Excursion to Carn Mór to see Leach Petrels

The Leach (storm) Petrel (Oceanodroma leucorhoa) is a member of the
tubenose family. They are nocturnal birds on their breeding sites to avoid predation from Gulls and Skua's, although unfortunately on St. Kilda the Great Skua adapted his behaviour by chasing them at night. The breeding population of Leach Petrels on St. Kilda declined, where the population of Great Skua increased.

Outside the breeding season, Leach petrels are strictly pelagic, which means they are always at sea.
Because of their remote breeding sites, the chances of seeing Leach petrels is small. That is why I am so excited about this opportunity.

It is after 11.00 PM when Gina turns up for the excursion. We leave in almost dark; the petrels won't show themselves before dark, and Gina doesn't promise we will see them at all.

On our way up we suddenly hear a single petrel. The sound is mechanical, like an old taperecorder getting stuck. I couldn't make a picture because of the dark, but I did make a recording of the sound.

After twenty minutes or so, more petrels awake, and from several cleits we hear the clicking sounds of the petrels. Now they start to fly over us too, fast and swift like bats.

We enjoy this spectacle for about three quarters of an hour, and we begin to feel cold. At the end of the show a manx shearwater shouts, which I never heard before; it sounds like a heavy smoker.

On our way back we also hear the storm petrel, another family member, but smaller and with another rump pattern and flight.

After arriving home we have a short drink with Gina and the others. Its about two o'clock when I go to bed. I found this evening very exciting!

Puffins

Puffin at Oiseval St.Kilda

The Arctic Puffin (Fratercula arctica) is a member of the Alcidae or Auk family. In Gaellic they are called Buthaid. Apart from their unmistakable colourfull bill, their bright orange feet are equally striking. They are really amusing to look at. They are not real good flyers, and they have difficulties to fly off from the surface of the water as well as to land.

On St. Kilda the colony of Puffins is the largest breeding concentration of Puffins in Britain. The majority breeds on Boreray and Soay, but on Dún are also large numbers, and Dún is more accessible for investigation. Puffins breed on the slopes in burrows they dig out themselves. They usually lay only one egg. After about 40 days from hatching, the pufflins fledge. The parents don't abandon  the chicks, but they are feeding them less food. Especially in darker and mistier nights, these young pufflins are attracted to the sounds and the lights in the street on Hirtha.
Since 1973 until 1996 these stranded young Puffins were collected, counted, ringed and weighted in order to studie the breeding success and fledging conditions of Puffins (Harris, Murray & Wanless, Bird Study, 1998).

The results show a decline in breeding success and condition of the young Puffins in the period between 1973 - 1998. Successfull breeding and good condition of chicks depend on the time the breeding season for the Puffins start and the amount of Sprat in the diet of young Puffins.
Puffins on St. Kilda start breeding later when the temperature of the sea is warmer. The later the Puffins start to breed, the smaller the breeding success. More Sprat in the diet of Puffin makes the young Puffins heavier.
Whether there is also an influence of predation by the increasing amount of Bonxies in the period, is not considered in the study.

In the "Seabird and Marine Ranger Annual Report St. Kilda 2013" Gina Prior describes a research on breeding success of Puffins she conducted in 2013 on Dùn.
The conclusion of this research is the same; a decline in breeding success and lighter fledglings. This trend is not just seen on St. Kilda, but also on Skomer, Isle of May and Fair Isle, although the breeding success there is better than on St. Kilda.
She doesn't consider the start of the breeding season in her research.

In the pub someone told me he found a pufflin once, but didn't recognise it. Young Puffins are entirely black, and they don't have the distinct white/black head and colourfull bill yet.

Day 12; June the 15th

As planned, we get up early to do yoga in a flat enclosure behind the street. We borrow some sheets,  Flo brings her yoga-app, and Martin lends us his speaker. Cath, Flo, Mike, Liz and me make our way to the enclosure. It must have been an awkward sight on St.Kilda!
Back on our bare feet trhrough the soft wet peaty ground.

It is Sunday, and we don't work today. Together with Mike I make a walk to Oiseval to see the puffins, and hopefully take a good picture of one. The puffins are very amusing to look at. They fly around with those bright orange feet attempting to land, but they don't seem to dare to. I think we are sitting on their burrow. Finally one does, and we stand up to have a better look. A pocket with lens starts tumbling down and falls into the water. When we go down, we see it still floats in the kelp. Mike gets into the water to get it out. We rinse it with fresh water and hope the best of it.

We decide to go find the remnants of the beaked whale. According to Paul the skull is hidden somewhere in one of the cleits. He doesn't know which one. We already found some backbones in another cleit, so we inspect the cleits nearby.

Vertebrae of the beaked whale

When we find the skull, there is still soft material on, and it smells awful!

The skull of the stranded beaked whale

We make another short walk along the beach and chat a little.
Tonight, after dinner we will make an excursion with Gina to Carn Mór and hopefully see the Leach Petrels.

Day 11; the rest of the Saturday

Officially it is a working day, but we don't really do anything anymore. Mike is having cleaning duties. He pretends to be mad with me for beating him in the race, and Flo isn't very subtle remembering him in and out of season that he is beaten by a "tiny Dutch lady".  For the rest of the days on St. Kilda this remains a teasing joke between us.

I take the opportunity to wash a few items and in the afternoon Liz, Helen, Rachel and me make a walk to Conachair. On or way back we meet Flo and Stephen and together we return to the street. We make plans for a yoga session tomorrow. Flo has got a yoga app on her IPad.

Me, Steven and Flo

After dinner I can't resist a visit to the pub, and neither do the others.
It might seem I've become a pretty heavy drinker, but that is not the case. The consumption of alcohol is restricted on the island. You are allowed only one consumption at the time, so you can't really stand drinks. I drink a glass of wine with Mike and we chat over the race this morning. I tease him a bit, but he is a very sportive, and I know I just won because I am so much lighter in weight than he is.

Tomorrow we get up early for the yoga session, so at closing time we go home and to bed.