All about the Seabirds
So this week has been jam packed with seabird work. Everyday has been busy with one task or the other. These have been; great black back gull nest monitoring and pellet collecting, fulmar nest monitoring, puffin burrow occupancy and ring colour codes and shearwater burrow occupancy and ringing.
So with the great black backed gulls there have been more nest sites with chicks and so some pretty angry parents watching me as I collect the pellets. There is a particular gull at site number 18 that does not quit and will persistently swoop down at you whilst screeching. A good parent as you really don't want to be any where near the nest! It even follows you as you are leaving just to make sure you've gone. It is surprising how efficient you are when an angry gull is after you!
A new job this week has been the addition of monitoring the fulmars. This is because they have returned from their 'honeymoon period' and should be laying eggs now. So at seven locations we have been watching which fulmars look to be sat on eggs on the cliffs. Each apparent fuller is classed as a 'site' and with a printed photo you can see which fulmars have moved and so no egg. We have also circled areas where fulmars have appeared and stayed for the last few days making them an'apparent incubating adult'. You can't assume that they have an egg until after ten days of incubating behaviour and then the appearance of a chick. Or unless of course you actually see the egg, but of the 87 fulmars we have so far only seen two eggs as they don't move much at all!
We have also scouted out the nest site of the short eared owls and have found four golden chicks only a couple of days old. Very cute bundles of fluff and a first for Skokholm!
Great black backed gull chicks, fulmars on cliff (grey and white birds) and Short eared owl chicks
It's puffins as usual and they still surprise you with their behaviour and keep you amused as you watch the burrows to see whether puffins are using it.
However, the highlight this week has to be the shearwaters. We looked at 157 burrows in study plots. These burrows have numbered slabs on top, like little roofs so you can lift them off and out your hand down into the burrow. It is a case of your whole arm going into the ground and your body against the floor, feeling inside for a shearwater. You don't know what you will find, it could be occupied or empty. You might have a quite bird that just sits or a lively one that pecks at your hand. It's not as daunting as you might think. We had some shearwaters that had rings on so we recorded their number and whether there was an egg in the nest (felt it or you could see it) and in some cases there were new occupants or unsung partners from previous years. This meant we got to ring them and so my first bird to ring was a manx shearwater! The first two stages were fairly straight forward but closing the metal clasp gap at the end proved tricky and took several attempts.
Manx shearwater burrow occupancy: searching and ringing. Photos by Richard Brown.
The shearwater burrow occupancy was done over a whole day and started by crab bay (puffin area) and ended at the lighthouse. By the time we were at the lighthouse we were used to feeling around the burrows and retrieving the birds. However, I came across one particular burrow that had a bad smell coming from it, which only got worse as my face was against the side of the entrance. As I put my arm all the way in I could feel something soft and squidgy. Something was not right. I got confused though when I got a small peck on my fingers, so I carried on trying to reach further. But I gave up in the end and asked whether Rich could reach from another entrance. Fortunately there was an adjoining burrow entrance and he managed to pull from the burrow a dead rabbit! The poor shearwater had been sitting next to a relatively fresh dead rabbit and I had been prodding it!
This was not the only discovery of the day, Maddy found a dead shearwater and a wheatears nest and I then had a small rabbit run out from the burrow underneath me. Some firsts for burrow occupancy monitoring!
Along with all the monitoring I have been fortunate enough to have been given the opportunity to ring a herring gull and hold it. They are feisty things, so you have to be aware of what's going on. Another first for me!
