Kittiwakes fail AGAIN

With slightly higher hopes than last time, we paddled out to the Kittiwakes sites at Trewavas Head to check up on the c140 pairs nesting at the three sites. The first stop was Trequean Cove where there were encouragingly still good numbers of birds, but a closer look revealed just 11 nests still with chicks which was a poor return from the 40 sitting birds we found in May. There were plenty of our colour-ringed birds and so far this season we've seen 13 birds at Trequean that have previously been seen at the main colony or at the engine houses colony. This might suggest that birds are slowly moving along the coast, but why they might be doing this is unclear.

The reason for this became apparent as we paddled along to the engine shouses, where the 28 pairs we'd seen in May were down to just half a dozen forlorn birds sat on empty ledges. The main colony at Trewavas Head wasn't much better either, as despite there being plenty of birds still present (including 17 of our own colour-ringed birds and a French bird), there were just three nests with chicks, down from the 65 sitting birds in May. Why these birds have failed again so disastrously is a a mystery, but it's interesting that the nests dominated by younger pairs seem to be doing better than the established sites, so maybe change really is for the better.

To back up this move away from the main colony, we received an email from fellow Kittiwake workers in France (Professor Emmanuelle Cam from the University of West Brittany) with a report of two of our birds seen in their colonies in Brittany in recent weeks. Both of these birds are regulars at Trewavas Head:

• EC was actually a chick ringed (metal ring only) on the Isles of Scilly in 1996, but we recaught it in 2015 and added a colour ring. It's been seen every year since as a breeding bird, last seen here on 2nd June 2020.

• EN was ringed as an adult at Trewavas Head in May 2015 and was seen 2015-2018 but not seen in 2019. It was however seen back in the colony on 19th May 2020.

These are the first of our birds seen in your colonies, and it's great to have the coverage that produces these sightings. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the coming years and whether the colonies can recover.