Puffins still around...but not for long
Red alert, red alert! The puffin breeding season is starting to come to an end, and if you haven't made a trip up here this season to see them, now is your last chance. There are still plenty around for now, with the best views still from Grandstand. But all the puffins and their chicks will be leaving the cliffs and heading out to sea for the winter within the next two weeks. Hopefully that will include the famous Grandstand puffling, although at the rate it's growing it's going to be a bit of a tight squeeze to climb out of that burrow.
Operation Owl Rescue
Anybody local to the area may have been woken up in the middle of the night by the storms on Sunday night, and it seems the wildlife had a bit of a tough time of it too. On the drive up to the centre, Sarah found this Little Owl on the side of the road, completely soaked through and obviously in a bad way. It got taken up to the centre, I went back down to the house to get my hairdryer, and Operation Owl Rescue began! He certainly looked in a bit of a sorry state to start with, but an hour of blow drying later and he started to look much more promising. What we originally thought was a chick that had been swept out of its nest, was actually a very bedraggled adult. It all ended well though, with this little guy being well enough to be released that evening.
Before the blow dry
And after!
Au revoir Swallow chicks!
Visitors on Monday 6th were in for a treat, as our swallow chicks finally started to fledge. They hung around a lot longer than we all thought they would, but finally they’ve spread their wings and gone out into the big bad world. It was a bit of a wobbly start for most of them. Clearly realising they’d made a terrible mistake, they were all seen desperately clinging to the wall of the centre, trying to climb back in to the nest. Yesterday (8th), there were two very stubborn chicks in the nest, still actually being fed by the adult. Don’t think those two read the fledging handbook.
The last cheeky two
And a quick flashback to a few weeks ago to this brilliant photo!
Fulmar vs. Puffin
On my Monday Puffin Patrol, I witnessed quite the show down between a fulmar and a puffin. Fulmars had been a bit thin on the ground (and air) that day, and so as we reached Jubilee Corner, I inwardly cheered that one was sat on a cliff ledge close to the platform. Rather oddly, there was a puffin perched very close by in front of its burrow. Fulmars are well known for not being very tolerant of their neighbours, spitting out foul smelling oil at anyone that gets too close.
We watched as the puffin flew off, and the fulmar pottered down to have a good nosey around the puffin’s ledge. Suddenly, our puffin came swooping back in, attacked the fulmar, and won! The fulmar flew off, and tried to reclaim the ledge several times but was warded off by one very fearless puffin. Our brave little puffin then stood on the edge of the ledge, flapping his wings as if to say, “this is my ledge, back off”, then scuttled back down into his burrow. Never underestimate the tenacious spirit of a puffin!
Yellow wagtail
We had a rare spot at the far end of the reserve, out by the Wooden Puffin statue. A yellow wagtail was seen hopping around in the field by one of our visitors, David Clayton, who has very kindly sent through these fantastic photos.
Strutting his stuff
Spotted!
Laura
Visitor Experience Intern