Welcome to my seabird blog from the north! I am the seabird surveyor for mainland Orkney this season and have been on the job for around a month now. Over this time, I have been visiting six different sites across the island where Northern fulmars, Black-legged kittiwakes and Common guillemots have been monitored for over 20 years. It’s a good job I’ve got a head for heights, as this task requires perching near the edge of many breath-taking but steep cliffs! It’s a fantastic place for field work and I have learned a lot about the species found in these areas over the past month.
The plight of British seabirds is finally getting the attention it needs after news this year about why we need to protect our species at sea and not just on land, food shortages and climate change, and seabird wrecks. Up here, the season has so far been marked by a visible decrease in numbers of breeding birds on the cliff. There is an eerie quietness about the colonies – where once there were kittiwake cacophonies and guillemot gatherings, there are empty ledges. Our seabird cities are shrinking and some colonies on the island are unrecognisable from previous years or gone altogether. We are on course in 2013 for a very unusual season. The data I collect this year is going to be very important as they may describe a landmark year – for all the wrong reasons. It will also contribute to a long-term data set which will enable us to better understand how we can protect our seabirds, their feeding grounds, prey and habitats against environmental change and human pressures. For the past decade, this data set has painted a gloomy picture of poor productivity for Orcadian seabirds.
So, how did the beginning of this season start?
Our kittiwakes have had a very slow start to the season, with birds collecting nesting material right into …wait, they’re still building! A large number of clutches have been abandoned or predated already. We have carried out a few census counts at various locations and our numbers look shockingly low. However, things have definitely picked up and although some colonies have indeed gone extinct, there’s a lot of monitoring to do, particularly at our nature reserve at Marwick Head and on the Brough of Birsay.
A kittiwake gathering nesting material
A predated guillemot egg
Common guillemots have also had a shaky start, with many believed to still be suffering from the consequences of the Great British Spring 2013 and the seabird wrecks it brought to our coasts in March. We have the added problem up here, in that this is on top of 10 bad years of breeding failure. As with our kittiwakes, guillemot numbers are dramatically down, even compared to last year. However, these somewhat bedraggled birds have laid plenty of eggs and I have been putting dots on maps to mark all the pairs. This is a harder task than it sounds, and I have spent many an hour staring at these chocolate brown and white auks, waiting for a flash of speckled turquoise on top of their feet. Predation pressure is high from Great skuas (or Bonxies, as they are commonly called), Herring gulls and Greater Black-backed gulls, and finding predated egg shells on the cliff-tops is not uncommon.
A weak and thin guillemot found just off the path in our nature reserve, which later died.
If you visit the cliffs of Orkney, you are bound to come face-to-face with a fulmar. They are everywhere, dotted all around beaches and cliffs. These charismatic, noisy tube-noses have had a good start to the season. I have now mapped all fulmar sites within our productivity plots, and will be going back in August to see how many have successfully hatched a chick! We are watching the fulmars closely, and although they seem ever-present, numbers are gradually reducing.
Northern fulmars at Marwick head
We would like to monitor Razorbills on mainland Orkney, so I’m currently looking into locations where this might be possible. As with all our seabirds, life is a rollercoaster! Within one day, I saw an adult Razorbill being drowned by a Great skua, but also I am pleased to say I saw my first Razorbill chick, and lucky to catch a glimpse of one of its first meals being brought in - a beak-full of stringy silver sandeels.
A Great skua, or bonxie, displaying to another bird flying overhead
However, the cliffs are stunning places to explore, and despite a decrease in numbers, they are still a fantastic place to get acquainted with our native seabirds. As well as the species already mentioned, along the coasts of Orkney you can glimpse Great and Arctic Skuas, Puffins, Arctic terns, Black guillemots (commonly referred to as Tysties) and European shags. The floral display is magnificent at this time of year as well; the cliff tops are carpeted with salt-resistant species: Sea campion, Spring squill, Tormentil, Birds-foot trefoil, and Thrift.
Spring squill
We are now waiting with bated breath to see if our intrepid species can hatch and raise any young this year. I’ll be writing again when the chicks arrive to keep you updated, and you can read more about what the RSPB are doing for seabirds here: Safeguard Our Sealife .You may also be interested in reading Sarah West's blog about the recent Noup Cliffs seabird colony count on Westray, Orkney. Now, everyone cross your fingers because they have a tough month ahead!
All photos by Thalassa McMurdo Hamilton