Last week, our long-standing ringer, Professor David Norman, and his team visited Gronant to ring some adult birds. Efforts have been stepped up this season to ring more adults and hopefully catch a few that were ringed as chicks to find out their age whilst adding colour-rings to all caught birds so we can re-sight them in the field without the need to catch them again. The first we caught in the session transpired to be something a bit little special! See below:
In other news, we are happy to announce plenty of birds are re-laying after losing their nests in the storm on June 14th. We are up to 50 new nests in the last few days with more coming every day. This will really extend our season and give longer to enjoy and study the birds. If these nests can hatch and go on to fledge they still have the possibility of a good breeding season, but things really need to go their way this time as there's no time for a third attempt. Onwards and upwards.
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Everything was going well at Gronant. Too well? Could it last? The photo below shows the idyllic scenes around the colony in the days before the month's Spring tides with birds coming and going from the colony, and for a lucky few, tending their chicks. The birds can cope with high tides but add on a one meter storm surge plus gale-force, onshore winds and you have a recipe for disaster. Storm Hector delivered the aforementioned conditions on Thursday 14th June and even an hour before high tide the waves were crashing in to the pens. By high tide itself the damage had been done Water washed over the crest of the pens and over the other side. We were frantically moving nests but couldn't move them any higher. All we could do was stare, disbelievingly. It was hard to watch. After the tide receded the birds searched for nests and eggs but many were left walking around, confused. In the following days we took account of what had been lost and what little remained. There had been 174 active nests before the storm. 124 or so were lost and it could have been more if it were not for moving many of the remaining nests. There was a lot of work to do to repair fencing and we are really grateful to all the people who answered the call for assistance. Thanks to the wonderful turnout, by the end of Sunday all the fencing was back up. A sincere thanks to everyone who came, you made a real difference allowing us to get the site back up with the minimum amount of disturbance to the birds. With a bit of fine-tuning this week the site should be back in full working order, ready for any re-laying attempts. All signs are good for this with birds displaying and making scrapes already. Watch this space... In the mean time, many of the nests that survived have gone on to hatch and we are getting great views of the chicks from the hide. Assuming we get re-lays this will extend the season significantly and means we get to enjoy the birds for a bit longer! It's never dull down at Gronant so if you have not yet been this summer now is a good time.
It seemed to take forever but the first Little Tern eggs were spotted on the 20th May (first egg date 19th). This is 4 days later than last year. The terns had been back a month and showing a lot of interest in the breeding pens. We think although the birds were ready to lay their eggs earlier, in the nice weather, they were waiting for the high spring tides to pass, very sensible of them! It's all go now and since the first nest was spotted we are already up to 20 active nests and many more to come. If you have not been down to see the terns yet this season now is a good time with so much activity to be seen.
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AuthorHenry Cook Archives
March 2022
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