In April of this year we had a visit from Dilek Sahin, a Yelkouan shearwater researcher from Turkey. Yelkouan shearwaters are only found in the eastern Mediterranean and are a close relative of the Manx shearwater (which breed here on Ramsey). It was a real pleasure to meet Dilek and share shearwater stories. Below is a gust blog by Dilek about her visit
My name is Dilek Sahin. I have been counting Yelkouan shearwaters in the Bosporus –an important migratory bottleneck- since 2010. The main purpose of my study is to understand the movements of this threatened species in Turkish Strait System through which thousands of them migrates each year. I am also working on remote islands in Turkey to search for Yelkouan shearwater breeding colonies which are not discovered yet. For more information on the Yelkouan shearwater project in Turkey please visit our website via this link
Two years ago when I started my PhD at Bosporus University (Istanbul, Turkey) I found a surprising book in the library: ‘Shearwaters’ by Ronald Lockley. The book is all about Lockley’s pioneering research on Manx shearwaters on Skokholm Island. In a country where interest in birds and bird research is very limited I was surprised to find such a specific book on seabirds. It is perhaps due to the noticeable and non-stop Yelkouan shearwater passage in the Bosporus: just in the “garden” of my University.
All the stories that Lockley tells about Manxies in the book and all the experiments he did to reveal information about these tiny birds were amazing. I remember that I was taking frequent breaks when I was reading the book to delay finishing and enjoy it longer. As a shearwater enthusiast, I was dreaming myself of living on an island and studying shearwaters as he did.
When I landed on Ramsey Island for a short stay to meet Greg and discuss shearwaters, I realized that this was the opportunity to experience a few dream days. Although it was early in the shearwater season, I was lucky to handle my first Manx shearwater on the first night! For someone who has been counting Yelkouan shearwaters in a migration hotspot but not studying them in the breeding colonies, handling one of them awakened strong feelings, which are difficult to describe even in my mother language.
These birds are traveling vast distances during the non-breeding season, visiting South America’s Atlantic coast, spending several month of the year there, and then come back to the exactly same burrow to breed each season. For such a relatively small bird –weighting only 400g- it is remarkable they survive these adventures.
During my time on Ramsey (early April), Manx shearwaters started come to land to visit their nests. They usually visit their nests at night but in the early breeding season you can find couples resting inside their burrow by day, defending their territories. We encountered several such couples. . We know this because they were responding together to the recording of male and female Manxie duetting calls that we played to check the occupancy of the nest. Who knows what they are chatting about inside those burrows, maybe about their adventures during the non-breeding season; how they obtained food and how they prepare themselves for the next chick rearing ordeal! Despite miniaturized tracking devices, increasing number of scientific papers published on them and more scientists studying shearwaters there is still a lot to learn about their ecology!
Digging in Manx shearwater nest boxes with Ramsey Reserve Intern Sarah Parmor (photo G Morgan)
Together with RSPB volunteers, wardens Greg and Lisa put huge effort to better understand and protect not only Manxies but all wildlife on Ramsey Island. In just four days, I joined them on several conservation activities. We built and dug in nest boxes for Manx shearwaters. As they are using deep rabbit burrows on Ramsey, it is difficult to monitor the nests. To make monitoring work easier and to minimize the disturbance arising from processing birds they are investing in nest boxes. We also placed Puffin decoys in a location where some Puffins have been observed showing an interest previously. Puffins are not breeding on Ramsey Island as rats (now eradicated) were introduced by man in the 1800’s .Ramsey has lots of space for them in comparison to Skomer where thousands of Puffins breed in dense groups (Skomer has never had rats). Puffin colonization on Ramsey would take the burden from Skomer Island. We also checked the nest boxes (or rather concrete blocks!) and sound system installed for Storm petrels to make sure everything was working before their return (a few storm petrels have returned to breed on Ramsey post rat eradication). Chough was another species that we monitored the nests of. It was funny to compare our observations and discuss their behavior during our lunch or dinner and try to decide on the stage of breeding (i.e. if they are nest building, or already laid their eggs). Finally I was involved in many fruitful conversations about shearwaters and my own project during my time on Ramsey Island.
After Ramsey, I also visited Skomer Island to meet another great team and many more Manx shearwaters. Both of the islands are too good to be true, so peaceful yet so dynamic. Skomer feels like a movie set of a wildlife documentary whereas Ramsey feels like home (yes, despite the Welsh climate)!
Yelkouan shearwaters in Turkey (photo: Mehmet Hanay)