Our man (Andy Schofield, RSPB UK Overseas Territories Officer) writes:
(View from the highest point on Pitcairn with the Claymore II anchored offshore)
I had a couple of hours before my all important council meeting so Leslie Jacques (one of the councillors) decided to take me round the island for a couple of hours and give me a quick quad bike drive by sightseeing tour. Some of the views are spectacular and the ocean is so blue! It was also a little odd to look back at the ship that had sailed me here still anchored off shore as she had some minor engine maintenance carried out, although, it was even odder going to the same place the following day and seeing that she had gone! That was it! I would not see her for over three months. I had a sudden feeling of vulnerability and I was a long, long way from anywhere! So after a quick lesson on Polynesian petroglyphs, a brief history of Pitcairn and seeing my first Breadfruit trees it was back to the town square for my council meeting. The council looked quite forbidding sat around a large table in the town hall with a single chair in the middle for me! I shouldn’t have been worried about presenting my work to Island Council! They were great, extremely interested in what I wanted to do and were incredibly supportive.
Breeding and displaying Fairy Terns, Black Noddy’s and Red Tailed Tropicbirds are always in view wherever you are on the Island. I still find it strange to see Terns sitting in trees! I’ve always wanted to see a Fairy Tern and now I have them in my garden.
(A Fairy Term prospecting a possible nesting branch high in a tree)
It’s incredible to watch them balance their tiny egg on the thin branches or tiny fluffy chicks hanging on for dear life during the torrential tropical downpours.
I have a busy week ahead, several meetings, more seabird surveys, starting to look at and trying to catch some Pitcairn Reed Warblers, one or two public talks (slightly nervous.), vegetation monitoring / surveys, invertebrate monitoring / surveys and probably some more things that have for the moment slipped my mind, oh yes, take my Pitcairn driving test and learn how to shoot Breadfruit!
All of which I’ll hopefully share with you soon, internet connection permitting.
(A reminder of how far from my normal working desk, my home and my family I really am!)
We've been working with the UK's amazing Overseas Territories for almost 20 years, but are still only scratching the surface of understanding their wonderful wildlife. One of the most remote and little known Territory environments is found in the Pitcairn Islands, the last remaining British Territory in the Pacific. Home to the extremely friendly descendants of the Mutiny on the Bounty, the Territory is made up of one inhabited island (Pitcairn) and three uninhabited ones.
We have a longstanding programme underway to restore one of these off-islands (Henderson Island World Heritage Site), but were conscious that the environment of Pitcairn itself is in many ways less studied than that of its uninhabited neighbours. Staff members have spent ten days on Pitcairn in consultation with the local community in 2010 and 2012, but as far as we are aware almost no general terrestrial conservationists have spent more than a week or two on the island. No one therefore really has any idea how big or threatened the population of the unique local bird, the Pitcairn reed-warbler, is, several of the island's unique plant species may be down to just a few individuals, and what invertebrate species exist on this fertile volcanic pinnacle is an almost untouched world still awaiting exploration and discovery.
We've therefore sent our new Overseas Territories Officer, Andy Schofield, to Pitcairn for three months to work alongside the Pitcairners and try to answer some of these questions. We're very excited to see what he may find!