For the past few nights we've been out around sunset checking out the chough roost on the west coast of the island. Communal roosting is a big part of chough society and serves several purposes. The obvious ones are keeping warm and safety in numbers after dark, but they also serve as a channel for information exchange and a good way to meet potential future partners. Chough don't breed until they are 2 or 3 years old so 'date night' at the roost is a good place to start!
We were pleased with the numbers logged, over the course of 3 evenings we recorded on each night respectively a minimum of 40, 32 and 36 birds. Given that we have 10 breeding pairs and at least one half of these pairs will be at the nest site on eggs, with, in most cases, the partner bird also roosting at the breeding cave, this represents a good number of non breeding birds - a good sign for the future. We see nothing like this number of birds (in addition to our breeders) by day at this time of year so most of these birds have come in from the mainland, seeing Ramsey as a safe haven for the night. Before going to roost birds gather in large feeding flocks in the sheep and rabbit grazed fields before eventually making their way to a traditional roost site that has been used by generations of chough before them.
I have put together a short 'highlights' video of the past few nights filming, hope you like it.....