Martin Heubeck can often be seen perched on Sumburgh Head, peering through a telescope. It could be said that Martin is almost as familiar a figure as lighthouse tower! For over thirty years, he has been working for Aberdeen University/SOTEAG monitoring the fortunes of Shetland's seabirds. It is of huge importance that we have such a long-term data set to work out the long term trends of seabirds as this can give us an insight into what is going on within the seas around us. Part of the monitoring programme Aberdeen University/SOATEAG carry out is monitoring guillemots breeding success. The first guillemot chick at Sumburgh Head hatched out yesterday! I'll be updating you on the chicks fortunes as the weeks progress.
Over on Mousa, Rob (our seasonal assistant warden) has been busy counting incubating terns. I was expecting a good number of birds, as the feeding activity around the island has been ever so busy, and reports from local fishermen say that sandeels are abundant. In 2008, there were 400 incubating birds. Rob did his first colony count on Tuesday and found 642 incubating birds! We haven't got a total figure yet (he's still on Mousa as I type), but from our phone conversation this afternoon, we are looking at more than 900pairs nesting on this island. I am keeping my fingers crossed for the sandeels to remain throughout the breeding season.
Today, we had P4 from one of the Lerwick primary schools visit SUmburgh Head as a part of our Living Classrooms field teaching programme. As well as learning about and enjoying watching our seabirds (mainly shags, guillemots, kittiwakes, fulmars and puffins), they created a marine foodweb, measured out the lengths of the cetaceans that visit our shores, and played a migration game. It is really rewarding for us as staff to see young folk really engage with the wildlife, and ask such interesting questions. It is worth mentioning that when I asked how many of the class of 33 had seen killer whales (orca) almost all raised their hands! In fact three of them had watched a group of killer whales swimming by their local beach in town just last Sunday! Where else but Shetland?
Well, I'll sign off now, but STOP PRESS - Rob has just come off Mousa ferry and called to say there is a total of 901 pairs of Arctic terns nesting, with over 2600 individuals on the island. THat's the most in my six seasons of being a warden on Mousa. Smiley smiley.
Cheerio for noo
Helen