Hello
Apologies if you have been unable to view the puffin camera. There has been some problems with BT's lines, which we are hoping to be fully mended soon. I think it is fantastic that so many people are watching. After a wee plug on Radio 4s "Saturday Live" (thanks Fi!), we had more than 2000 hits in a couple of hours!
We have received some concerned emails and phone calls about the puffincam chick. The parent birds are often away (finding fish, sandeels in particular), and the youngster seems to just sit there unattended for many hours, waiting and waiting. Few folk have witnessed the chick receiving a feed, but it is getting some as it has grown somewhat since last week, the beak most noticably. It is difficult not to worry about the survival of this individual bird, but nature will take its course and we may all observe, learn and enjoy (trying not to worry!). Today it is windy with rough seas, and a parent bird has been in attendance since I first looked this morning. I assume the other is out finding fish.
Quite a few folk ask what the thing on the left is (suggesting it is polystyrene or foam). Here's an explanation of what you may be seeing.
The inner camera (Puffincam 1 at www.shetland.org) is fixed into the "ceiling" of the entrance to a burrow. To the right you can see the back entrance, from which sunlight often shines into the burrow. On the left is a large rock. I think when the sun moves across the sky, the rock maybe looks a bit different with shadows being cast and light reflected. The puffin chick generally sits near to that rock, although over the last couple of days it has been moving out of view of the camera (naughty bird!). When an adult comes in to be with the chick, it tends to sit with its head towards the back entrance, and its left wing over its youngster. So, you may just get a view of the adults back, his or her right wing folded back, a bit of the white underparts and the silhouette of the head. I am not sure whether the position that it chooses is related to the direction of the wind.
The outer camera (Puffincam 2) is pointing towards the front entrance of the burrow (the same as was used in Simon King's Shetland Diaries). This appears to be the prefered route taken when a parent returns. At times you can see other puffins in the area. These are generally non-breeders, who are often seen hanging about on the cliffs, seemingly posing to get their photos taken. You may see a rabbit or two, sometimes filling the whole of the screen. Also, you might see people standing behind the wall.
It is still too early to tell how successful the seabird breeding season of 2010 will be. On Mousa in 2009, we had over 900pairs of Arctic terns nesting. This year, the number is closer to thirty. Mick Mellor (who works with Martin Heubeck of Aberdeen University/SOTEAG) told me yesterday that many of Shetland's kittiwake chicks are now dying, although he expects some to fledge. Both terns and kittiwakes are surface feeders, only catching their food when it is available at the seas surface. In the evenings, I have been watching terns catching moths in the fields near my house. Whilst this is ok for an adult, it doesn't work for raising chicks.
There has been a group of a dozen or so Risso's dolphins around for a couple of days off Sumburgh Head. We were treated to excellent views of one breaching as it speedily approached the group. Risso's are known to feed on squid. For the first time in his thirty+ years studying Sumburgh's guillemots, Martin saw a chick being fed on squid. Locating and catching food is not the only trial guillemots, puffins, kittiwake and terns must contend with. They have to get it back to their young, dodging large gulls and skuas on the way. Never a dull moment to be had at a seabird colony!
All the best from the wintery north
Helen