telescopes help us spot all of our study animals and read their tags while not having to get too close to disturb them. This chap is DO004 🔭🐏 #stkilda #soaysheep #ecology #fieldwork #seenature

What a difference a couple of days can make! The rut team this trip have really had it all from sun to snow

So, in the final hour of my final day in my 4th decade of running the field side of the Soay sheep Project, I say thank you to the 100s of people I have worked with and thank you to all followers of this Twitter feed, I have thoroughly enjoyed welcoming you into this sheep fold.

I rarely use this for personal tweets but I would like people who have followed my Mother's Birthday tweets over the years to know that the day after I returned to mainland from my final lambing trip, she left us at 101 - knowing I was home safe at last.

Lamb races are just beginning as they discover the joy of life.

"Lambing Team 2024" plus ewe supervising her lamb being weighed.

Moon light on the bay last night.

Full lambing team now here and we are busy trying to catch up with over 100 new lambs on the hill, all awaiting their turn on the weigh scales.

Good morning.

Some times three is a crowd when trying to nest on top of a cleit.

We get some twins too, often double trouble. These two have been put in a creche by the looks of it.

The final two members of our lambing team are stuck on the Uist due to bad weather, here visiting the St Kilda view point on North Uist to give us a wave.

@Rundmaus Question for the National Trust for Scotland I am afraid, they set the policy on cleits maintenance, ask the NTS Archaeologist perhaps?

The weather refuses to give us a break out here, Severe 9 again and this is a hail storm rainbow.

Well there are going to be a lot of "lasts" this trip, so here's the first, my final census completed today adding up to ~ 860 over the past 30 odd years...