Always one of the
birding
highlights of the year, Catherine and Paul were really looking forward
to the
day ringing around Sark with Andy Cook. The pair caught the 0930 boat
to Sark,
and met Andy at the harbour. With the first boat across being so late
there was
no time for tea at the harbour café. Instead we took to Seamouse
(Avon dinghy)
and Andy headed straight out to L’Etac de Serk.
Sue
Daly was diving with a team around L’Etac so we had to be careful
where we
landed. It was lovely to be back on this stack, even though it was
immediately
obvious that, as expected, there were less than half a dozen active
shag nests,
and all of these had either eggs or young too small to ring.
We
worked our way around the south west side of the islet checking some of
the auk
boulders. Several Razorbills and Guillemots flew from the boulders as
we
approached, but Paul managed to catch an adult Guillemot under a
boulder where
there was one egg and a small chick. Further along Catherine managed to
find a
Puffin under a crack in a large rock. She stuck her arm in and the
Puffin
attached itself to the end of one of her fingers. It remained attached
as she
withdrew her arm…resulting in an adult Puffin being ringed.
The
Puffins appeared to have come to L’Etac very late in 2008, and
although present
in good numbers (George Guille had counted c 50 birds on some of his
recent
boat trips around the islet) it wasn’t clear how many of these
birds were
breeding. Further
around an adult Razorbill was caught standing over its chick in a rock
crevice
at the north end of the stack. Although c 30 Guillemots were present on
the
water, the general impression was of an unsuccessful season for them on
L’Etac,
as several broken egg shells were found, and only a couple of active
breeding
pairs were located on the visit.
Working
across the ridge of the islet we expected to find a few Great
Black-backed
Gulls, but were disappointed. In the end the only chick we found was at
the
southern end just above the sea.
Clearly
it had been a very poor seabird season on L’Etac this year,
although the
ringing of an adult Razorbill, Guillemot and Puffin was very much
appreciated.
Leaving
the dive team behind on their boat, we sped across the narrow sound to
reach
Breniere. Several well-grown gull chicks could be seen as we approached
raising
hopes that the gulls, at least, were having a reasonable season. We
slowly
worked around the rock from the high tide mark to the ridge, ringing a
total of
21 Herring and eight Lesser Black-backed gulls. Although the majority
of gull
pulli were straightforward to identify, some of the birds had wing
patterns
that were very difficult to determine. We found only one Great
Black-backed
Gull chick on the rock.
After
ringing the gulls on Breniere, we worked our way slowly back along
Sark’s east
coast to the harbour, where we tied up for lunch in the harbour
café. Then we
headed out to Moie de Lache, just outside the harbour. This small rock
was easy
to ring – 10 Herring and two Lesser Black-backed gulls. One of
the large chicks
headed into the sea and paddled strongly away from the rock. This in
itself was
not a problem, for the sea was very calm and the bird would easily be
able to
paddle back. However, when it was 80 metres away it attracted the
attention of
an adult Great Black-backed Gull. Fortunately the parent Herring Gull
was with
the chick and defended it until we could reach it to pluck it from the
sea and
return it safely to its natal rock.
Next
stop was Grande Moie, which is always a pretty difficult stack to
cover. There
was a flotilla of 18 Razorbills just off the rocks, and several up on
inaccessible rock cracks – a really strong showing for the
species. On the rock
we only found two Herring Gull chicks large enough to ring. Again the
shag
nests were all empty – the nesting efforts on Grande Moie had
come to nothing.
La
Petite Moie was also pretty barren, with a few small Lesser
Black-backed Gull
chicks the only youngsters seen. Unfortunately our favourite auk
boulders on
this rock were totally deserted (just broken egg shells).
The
final landing place was Banquette Landing, where the Lesser
Black-backed Gull
colony numbered c 10 pairs. We managed to find three chicks to ring
(two of
which were large enough to also take colour rings…the first
pulli to be so
ringed under the project commenced in 2008).
With
the ringing work done Andy and Paul enjoyed tea and gache on
Andy’s yacht in
Greve de la Ville, while Catherine braved the waters for a swim.
All
too soon it was time to return to the harbour to catch the 6 pm boat
back to
Guernsey.
With
50 birds ringed (47 gulls and one each of the three breeding auk
species), the
day had been only modestly successful. However, it had been very
important to
record the 2008 seabird season on the rocks around Sark, and it had, as
ever,
been a hugely enjoyable day out with Andy in Seamouse.
