Today is the one month birthday of the peerie puffin. Last week however, I was not sure whether we would reach this landmark. On Friday, local boys Ryan and Arron Peart were in the Engine Room watching the puffin camera at our Date With Nature. They (along with the internet viewers) were the first witnesses of something quite amazing. "A big puffin is strangling the little one," are words I never expected to hear. I looked at the screen to see an adult puffin attacking the small chick, thrusting back and forth with its wings raised and bill clamped around the neck of the chick. I took the decision to evict the adult bird and feared the chick would not survive, such was ferociousness of the attack. The chick was mostly out of view of the camera, but soon a parent bird came back to feed the youngster and preen it. The "intruder" soon returned, but the parent successfully defended its burrow and all seems OK.
I am not sure what exactly was going on. We'd assume that it was not a parent. Non-breeding birds hang about on the cliffs and do wander into burrows. Chicks will defend their nests, so I wonder if the "intruder" rather aggressively retaliated, or actually initiated the attack.
As a part of the Shetland Nature Festival, Saturday was our Sumburgh Head Seabird Spectacular. The event aims to encourage folk to come to Sumburgh to see the seabirds, join in with various activities, such as pebble painting, Spratcatcher and the "Seabird Safari," and to support the RSPB.
Pete and Karen were on meeting & greeting duty, combined with being car park attendants and undertaking a seawatch for sea mammals.
Over 500 people came along to see the seabirds on a glorious sunny day, including local families and Finnish cruise-ship passengers.
Recently nicknamed "Amazing Brave Rob" and "Handsome David" were here to help share the stories of seabirds with visitors to the reserve.
Easy Tiger! Field Teacher Rebeca looked great, thanks to Sarah, Sharon and Nicky forr face-painting all day
A big thanks to everyone who came along and joined in or helped on the day (particularly all the volunteers, including my mother who brought warm soup, hot water and cool ice cream!)). The evening sunset was beautiful.
It has been an unusual year for our breeding seabirds. Shags appear to have done very well on Mousa, whilst all of the Arctic terns (or tirricks as they are known in Shetland) have failed to breed. The Sumburgh Head stack is fairly empty now as most of the guillemot chicks have fledged It hasn't been too bad a year for them. Sadly though, we are seeing dead kittiwake chicks in their nests. It appears to be that the sandeels are generally not available to these surface feeders. It will be interesting to find out the bigger story from across the North Sea and Atlantic coasts.
If you are in Shetland, keep your eyes peeled for killer whales. They've been seen most days for the last week or so. You never know when you will be in the right place at the right time!