Busy, busy, busy. There's a frenzy of activity up on the clifs as the breeding season really gets into its stride. The seabird monitoring team are out at all hours trying to keep up with the action. More from Mike and the crew on the cliffs:
Apologies for the delay since the last update – but things are getting busy for the seabird monitoring team. All of our birds are now on eggs, the first chicks are appearing and there’s never been a better time to visit Britain’s largest mainland seabird colony.
Since my last update fulmar have returned to the cliffs and are now on eggs – where they will patiently spend the next 50-odd days – they have the longest incubation period of any of our seabirds.
The fulmar have landed and are now on eggs (Image: Steve Race)
Our kittwakes are also now in full breeding mode. Something like half of the nests have eggs and the remainder of the birds are busy gathering nest material – they seem to favour wet vegetation/earth for their nest platforms and then drier vegetation for the nest cup. How cool is that!
Kittiwakes nesting on the cliffs
One thing we’ve noticed so far is that most of the nests we see have only one or two eggs in, while kittiwakes can have clutches of up to three. We wonder if the late start to the breeding season means that birds will have smaller clutches so they can focus their attention on fewer chicks. Or maybe the third eggs will appear soon. One thing’s for sure – it’s never dull on the cliffs. If you see a kittiwake nest with three eggs in let us know.
Finally - our first gannet chick appeared – nearly three weeks later than last year. If you are at Staple Newk keep a close eye on the Gannets or ask a viewpoint volunteer if they can pick the chick out for you.
Pair 33 are first again in the chick stakes. (Image: Steve Race)