At the moment our days are consumed by all things Manx shearwater. We are in the middle of a full survey (which takes place every 4 to 5 years) and are eager to know if the upward trend seen in this species since rat eradication in 2000 continues or will the initial surge in numbers begin to plateau?
If you are visiting the island or going around it by boat you might see us on all fours with backsides to the skies as we play the duetting call of a male and female pair to a selection of burrows covering the whole island (knee pads and factor 50 sun cream on your lower back are vital when spending most of the day in this position!) With steep slopes to traverse too it’s quite a work out all in all! At the end a fancy formula will tell us the estimate for the number of breeding pairs
This is the sound we hear in our heads when trying to get to sleep at the moment! (we only have to play 25 seconds at a time but this is the 'uncut' version - worth listening to the end (or skipping to it!) as a third birds enters the nest and causes a rumpus! The higher pitched bird is the male, the lower, gruff call is the female
We might have finished lambing but Dewi our sheepdog is far from idle. He loves nothing more than helping us with this work and his keen nose can pick out a shearwater with ease!
Staying on the shearwater theme, some of you might remember us talking about installing artificial nest boxes to give us a population we can carry out tracking work on and monitor for productivity success (the number of chicks produced). After being in place for a year, we had our first pairs prospecting in 2015. This year two of those pairs are back in the same boxes and we were delighted to find both incubating eggs last time we checked. With a 53 days incubation period it will be late June to early July before we know if they will successfully hatch this year (it is not uncommon for first time breeders to fail at the egg stage). Either way this is very encouraging news and, we think, the first time Manx shearwaters have been recorded using artificial nest boxes (but happy to be proved wrong on this!)
Plus a bird ringed as a fledgling on Ramsey in 2012 has returned and was found in a nest box by day with a partner – less than 100m from where it was ringed four years ago! These newly paired birds won’t breed this year but, like those above, the signs are promising for them to make a go of it in 2017
Ringed as a fledgling on Ramsey in 2012 this bird is back and looking to breed
After a gap of ten years we resumed our chough fledgling ringing project this year. Two weeks ago our good friends Tim and Lou (who are expert cavers) came over to abseil into two of our nest sites. The chicks were carefully removed and ringed by locals from the Teifi Ringing Group under the supervision of Bob Haycock who had previously ringed on Ramsey for over 10 years. The first site we visited had 3 chicks ready for ringing. The second unfortunately was empty and confirmed my fears when I saw a raven being mobbed by the parents a few days previously as it flew off with something small and black in its beak. On closer inspection the nest showed classic signs of predation. It is only the second time in 20 years this regular site has failed so we hope normal service will be resumed here next year.
Colour ringing of chough chicks allows us to monitor these birds throughout their lives. A bird ringed here in 2000 is still breeding at 16 years old while two that we ringed as fledglings in 2006 are both breeding here too, with one of their siblings nesting on Skomer! First year survival of young chough is vital for the population as a whole but getting through their first winter is challenging. Colour ringing helps us monitor how many make it through and thus gives an indication of future prospects for this important species
17 day old chough chick with colour rings
Breeding wise we have 8 pairs of chough this year plus 2 non breeding territorial pairs. Fledging expected by middle of June so will keep you posted on success
In other news – 2 pairs of short eared owls have been confirmed breeding. This is the first time we have ever had more than one. 3 pairs of peregrines this year. The one we can easily monitor (it nests in full view of the footpath!) has 3 healthy chicks.
Short-eared owl chick - once hatched the parents usually move the chicks away from the nest site meaning staff have to be careful where we are walking when carrying out survey work! (photo A Colenutt)