After the storms of last week we are now back to normal weather conditions for June. Lovely sunshine and warm days at the moment here at South Stack. Unfortunately our Razorbill cam was moved slightly by the gales over last weekend and is now not quite central on the Razorbill ledge. Because of the proximity of the camera to the breeding colony we are unable to correct this at the moment , as we don't want to disturb the birds. There is still a good view of the razorbill pair and the chick so please keep watching! The chick is growing fast!
The team here at South Stack are very excited to announce that the egg from Razorbill cam has hatched!!! Yesterday afternoon, at about 5pm we witnessed the first cracks starting to appear in the egg and this morning we arrived to see a fluffy little addition to the family! Mum (or dad!) started doing a lot of shuffling about and chattering and seemed to be checking the eggs progress often, as those first cracks started to appear.
The egg was laid on 2nd May and was incubated for 34 days. Mum and dad razorbill have worked really hard already and continue to do so now the chick has hatched bringing in sand eels today of which the chick ate 4 a few hours ago!! Where do they put it all?
Razorbills start heading back to South Stack Cliffs at the end of March to check out the nesting grounds and start laying late April, early May. Eggs are incubated for 30-36 days and the chick will spend 17-23 days with the parents at the nest site before heading out to sea with dad.
So, for the next 18 days or so we will have the pleasure of watching our little Razorbill chick as it feeds, grows and starts to explore its surroundings until it finally leaves the nest under dads watchful gaze. As I write this, little chick is tucked safely under a parent’s wing keeping warm. For the first couple of days it will spend most of its time there.
To keep a check on its progress, log on to our website at www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/s/southstackcliffs/ and see the live webcam link!
Before you go!! Help us choose a name for our Razorbill chick by sending your suggestions in to our blog, facebook or twitter pages at;
www.facebook.com/RSPBsouthstack
twitter.com/RSPBSouthStack