Sophie, Paul and
Catherine visited Sark on 9th June 2007.
The day began with an early start to catch the 8am boat over
through thick sea fog, so no sea views.
However a scrumptious breakfast at Aval de Creux with Andy Cook
lifted our
spirits as we planned the operation.
First visit would be by dingy to Les Burons which proved that
seabirds
were few and far between with the grand total of one Great Black Backed
Gull
chick ringed from under the same rock as last year.
The Shags had evidently decided not to breed this year with only
three nests found and five chicks, all too small to ring.
Again the turf at the top of Les Burons
showed good signs of possible Storm Petrel burrows although no
conclusive
evidence.
Sophie picked us up off
the islet under the expert tutelage of Andy and we headed back to the
sailing
boat. Jo Birch, a local naturalist, was
already on board, keen to accompany us to L’Etac
de Serk so that she could photograph the
stone building for the local society.
After a short motor down the coast, watching out all the time
for the
local Peregrines, we arrived at the moorings owned by Phil Perree from
the La
Sablonerie. Sophie again delivered us
to L’Etac de Serk in the dingy, with an easy landing at the usual
spot on the
east side of the island. From there we
began our circumnavigation around the islet working from the base
upwards. However, as we feared there were
very few
Shag nests, with only two with eggs and six with either one or two
young, all
but one of which was not large enough to ring.
Two adult
Guillemots were
cornered by Paul under their rocky nesting site just up from the
landing
spot. One egg was still present
accompanied by a number of broken shells scattered near the site,
possibly
having been predated. No Guillemots
were found in the usual colony site at the top of the islet - so also a
poor
year for Guillemots in Sark. Moving
round the islet, Paul then managed to surprise an adult Fulmar on its
nest. The contents of the Fulmar’s
nostril were spewed onto Paul’s shirt making him particularly
pleasant to sit
next to for the rest of the day! Three
Fulmars were sitting on eggs on the islet. Further around the islet,
one
Razorbill adult was cornered but not ringed due to the closeness of the
egg. This was the same site as last
year’s ringed chick (i.e. Sark side). A
few Puffins flew out of nest burrows but the ringers did not
investigate these
any further. Good numbers of Puffins
seen in rafts nearby – 20 plus. And
more than 500 adult shags also rafted a little further out at sea. Passerines present included a pair of rock
pipits which must have been breeding somewhere on the island.
The vegetation was
surprisingly sparse. Jo mentioned that
there had been little rain this year in Sark.
The mallow had very little leaf although the sea spinach was
doing
well. Catherine spotted a few fire bugs
whilst looking at empty Shag nests. A
long line of Grey Mullet circled round the rocks on the Sark side of
the islet.
Andy and Sophie came to
pick us up after about an hour having been equally unsuccessful in
their Bass
fishing exploits.
Lunch back on the boat
and a swim for Catherine and another rib ride for Sophie with
Jo’s husband Pete
(who had taken us out to L’Etac de Serk the previous year). We enjoyed good views of a pair of Peregrine
hunting feral pigeons while having a cup of tea on board.
After lunch we headed
back to the harbour (and dense fog) in order to visit the Petite Moie
and
Grande Moie. However, after some
discussion we agreed that because we only expected to find a few very
young
Shag chicks, the risk was too high of the unattended chicks cooling in
the fog. However, we enjoyed a short view
of a Honey
Buzzard being mobbed by Carrion Crows at the top of the cliff
overlooking
Andy’s mooring at Greve de la Ville.
We then headed back to
Guernsey on the 6pm service boat after a lovely day but with limited
ringing
success – a second poor season for the majority of seabirds.