Trewavas Kittiwake failure

A flat calm sea and a day off is the perfect opportunity for a paddle out along the coast, so might as well combine it with dropping in on the Trewavas Head Kittiwakes. It started well, with a new sub-colony (at Trequeen Zawn) holding nine nests, some with good-sized chicks. The first ever resighting of one of our birds ringed as a chick was here in the early days of the colony, as young birds prospect new areas. This held true, with the zawn holding four birds we'd ringed as chicks in 2015 and 2016, one now at a nest with chicks.

PP (ringed as a chick in 2015) with two chicks

There was also a new French bird in the colony, so it'll be interesting to see if this too is a young bird recruiting into a new area.

RWM-WGW

But as we paddled round to the main part of the colony it was eerily quiet with a dozen or so birds on the cliffs, but these soon left. Early on in the season we were worried that the return rate of ringed adults was low, then we were unable to ring any adults as they hadn't laid, but we weren't expecting a complete failure. So not a single egg or chick at a site that should be holding over 70 pairs!

Thimgs were no better 'around the corner' as well, with the site by the engine houses also deserted, with not a single bird to be seen. This site should hold over 65 pairs.

So with the recent complete failure of the colony at Newquay, that leaves just two Cornish sites holding any number of birds this summer! The site at Western Cove, Portreath is thankfully thriving (250+ pairs) and there are good numbers at Porthmissen, but other than that we have nine at Trewavas and two at Rinsey!

The rare sight of a brood of three Kittiwake chicks (far left), at Western Cove, Portreath

Final Mullion totals

At the end of last week, a small team of four paddled over to Mullion Island for our last visit of the year, aiming to ring Great Black-backed Gull chicks. Productivity on the island is always poor so it's with trepidation that we land, not knowing how many chicks we'll find.

After a slow start, we finally started to find chicks, although most were single birds. But as we covered the top of the island we found groups of two and three chicks and we ended the evening ringing 16 birds, which is the second highest total since we started marking chicks in 2013.

	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
GBB Gull nests	-	62	37	83	70	60	71
GBB Gull eggs/chicks	98	174	90	204	166	-	195
GBB Gull chicks ringed	4	17	12	13	5	3	16
Cormorant nests	24	52	50	39	47	38	47
Cormorant chicks ringed	11	19	7	16	0	0	14

 Having said that, finding just 18 chicks (16 ringed and two which were too big to approach safely) from 195 eggs/chicks earlier in the season is still pretty poor. We did also find four large dead chicks, but it wasn't clear how they'd died. It was also depressing to find a dead adult on top of the island with fishing line and presumably a hook in its throat, anothe victim of our polluted seas.

23-hour ringing day!

You know it's summer when you're up before 5am to be out ringing gull chicks and then back home at 4am having been ringing Storm Petrels all night!

This last week has seen various small teams out on rooftops around Falmouth ringing gull chicks, all part of the ever-growing project looking at the behaviour and movements of urban Herring Gulls. So far we've ringed 25 birds on St Mary's School, 20 on Tregnoniggie Industrial Estate, 65 on the university campus roofs in Penryn and various other smaller groups.

Ringing chicks on the roof of Wilko in Falmouth

It's was also full moon last night and perfect weather for some Storm Petrel ringing, so a small team headed down to Gwennap Head, Porthgwarra. As the wind dropped the birds started arriving at the nets and we were set for a busy night!

The final tally was 114 new birds ringed and six birds retrapped that weer already ringed. Three of these were birds we'd ringed previously, one just a month ago at Lizard. Another was a bird we ringed at Porthgwarra in July 2018 that was recaught in North Wales just a week later. Another has a slightly more interesting history. It was ringed at Porthgwarra in June 2015, then recaught on Skokholm Island in July 2015 and in Ceredigion 10 days later. In an almost identical occurence it was recaught again on Skokholm Island in August 2018 and in North Wales nine days later!

Other ringed birds came from Co Mayo (ringed in 2008, so a good age), Skokholm Island in 2018 and also a Spanish-ringed bird. This is only the seventh Spanish-ringed Storm Petrel to be found in the UK, but the fourth at Gwennap Head (after birds in 2008, 2009 and 2017)! Others have been caught at Pendeen (in 2005), Tyne & Wear (in 1992) and two in Scotland.