By Emma Abel
This morning I headed through the low hanging fog to Aztec for my Guillemot and Kittiwake monitoring, a very atmospheric walk with grazing Soay Sheep appearing from the haze. I stopped to appreciate some English Stonecrop flowering on Halfway Wall, its flowers like star bursts among the Lichen.
English Stonecrop in the Fog by Emma Abel
Thankfully the fog sat like a hat on the island and as I ventured down to my monitoring plot, the colony emerged clear as ever. Today was an exciting day for me as Greg has been carrying out the Guillemot and Kittiwake plots while I focus on Puffins, which means while I've been seeing lots of Sandeel visits, he got to see the first chicks yesterday. I had certaintly been missing out. The Guillemot chicks were only a few days old with spiky looking down and still showing their egg tooth, a hard addition to their beaks to help chicks break out through the thick egg shell that is indicative of a new hatchling. I managed to spot 41 in my little plot with many other birds still incubating eggs and likely sitting on hidden chicks. Kittiwakes were more secretive with their chicks today, parents keeping them warm underneath their bodies in their nests, but observing them shuffle and change position I managed to catch a glimpse of various downy balls of fluff.
Puffins at Jenny's Cove by Emma Abel
After nests were checked and chicks were admired I headed to Jenny's Cove for the Seabird Station. It was a busy day with both a large ambassador tour and a school group passing through to peek at the puffins. It was lovely to chat to over 70 visitors about our seabirds and everyone got to see through the scope with the fog descending just as the last visitors turned heel for the village.
Elsewhere on the island it was another quiet day for new birds with the evening wildlife log in the tavern consisting of the common breeders and their fledgelings, especially as most of the rest of the team had been on Housekeeping and were too preoccupied with linens and polish to look out for rarities passing through.