Chuffed - the latest in chough news and shenanigans:
Regrettably this week's update isn't all good news.
We are continuing to try and keep track of our chough families to see how the young birds are doing, so were happy that during the guided walk on Tuesday we were fortunate enough to see two groups of birds around the cliff tops. A recce with the volunteers that afternoon, where we split into groups and walked a sizeable proportion of the reserve's coastline, led to us picking up a group of six birds. We assumed that this was our new parents who fledged four birds and were particularly pleased, as we have been seeing lots of sightings of five birds, so were worried that one of the chicks may not have made it.
Unfortunately, a good sighting on Friday, where the colour rings were also recorded, confirmed our initial worries were justified. It seems that one of this group hasn't survived. It does lead to a bit of a mystery about the group of six that were seen twice on Tuesday. Perhaps this is one of the other pairs and their two young moving around with the adult pair who failed to breed to this year. The speculation will continue.
On a more positive note, from monitoring it appears that one of the fields that we now graze and manage for chough, which historically they haven't really used, has become more attractive and beneficial to them. Given the change in the grazing regime was introduced a couple of years ago, Dave, our site manager, hypothesised that this may indicate the lead in time for this type of habitat management to become effective and dung beetles populations sufficiently well established to provide a food source for chough..... There is a good PhD for someone!
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The PhotOa - pictures from The Oa reserve on Islay:
There be gold in these hills!
A mind-stretching walk around with the reserve with geologist David Webster last week provided a fascinating insight on how The Oa, Islay and indeed the entire Scottish and British land mass came to be. We were also captivated by these shiny gold looking deposits, but unfortunately we can't generate a windfall for the RSPB by mining our cliffs, as the pyrite or fools gold has no value. Still, these strange cubic minerals embedded in the rock are impressive in their own right. Islay Natural History Trust and David are running this walk for the public on Sunday 9th July, details can be found on their website.
Moth Friday - roundup of the weekly catch:
No moth trapping this week, but an update from last week: The unidentified carpet moth turned out to be another Silver Ground Carpet, albeit a unusually marked and distinctive one. I knew it was that really.
If you have a picture or sighting from The Oa that you would like to share, please get in contact.