Highs and lows in the Kittiwake world

Just for a change of scenery I headed up to look for some colour-ringed birds in the Kittiwake colony at Porthmissen, Trevone this afternoon. In many ways this was a day of highs and lows, quite nicely reflecting the life of a Kittiwake.

The first high was the site, as this part of the north Cornwall coast really is quite stunning! The birds are best viewed from across a narrow isthmus looking back into the colony, nesting along a series of narrow ledges across the sheer face.

The high was soon replaced with a low though, as on scanning through the colony it soon became apparent that a vast majority of the nests were empty, some with attendant adults, some abandoned. This has recently been one of the key sites in the county for Kittiwake and to see it so devoid of new life was quite depressing. The last few years have seen huge declines in Kittiwakes across the whole south of their range, so we're just hoping that the big declines in key sites in Cornwall are just temporary blips.

The next high came when scanning through the core of the colony, waiting for birds to stand or and shuffle to check them for rings. I was expecting to find one or two French-ringed bird, but found none. But far more interesting to me was a bird that leap out at me as having one of our rings from the Lizard (60km away)! Thankfully it wasn't too far away to read and it turns out that 'AL' has a far from mundane history. It was actually ringed as a chick on Gugh, on the Isles of Scilly, in 1999 and was recaught by us at Rinsey in June 2012, when we added one of our colour rings. It was then seen three more times at Rinsey in 2012, six times in 2013 and just once in 2014 which was the year the colony crashed there. So we don't really know when it first moved to Porthmissen, but it is certainly one to look out for there in future.

The world's worst digi-scoped photo, with the 17-year-old AL on the right

After that quite special high, I was then plunged into a rather depressing low with the arrival of a juvenile (female?) Peregrine. After a short while visiting empty parts of the colony, it then happened upon a ledge with four nests on it, all with attendant adults. The first brooding Kittiwake put up quite a fight, but with the adults soon displaced, the Peregrine proceeded to jump from nest to nest along the ledge, taking all four chicks from these nests (all were broods of one) over 45 minutes. The first three were eaten at the nest, with only feeble mobbing from the parents, though one adult did manage to knock the Peregrine off the ledge, which then carried the last chick off to the clifftop to eat.

Juvenile Peregrine predating the first of the four Kittiwakes nests in this photo,
with other attendant adults unable to intervene

Whether this is a new behaviour or a regular occurrence is unknown, but this may go part way to explain why there were so many empty nests in other parts of the colony. That's nature though, even if it is mightily depressing!

Breeding Stormies on the Brisons

The Brisons lie just off Cape Cornwall and really haven't been visited for a decade, so it was about time we made the effort and went and had a look! Thanks to the good fishing folk of Sennen Cove we were able to hitch a lift over for a couple of hours and ring a good number of birds and also try to get a handle on the number of breeding birds over there.

In total we were able to ring 42 Shags (two adults), 13 Razorbill (seven adults) and an unexpected 11 Guillemot (eight adults). Many auks were still on eggs, with a few abandoned Shag nests and several still with small chicks.

More significantly though, we also heard at least two Storm Petrels calling (or singing) from one of the boulder fields. This remains the only site in the county that Storm Petrel have been presumed to breed, although we're sure that other several other sites must exist but are just hard to access.

Very cute Razorbill chick, many of which are somewhat
difficult to get at in the boulder fields (below)!

Most Shag nests had broods of two, but a few had three feisty chicks

Adult Razorbill

Last of the Choughs

Not quite as ominous as it sounds, but this week saw us ringing the final brood of Chough chicks for the year. A small but very experienced rope team joined us to help us access this new site on National Trust land. A short abseil and some inventive ladder-work later and we found the nest, with three small but healthy chicks. This is rather notable as the female here is just one year old and breeding in their first year is exceptional in Choughs. Her partner is a three-year-old male so almost as inexperienced.

Choughs do always pick the most stunning locations to nest

...although this can make access 'interesting'!

The three chicks were big enough to ring but not big enough to know their sex, which is normally judged on size (by measuring leg length). All were good weights though, so hopefully will all fledge in the coming weeks.

This brings the number of Cornish chicks colour-ringed this year to 15; slightly down on previous years, but a great result considering several of these broods were raised by young, inexperienced birds. Many thanks to Alan, Roo, Christian and Will for their expert advice and help in safely accessing the site and to the RSPB staff and volunteers for monitoring the site in advance of our visit.

New moon Stormies

The first summer new moon coincided with a period of nice still weather so we had the chance to do some nocturnal netting for Storm Petrels. We headed to Hot Point, Lizard on the last two nights, netting a total of 52 birds. This is more than we've caught so early in the year before so worth the missed sleep!

Close up you can see where these 'tubenoses' get their name from

Most of these were new birds, but we did recatch birds we'd ringed there in June and July last year which is interesting and also a single French-ringed bird. Cornwall really does get the lion's share of French birds with 2/6 birds caught in the UK in 2015 being caught in Cornwall.

We sometimes catch birds with parts of feet or legs missing and the last couple of nights saw a bird missing a whole leg and one just missing the end of its foot. This doesn't seem to hinder them too much though which is lucky!

This is as drastic an amputation as we've seen!

Lizard Choughs

Being a bit behind the other pairs, yesterday saw us finally scrambling round to see how the Lizard Choughs were doing. We weren't quite sure what we'd find in the nest, so it was a pleasant surprise to find four chicks in the rather tight fissure in the cave.

As Cornish Choughs go this site was quite accessible!

Unfortunately one of the chicks was a bit of a runt, being 50g lighter than its siblings, so it'll be interesting to see if it survives. Apart from the runt, the other birds were all given a unique combination of colour rings which will allow us to follow their fortunes in the coming years. Measuring the leg length also gives us a good indication of sex and the three larger birds appeared to be two females and a male.

All four chicks safely returned to their rather scruffy nest

The Lizard brood brings the number of chicks ringed this year to 13, with one further site to check next week. This figure may seem low in comparison to previous years, but many of this year's pairs were inexperienced birds, so this number will only increase.

Many thanks as ever to all of the dedicated Chough-watchers who make our life so much easier by following these birds and working out hatching dates and to Cat Lee from the National Trust for the photos. More information on these iconic birds can be found on the Cornish Choughs website.

Geebs top 200 on Mullion Island

Bank holiday Monday seemed to be the perfect day for a spot of kayaking, so three of us headed out to Mullion Island to have our first count of Great Black-backed Gull nests.

Great Black-backed Gulls are spread across the island, here looking back to Mullion Cove

At first there didn't seem to be many birds on the island, but as we swept the island there were plenty of nests. Most were still with unhatched eggs, though some did have small chicks. In total we recorded some 83 nests containing 204 eggs/chicks, which is by far the highest number in recent years.

	2013	2014	2015	2016
GBB Gull nests	-	62	37	83
GBB Gull eggs/chicks	98	174	90	204
GBB Gull chicks ringed	4	17	12	-

The high nest count is great news and almost rivals the key Cornwall site at Looe Island, where 86 nests were counted last week. We've always seen very low survival rates to fledging though, so it'll be interesting to see how many of these 204 eggs and chicks survive the coming weeks.

Many nests were just hatching

Barn Owls on the move

We did our first long day of Barn Owl boxes yesterday, checking a swathe of sites from Falmouth across to Godrevy. Around half were occupied, but not all pairs were breeding. It could be that some of these non-breeding birds were just in poorer condition, as the females on eggs were weighing up to 425g whilst those not breeding were more like 310g.

This non-breeding pair were at a site not occupied since we started the project in 2011

Those that were breeding were either on full clutches of eggs on with eggs just hatching, so it was almost perfect timing for the checks.

This site near Fourlanes is our most productive,
with four chicks a one egg left to hatch being a small brood by its own standards!
The birds perhaps laid two more eggs, now abandoned at the back of the box.

Several of the adults were already ringed, which is where the interesting information comes from. Of the three, only one was found where it was ringed, breeding in the same box since we started our monitoring project in 2011. The other two were part of a more interesting story.

A male now breeding near Praze-an-Beeble had originally been ringed as a chick 4km away near Rosewarne just last year. The male of this Rosewarne pair was also ringed, but had actually been ringed as a breeding bird near Gwinear (only 1km distant) last year. We're not sure if he left it was pushed out, but the Gwinear female is sat on a full clutch so has obviously found a new male!

Just to add to the story, the breeding female at Gwinear in 2014 and 2015 had been ringed as a chick near Godrevy in 2012, and a female now breeding at Greenberry Downs had been ringed as a chick at Gwinear in 2014! Are you keeping up...

Some of the movements of birds now breeding in the middle of the project area

Super early Kittiwake chick

A quick trip out to Portreath this morning to check for Kittiwake eggs brought an unexpected surprise. Aside from three French-ringed birds and several birds on 1-2 eggs, an adult was seen brooding a single downy chick. This is 5-6 weeks earlier than in previous years and seems to be incredibly early compared to other studies.

Back in the reedbed

The settled weather gave us the chance to get back into the reedbed at Gunwalloe for our second CES visit. It was a bit windier than forecast, but that's Cornwall for you! The session ended with just 17 birds, which is average of 23 for this visit below the (lowest is 15 in 2014 and highest is 33 in 2011).

As per normal the catch was dominated by Reed Warblers, including two birds ringed in 2013. But the oldest birds caught were both ringed back in 2011: a Cetti's Warbler and a Blue Tit. Whilst the latter had been recaught in 2012 and 2013, the Cetti's had avoided recapture since ringing!

Cornwall ringing isn't for the faint-hearted!

The last couple of days seem to have been a bit full on, but full of adventure! Yesterday a small team joined the ringing legend that is Tony Cross to do the annual round of Chough sites in the county, colour-ringing chicks to continue the RSPB's long-term work on the recolonisation of Cornwall by these enigmatic birds. It's a dirty and very hard job, requiring an array of climbing kit, but a full-day saw us checking most of the sites, with mixed success. Whilst some nests were empty or predated, we did ring healthy broods of two, three and four, with a few more to check next week. This might not seem very many, but the breeding population is dominated by young, inexperienced birds at the moment, so things will improve in time...

Some sites are more accessible than others!
After a long abseil and then a secondary abseil down this ominous hole,
this nest was seemingly predated...

Somewhere near the bottom of this very large hole lies a very well-hidden nest site...

Ascending back to level ground after a 50m abseil down to the afore-mentioned nest,
where four chicks were ringed

Even by Chough standards this was a pretty tight squeeze!

Three chicks from an open mine shaft site getting their first view of the outside world!

The long day yesterday was followed by a more sedate one today. Accompanied by two surveying apprentices from Natural England we did the first of our checks on Barn Owl boxes. We only visited half a dozen sites, finding birds on eggs, including one clutch of five eggs.The afternoon was then spent kayaking out to one of our Kittiwake sites at Trewavas Head to read some colour-rings on returning birds. Whilst we only found four of our own birds and a single French-ringed bird, we take any opportunity for a kayak out on a sunny day!

Standard kit for West Cornwall Ringing Group being a wetsuit
and a dry-bag to put your scope in!

Bonjour mouette tridactyle!

...which literally translates as hello three-toed gull, but really just relates to a few French-ringed Kittiwakes at Portreath this afternoon. 'Tridactyle' also relates to the Kittiwake's scientific name (Rissa tridactyla), and there are many other tridactyl animals, including a sloth, a giant-anteater, a woodpecker, a Jacamar (related to kingfishers), an Australian marsupial, a plume moth, a polychaete worm, an extinct scorpion-like arthropod and, oddly, Plum Powdery Mildew!

But back to Kittiwakes... So a sunny afternoon just cries out for a trip to the cliffs to check out the satellite colony at Portreath, with the main colony only viewable from sea. But even this small gathering of birds was worth an extended look, and no fewer than four French-ringed birds were recorded. All of these birds will have come from Point du Raz in France, so it'll be interesting to see when they were ringed and if they have interesting histories...

Two of these appeared to be 'squatters' which aren't actively breeding but just prospecting. Birds will exhibit this kind of behaviour until a nesting 'stump' becomes available which they will occupy. Excuse the poor photo quality, but phone-scoping at 60x magnification in heat haze is never going to produce the best results!

The satellite colony at Portreath is up and left from the beach in this view

OWM-YGO looks to be a settled breeder

ONM-OLY was seen on several 'stumps' so is more likely a squatter

OBM-WBG was probably also a squatter

Back into the mud for the Gunwalloe CES

The start of our Constant Effort Site season at Gunwalloe is always a slow affair, but this morning's session was even quieter! The new boardwalk in one of the rides did make life rather a lot easier, but the catch of just 12 birds was a bit disappointing... We've actually only managed the first session twice since 2011 as it's normally too windy, but catching 16 birds in 2014 and 19 birds in 2015.

The warbler catch was just four Reeds and three Sedge, but three of these were already ringed, which is where the real value lies. The retrap Sedge we'd ringed in May 2015 (and recaught a month later) and the Reeds were ringed as an adult in 2014 (and recaught twice in 2015) and a juvenile in 2013 (recaught once in 2014 and twice in 2015).

Eastern or Western Bonelli's Warbler at Nanjizal???

With the winter weather taking its toll on the vegetation, Nanjizal still has a rather wintry feel and the leaf must be a month behind normal. Spring migration has also been very slow, with only a couple of periods when birds arrived in any numbers. The best arrival so far was over 21st-23rd April when a decent south-easterly wind and rain dropped a few birds in, primarily Willow Warblers and Blackcaps. Virtually all the birds were very light and obviously finding the cold, wet weather hard going.

One unexpected surprise for Kester though was a Bonelli's Warbler (of some sort) caught on the 23rd. This bird didn't look like the birds he had caught before in Cyprus, but similar to birds he'd handled in Greece. It also didn't look quite right for the milky-tea coloured birds from Spain. As you can see below, the obvious pale edges to the greater coverts and tertials are very fresh and not worn or bleached. If pale edges are a feature of eastern birds, it looks like it's a plumage feature rather than relating to the age of the feathers. The bird's long-billed appearance (more reminiscent of Western BW (Phylloscopus bonelli) than Eastern BW (Phylloscopus orientalis)) was maybe exaggerated by a few feathers missing from the top of the bill. Luckily the bird did leave behind a feather though, so it'll be interesting to see what the DNA comes back as!

Dippers and French Kittiwakes

The end of last week saw a couple of group members back out ringing the local Dippers in Idless Woods. This has turned out to be their best year yet, with very healthy broods of four and five to ring. We were also able to catch a couple of the adults (male from one pair and female from the other), so it'll be interesting in future years to see if these are regular birds.

We also took the chance of a fine day to head down to the Kittiwake colony at Trewavas Head, which involves a bit of a scramble, a climb and some dodging of waves! But it's always worth the effort, with good numbers of birds on the ledges.

We were also able to resight 18 colour-ringed birds, including three French-ringed birds. Two of these had previously been seen at the now almost-abandoned colony at Rinsey Cliff, so it was interesting to see them moving down along the coast. One of our own colour-ringed adults from Rinsey (ringed last year) had also switched site, so it'll be interesting to see how many of these stay to breed.

OWM-RNN was ringed as a chick at Point du Raz, Finisterre in 2007,
being seen at Rinsey Cliff in 2012 and twice in 2013 and now at Trewavas Head

BM-BRB will be another French bird, but seems to be missing a colour ring.
Luckily, with a bit of patience we were able to read the metal ring number so all is not lost!

Ringing demo and the first chicks to ring

This weekend saw the annual Cornwall Wildlife Trust wildlife celebration at Trebah Gardens, where the ringing demonstration is one of the highlights (allegedly). Over 2,500 people came along last year so it's a great event to get the word out about what amazing wildlife we have in the county. This year was a bit quiet bird-wise, but we did still manage to show people a range of birds, including Nuthatch, Chiffchaff and Coal Tits.

We also run a couple of walks checking what's happening in the nestboxes, but with the event being much earlier than previous years that was a bit quiet as well! Instead we taught people how to find open-nesting species and even show them Robin and Song Thrush feeding chicks and the Robin nest below on five eggs. Everyone seemed keen to get home and look in their own nestboxes, so hopefully there will be a rush of Nestbox Challenge registrations soon...

Away from Trebah, the weekend saw us ringing the first chicks of the year, but in quite different places! Saturday saw us ringing the first of our Dipper broods in Idless Woods, with five chicks being a pretty good start!

Sunday was an all-together more adventurous evening, as we paddled over to Mullion Island to ring a few Cormorant chicks. We timed it perfectly, with the biggest birds not so big that they were all running around, with seven broods with chicks big enough to ring. Cormorants are very asynchronous and some birds were still incubating eggs, and there were also many chicks that were still too small to ring. But we did manage to ring and colour-ring 15 birds, which compares pretty well to previous years (11, 19 and 7 in 2013-15).

The timing of the trips over is also variable, with this visit being earlier than the last couple of years: previous ringing trips were on 6th April 2013, 17th May 2014 and 7th May 2015. It did mean that we weren't able to count the Great Black-backed Gull nests, as most were just at the building stage. In fact, we only found two nests with eggs in, with two in each, so may have to plan another trip over to count these.