Readers of the blog will have noticed that a few weeks ago I finished the last blog with a to be continued as I posed the question, if it is not prey availability that holds a potential spoonbill breeding attempts back then what is it?
It is a reasonable assumption that predators in the shape of foxes and otters are present on the island, it may be only intermittent but this may be enough to put of any spoonbill’s attempting to breed or prospecting on the island.
This is somewhat backed up by experiences from the Wadden sea colonies (where interestingly enough most if not all of the summering spoonbills on Havergate come from). These birds are only able to nest on the ground due to the complete lack of mammalian predators. This offers them such an advantage that the adult birds are willing to fly up to 40km to find suitable feeding habitat.
This then poses another question, like what can we do to improve this or lessen the effect of predators on the island.
Well, there is obviously direct action against predators; however, it is considered that this might not be effective due to intermittent nature of predators on the island and in the case of otters legal protection. I for one, love seeing otters on the island.
So, after much discussion with our colleagues in reserve ecology, observing in this case cormorant behaviour the concept of spoonbill breeding platforms was formed. This was initially going to take the form of essentially big bird tables built by volunteers. Over time this idea was refined and became building nest platforms in the fork of tree’s.
The tree’s where chopped down as part of standard regular management from the plantations at Minsmere.
These tree's where then transported out to the island on the October storm with help from the team at Minsmere. Along with a large amount of birch brash from the RSPB managed forestry blocks in Tunstall forest this will be used to form the platforms and possible nesting material.
These where then trimmed and buried into the ground on a high island at the back of Gullery lagoon to form the basis of the platforms.
On top of the forked tree's, struts where nailed in and the birch brash was used to form a platform. The idea behind this was not to build the nest for a spoonbill but merely give them a start and something to build on later in the season.
And here is the finished product....
So, the theory behind is that we have provided an area that is theoretically safe from ground predators by diversifying the spoonbill’s breeding options and giving them a potential option that is off the ground.
Obviously, there is no guarantee’s this will work, sadly there never is in these situations. However, it at least gives the spoonbills more options and allows us to go some way to nullifying the effect of potential predators in the spring time. I think in terms of success I would take a spoonbill just perching in one of the platforms this year.