Unusual Guillemot

 This unusual Guillemot has been present on the Isle of May for the last three seasons. I've looked for it a few times but had not seen it until the researchers said it was present yesterday. Calum and I went up to the cliffs and despite the poor conditions I managed to capture a few images of the bird.

 The bird has an orange bill and orange feet. It lacks the black pigment in it's bare parts. These birds are not unheard of in the wild and aberrant birds of many species are known. It is a very nice bird to see indeed.

The Guillemot shares a ledge with a Razorbill

A close up of the head

 It has orange feet with black ends to the webs.

The bird has been affectionately named 'Penguillemot' by the researchers because of it's unusual appearance.

Fulmars

Fulmars

During my last few days of shore leave I was down at Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust doing a bit of birdwatching. As I was walking around the captive bird enclosures a bird under a bench caught my eye.

It was a Fulmar, a very scarce bird in Gloucestershire. This bird was unlucky enough to have been caught in gales that had blown up the Bristol Channel and got lost.

I managed to catch the bird safely but I then realised I'd never handled one before. The birds are naturally very light. They also had a very interesting fishy smell. It also had a very strong bite. It was not too keen on being handled and drew more blood then a any Puffin ever has!

We kept the bird for 24 hours and released it below the Severn Bridge where it flew away strongly.

So what's a story about about my holidays doing on the blog I hear the readers and particularly David asking?

Well, I found our first Fulmar chick today. Fulmars are our last birds to nest and hatch young on the Isle of May. This bird is at Burnetts leap. The bird had just finished hatching. It still had bits of eggshell on it's back. Here is a close-up of the bird

At the time of writing, as well as all the visitor management work i am also writing our annual report and have totalled up the Fulmar count on the island. The total is 286 occupied nest sites around the island which is down by 20 occupied site last year.

What's going on this week then?

The seabird counting has finished for the season for now so with less fieldwork, but we are keeping busy with more visitor related things on the Isle of May NNR.

The May Princess crowd disembark and get a cold welcome from the Terns

A small sailboat stops at The Alterstanes for a spot of Lunch

It was a very busy weekend for boats coming out with lots of tourists visiting the island. At least eight boats were in the harbour at high tide on Sunday safely moored behind the May Princess.

Calum an I have been very busy tidying up the paths after all the rain that has fallen. Holyman's Road is almost passable again. The path edging is now finished along Three Tarn Nick .As well as watching the Terns Paula and Lucie are getting on well with scraping the doors ready for a fresh coat of paint.

The Swallows built this nest in the Bath House but unfortunately left soon after.

But hopefully this bird will fair better as it's sitting on 4 eggs in the freezer room. This is the first breeding attempt for twelve years on the island. The last pair raised two chicks.

The first of many - eider ducklings

The first 3 ducklings hatched.

The engine room ducks eggs were eaten by a gull.

The eider season is in full swing on the island. Most of the females seemed to have paired up and are busy incubating now. Down on the night club dance floor (the loch) the males are busy pursueing fewer and fewer females and are displaying more and more frantically, just as if the last song is being played.  But one female has caught us on the hop by appearing on the loch with her 3 ducklings about a week before we were expecting to see hatched broods.  She will take those ducklings off across 6 mikles of water to the Fife Coast where there is better feeding as soon as she can.
And once clutch hasn't made it. The engine room duck (named as she sits right outside the engine room) left her nest and the unatttended eggs were taken by a gull. We don't know if she was frighted off by visitors getting too close or left for another reason but it is a good example of why it is so important to stick to the paths and give these beautiful birds a bit of space when they are on the nest.
At the end of the month we will be counting all the eiders on the island and so have a better idea of how they are doing.