News From The Rock #32 - After The Storm

After reporting doom and gloom last week with regards to our kittiwakes following two days of gale force winds and spring tides it would appear that all is not lost. I went to check on one of our small sub colonies and found birds busily rebuilding. The colony is at Bendro, a Welsh word for 'dizzy', and the towering cliffs above the cave these birds nest on tell you why. Luckily for the 'kitts', or more likely the reason why they chose this site, Bedro has a stream which funnels water from Carn Lludain, the island's highest peak, down to the sea. Even in our increasingly worsening drought, winter moisture locked up in the hill continues to weep out of cracks and fissures and provide a muddy bank on which these seabirds can gather wet soil and grass with which to build their nests. It may push their breeding season back a week or two but it at least gives them some hope.

Groups of birds gathering material from the muddy slope at Bendro and taking material back to the cave to build their nests

Late May sees the start of our fulmar productivity work. Four sub-colonies are visited on three occasions between late May and early June. On all three visits apparently incubating birds (i.e. those sitting tight on a flat ledge) are mapped on a photograph of the site. If birds are present on all three visits they are assumed to have an egg and be breeding (waiting to see the egg for each bird would take too long as fulmars don't move much when incubating!). We then visit again in August to see how many of those pairs have successfully reared a chick to the point of fledging

Sitting tight on their ledges while incubating, fulmars are masters of the sky when airborne, soaring along the cliff tops of stiff wings

Away from the cliffs and we are now seeing the first of our wheatear fledglings out and about having left the safety of their nests tucked inside our dry stone walls. Most pairs manage to fledge two or three young with occasional broods of four or five being recorded

There were three in this brood but only two would ever sit still together for long enough!

By next year the young male birds will look at resplendent as dad

Our resident red kite, Ronnie has now been joined by Rita (I've no idea if they are male or female but it keeps me amused!) - they spend all day drifting around the island looking for rabbit carcasses to scavenge on, squabbling with our great-black backed gulls but always, sensibly, waiting their turn

Ronnie....or is it Rita?

Through these unprecedented times we've been able to keep our supply delivery system going but as the old saying goes, time and tide waits for no-one, and so it was a few evenings ago when we enjoyed a late evening delivery of fresh fruit and veg just as the sun dipped behind the farmhouse

I've long regarded our harbour crane as one of the most important pieces of kit on the island and none more so than this year as it allows us to safely take deliveries from Derek, our boat delivery contractor, while maintaining social distancing. Shouting at each other over the 10m drop has left us both a bit hoarse though!

(To have a better look at any of the photos in this or other blogs just click on them to enlarge)