Alderney
Garden Rocks Gannetry
20 June 2008
A
much reduced team of seabirders (Paul Veron and Catherine Kinnersly)
set off at
9:00 for Alderney on 20th June 2008 with Richard Keen. The swell had reduced but was still a
worrying factor and there was a possibility of rain showers forecasted
for
midday. The two Jersey ringers (Ian
Buxton and Tony Paintin) and Chris Mourant had cancelled earlier that
morning
and Jamie Hooper had cancelled the night before. In
addition, an Alderney Wildlife Trust student (Alex) would also
be collected from Alderney in order to try and record adult ring
numbers on
live birds.
The
team was keen to see the state of the Gannetry following another poor
breeding
season for Shags and local concerns over fish stocks due to the very
poor
visibility of the sea since December 2007(silt suspended in the water
associated with planktonic blooms).
A
slow journey up to Alderney spent comfortably in the deck chairs the
team had
brought with them accompanied with cups of tea and sightings of 2
European
Storm Petrels and at least 2 Common Dolphins seen mid channel. A detour to Alderney to pick up the Alderney
Wildlife Trust student was then followed by an hour spent fishing (not
even a
bite) in sight of the Garden Rocks (due to the high swell). By 12.30 Richard Keen decided to attempt a
landing and under mutual agreement the adjacent stack to the main
Garden Rock colony
was decided upon.
Paul
landed first followed by Catherine who at once climbed to the summit to
view
the birds below. An Oystercatcher nest
was noted with 2 eggs just above the crag where the Guillemots usually
nest, on
the way up to the summit. The Gannet
colony
looked healthy with only a few empty nests on the periphery. Gannet chicks were a good size for ringing
with none too large that they wandered around and the team was able to
work
slowly and carefully through the colony with minimal disturbance and
most young
remained in their nest with the adults remaining close by.
Netting was removed from 2 chicks and a
total of 47 chicks were ringed. The Alderney Wildlife Trust student was
unable to note down any adult ring numbers with only two adults with
rings
being spotted. No shags present in the
colony.
Richard
rowed Catherine to the main Gannetry but the swell was still too strong
and so
she returned to the boat. Paul was the
last to leave the stack and again a landing on the main rock was
attempted but
after consideration, Paul decided to leave the main rock as virgin
territory
for the whole team to attempt next week.
The change in tide would have meant a maximum of an hour on the
rock.
The
team returned home pleased to have seen the state of the Gannetry but
disappointed
with the failure both to land on the main colony, and the inadequate
size of
the ringing team given the very small tidal window possible resulting
from the
surprisingly large swell.
