As the moon waned during the past week the nights have been dark, almost ink black out here with minimal light pollution. Perfect for Manx shearwaters, freshly arrived from their south American winter quarters, to come ashore. Two years ago we installed our first nest boxes in the hope of establishing a small population we could more easily work on. This would allow us to see how many chicks they raise and carry out tracking work using GPS and geolocator devices.
Four new, young pairs took up residence in our boxes in 2015 and stayed together for the remainder of the season. These birds were probably 3 or 4 years old and will not breed for the first time until this year or next. I did not expect to see any of them back so soon (it is usually established breeders who return first) so it was pleasing to see one of the boxes occupied at the end of March. I have not seen the bird in the flesh yet but a trail camera has revealed the metal BTO ring on the left leg that I put on the bird last year. Although I can't be 100% sure which bird it is until I find him or her in the box by day and read the unique ring number there is a very good chance it is the same bird I ringed last June
I am now hoping that its partner (this is probably the male bird judging by its frantic spring cleaning behavior) will be back soon and the pair may produce our first nest box egg. I'm not hoping for much more than that as first time breeders often feel it is a case of 'job done' once an egg is produced and abandon it! This breeding game can take a year or two to master in the case of Manxies. Not a problem for a bird that can live for over 50 years, plenty more opportunities
Below is a series of trail camera photos of the busy bird in nest box 15
The metal ring in clearly visibly on the left leg of the bird on 29th March
As you can see on the camera time stamp, nest building took place over a series of nights and for long periods of each
Inspired by our success last year we set about building more nest boxes this week. New Reserve Intern Sarah plus short term volunteers Mike and Kathy have been hard at work building another 20 boxes (so far!) and today we dug in the first 4 of those before the rain set in
The nest box A-team hard at work over the last couple of days
So the Ramsey Manx shearwater story continues, from adversity in the face of introduced rats, through the eradication process to a remarkable recovery. A full survey is due again this year and we will of course keep you posted on the results......