The following text was written by and posted on behalf of RSPB Conservation Scientist Dr Guy Anderson.The face of the Yorkshire coast has a nose. A pretty, green, rolling nose edged with magnificent white chalk cliffs. Flamborough Head. This nose has many occupants, and sitting on its tip, I can see many of them streaming past (nose...streaming...geddit?). Slowly weaving lines of large, brilliant white planks – gannets – glide low over the sea, bringing fish back to their chicks sitting on the cliffs at RSPB’s Bempton Cliffs reserve. Others pass them heading seawards, relieved of their cargo. Neat silver-grey and white kittiwakes dance past on buoyant wings, and the cliffs resound to their name constantly being called as returning birds greet their mates. Snaking lines of auks whirr past frantically, all angling their barrel shaped bodies slightly upwards, as if straining to fly higher, wishing they had longer wings. Jet black razorbills fly with dark brown guillemots, and smaller, blunt-ended puffins. Some have silver moustaches of sandeels or sprats held in their bills. Herring and a few great black-backed gulls cruise past powerfully, causing ripples of agitation in the other cliff residents. Birds and noise and the unmistakeable salty, oily, fishy perfume of a seabird colony. Fabulous.
Picture of the Filey coast area. Photo courtesy of Guy Anderson.
The seabirds here seem to be having a good year – welcome news as many of the UK’s seabird cities have had hard times recently. I can see plenty of kittiwake nests with at least two healthy chicks, and some with three – a mass of grey fluff spilling over the whole nest. Feeding conditions dictate how good the season will be – how many fish of the right size are available when and where. Working out what gives good fishing for seabirds is an important question to answer if we are to know the future for our breeding colonies – internationally important for some species and a real jewel in our nature crown. Seabirds eat fish. Bigger fish eat littler fish. Littler fish eat plankton. We know plankton are very sensitive to changes in water temperature, and our changing climate is already having huge impacts on what nests (and what smells...) on Yorkshire’s nose and the rest of the UK’s coast.
Kittiwakes nesting at Flamborough Head. Photo courtesy of Guy Anderson.
Understanding what is happening with our seabirds starts with knowing where birds are going to fish. That’s why I’m here – helping the RSPB’s ‘STAR’ (Seabird Tracking And Research) project. We are fitting adult kittiwakes with GPS loggers for a few days, and downloading the data from returning birds to reveal fascinating tracks away from the colonies, some well over 100 miles round trip. One of our birds had gone well over half way to Holland and back in just 2 days. I say ‘our’ birds. I do feel a real personal connection after being privileged enough to work with these beautiful creatures close up. Certainly close enough for them to indicate their displeasure at brief captivity with sharp beak, and, how shall we say, effluent. Sitting outside the Headlands Cafe after a successful fieldwork session at Flamborough Head seems advisable.
GPS track of a bird tagged at Flamborough Head.
Now you would think that kittiwakes nesting just up the coast at Filey would probably use the same fishing grounds as their Flamborough neighbours. But the same tagging work there suggests many are not and are heading to their own preferred patches of sea further north-east. Building up a picture of where birds from different colonies around the UK go to fish in different years will allow us to build mathematical models predicting where good fishing areas will be in future, and how that might impact on the their future breeding success.
Knowing where birds are fishing also helps identify potential conflicts with offshore development proposals. Some big wind energy developments now sit off the east coast and more are proposed. We’re also working to understand how seabirds might respond to such offshore structures if built, as well as where they are feeding.
The fish that our kittiwakes have spent so much time and effort bringing to land will return to the sea in a few weeks –in the form of kittiwake fledglings. They and their neighbouring auks, gannets and gulls will leave the cliffs and Flamborough Head will become a bit quieter until next spring. Yorkshire’s nose may continue to smell a little longer though...
Releasing a kittiwake after tagging. Photo courtesy of Dave Aitken.
Thanks to East Riding of Yorkshire Council, Scarborough Borough Council, Natural England and the East Yorkshire Ringing Group for permissions and co-operation with the research work at Flamborough Head and Filey.
Read about how our other ‘STAR’ fieldwork teams have fared this year; on Colonsay, Orkney, Shetland and the West Coast of Scotland.