Guillemots are great.  They spend the winter at sea, returning to shore for the breeding season.  They are well adapted for life at sea, and able to dive to great depths to feed.  They've had their share of trouble in recent years, what with the lack of sandeels to feed their chick on and also not having enough food to sustain them in good health through winter.  Add to the food shortage is the threat of being attacked by aerial predators such as skuas or large gulls. They are, however, one of natures wee toughies. Last night though, I witnessed a few vulnerable wee souls taking to the sea  - jumplings. 

 "Jumplings" is the name given to the chicks as they depart the colony.  Simon King and his wife and fellow broadcaster Marguerite were at Sumburgh Head to film the action.  They were filming the guillemots for a sequence in "Shetland Diaries with Simon King" to be broadcast 2010.  I've a dreadful habit of yapping the whole time, so I stayed well away at the other end of the reserve.  You may have seen some of Sumbrugh Head's jumplings on "Killer Whales in the UK?" presented by Gordon Buchanan.  It was broadcast three times on BBC2 in 2008.  They used the 1980s pop hit "Jump" (can't remember who it was by - Van Halen or Aerosmith maybe?) as a theme tune. 

At around 9pm, I noticed I'd missed my first jumpling jump!  On the surface of the sea was an adult guillemot (it is always the male which accompanies the chick) with it's three week old chick by its side.  Together they started paddling on the flat calm sea, heading south east.  I continued scanning the stack and cliffs, which are crammed with thousands of guillemots.  At the base of the stack was a looming presence of a great black-backed gull.  Now and then, a herring gull would land in the colony often to be shooed away by daggerlike beaks.  The fog was gently lifting and falling, adding to the midsummer atmosphere that is so special to Shetland.  After a while, I spotted an adult bird, carefully leading its chick down the slope and ledges of the stack.  Five minutes passed, until the chick was almost at the waters edge a few metres above the sea.  It hesitated, then "Hop" it leapt of the edge and had it's first contact with the sea.  Immediately, the father took to its side and they too headed south east.  A moment later, I spotted a single chick all on its own in the sea paddling this way and that.  I felt anxious for it, wondering what had become of its parent who could help protect it from the omnipresent black backed gull.  I could see various birds on the water a few metres away.  The chick seemed to gather itself together and headed towards the group of birds.  I saw one with a fish swimming towards it, only to totally ignore it!  But relief came a few seconds later when another bird approached the bird and father and chick were reunited and left the reserve.

We were delighted when we spotted the first fluffy grey razorbill chicks on the cliffs of Rathlin Island on 15 June. This is the same date as the previous earliest recorded hatching date at this colony.

Chicks that hatch early are generally considered to belong to good quality parents but for one, this was certainly not the case. Firstly, the brooding adult fell off its ledge taking the chick with it. Luckily both had a soft landing on a patch of grass. However, as soon as both settled down, a lesser black-backed gull came along, scared the parents away and quickly gobbled up the chick. The majority of razorbill chicks have survived the first traumatic weeks of life and parents are frantically providing them with mouthfuls of juicy sandeels, just like you see in the classic 'puffin with fish' photos. One parent was so keen to take advantage of the abundant fish that it even tried to feed a bill-full to an egg! The chick hatched the next day.

The first guillemot chick was seen on 19 June which was 10 days earlier than last year. Most guillemot chicks are being fed small fish from the cod family as well as sprats and herrings.

Despite everyone assuming that most kittiwakes are nesting later this year, with many still building nests only last week, the first kittiwake chick was seen on exactly the same day as last year (27 June).  

On my day off yesterday, I has planned a leisurely day of housework, gardening, dog walking and beached bird surveys.  Beach bird surveys take place on the last Sunday of every month in Shetland.  Organised by SOTEAG/Aberdeen University, people walk various lengths of coastline in Shetland, recording dead birds.  Birds are identified (species and where possible age), checked for signs of oil (which is seldomly seen these days), and rings (there are a number of seabird ringing programmes in the North Atlantic area).  In the case of fulmars which are intact we collect them for stomach content analysis, and eiders are collected for DNA sampling. Martin Heubeck works with the data gathered and is in regular communication with other scientists overseas.  This adds to the picture of what is going on in the sea.

 Anyhow, all plans for the day were ditched when at midday I heard there were killer whales (orca) of Sumburgh Head.  A tour company had briefly spotted a group of five or so indivduals beneath the cliffs, but the elusive whales had vanished.  Malcie and Martha (our North Isles wardens) happened to be at my house, so with them and my pal Harriet we trotted off hoping to see them.  I contacted a couple of folk (including natural history broadcaster Simon King and his wife Marguerite), and we positioned ourselves at various points around the coast.  However, an hour or so of watching from Sumburgh Head and nearby Scatness was fruitless,so we headed to our respective homes.

Half an hour later or so, I get a phone call - the whales had been spotted far offshore about two miles north of Sumburgh Head!!   Harriet and I headed to my parents house, and managed to get reasonable but distant views of the whales which appeared to be "playing" next to a yacht.  Yesterday, I should mention, had the calmest seas and sunniest skies I've seen in a long time, and the presence of many sailing boats made it easier to point out the group of whales to passing walkers and day-trippers.  The whales seemed to lose interest in the yacht, making their way slowly north.  I met up with Simon, Marguerite and camerawoman Alison in a passing place a mile north of my parents house.  From here we could see the whales (again way off in the distance), breaching, tail flapping and being fairly active.  With Simon's superduper megazoom camera, he could see that it looked like the whales had a porpoise or dolphin with them, either leaping or being whacked out of the sea. 

It's yet another beautiful day in Shetland, with temperatures hitting 20degrees!!  I've been in the office this morning, but did have an interesting interuption.  A young holidaying Dutch couple knocked at the door to alert us that a puffin had flown into the telegraph wire, crashed to the ground and was wandering around trying to find a route back to the clifftop.  Much of Sumburgh Head reserve is bordered by dry-stone walls and it was unable to find its way.  I accompanied the couple to the viewing platform where the puffin was now standing, and with their help managed to catch the puffin.  It was able to move rather quickly, but unable to take flight fully.  Once I had a hold of it, a quick check revealed it was uninjured.  The feisty spirit was certainly intact, and it managed to grip my hand in a vice-like grip with its fantastic beak.  The puffin had no intention of releasing its grip, and the gentleman carefully prised it off my hand.  I released the bird over the wall, and it immediately launched itself from the cliff top looking non the worse.  Unlike me, as I am now proudly sporting two puncture marks on my left hand. 

Have a good weekend!

Helen