A GREAT Send-off

They have been with us since we arrived on Gough in September 2016, but soon the island will be empty of Great Shearwaters. For the last couple of weeks, the chicks of Gough 62 have been leaving the safety of their burrows for the last time and flying out into the Atlantic. Considering we only found our first hatched chicks at the very beginning of January, it's been a bit of a marathon for our wonderful adults to raise their youngsters.

February (David Kinchin-Smith)

April (Em Witcutt)

The Base on Gough is surrounded by Great Shearwater burrows. It has been fantastic to walk along the boardwalks at night throughout the season and have adults landing (sometimes not particularly gracefully) all around you, listening to their wailing cries. With very few adults now feeding the remaining chicks, the nights are quieter but we are lucky enough to see the fledglings emerge from their burrows each night and make their way to the cliff edges and out to sea.

And now.....(David Kinchin-Smith)

Adult (Top), Fledgling (Bottom) (DKS)

The spectacle of 2 million Great Shearwaters returning to Gough to pair up and clean burrows will be one of the first sights which greet the Gough 63 team come September. And still, after many months on the island, it is perhaps the sight I feel most privileged to have witnessed.....what a bird!

Just how many!? (David Kinchin-Smith)

David

The Many Varied & Awkward Phases of Albatross Puberty (Part 2)

There comes a time in every young albatross' life when they move out of the 'cute chick' phase and enter the 'slightly awkward teenager' phase. In an earlier blog we presented this unfortunate stage in our recently departed Mollys. Now comes the turn of the Sootys, who are only just beginning to fledge from Gough.

Personally, I don't believe that albatross puberty hits the Sootys quite as hard as it does are Mollys, but I'll leave that for you to judge after looking at the photographs below. We're still treated to some excellent hairstyles which I'm sure the birds are only too keen to shed!

Still quite adorable (David Kinchin-Smith)

Getting attitude (David Kinchin-Smith)

Getting fatter (David Kinchin-Smith)

Imperious (David Kinchin-Smith)

Confused (David Kinchin-Smith)

Prepare yourself for the next 3......

Awkward (David Kinchin-Smith)

Alarming (Em Witcutt)

Gandalf! (David Kinchin-Smith)

Fortunately, this difficult stage is over for many of Gough's Sootys. We're still waiting on our first fledgling from the study colony but the chicks are getting close; there is much flapping of wings to help them build up the muscles that they'll need to take that leap of faith and sore out to sea! The penultimate image is the stage that many of the birds are at now, with just a few wisps of a receding hair line and beard remaining. The final image is what our birds can look forward to in a few years time, because adults look magnificent!

Relief! (David Kinchin-Smith)

To strange people like us....perfection (David Kinchin-Smith)

David

The other invasive species....

A distinct lack of Albatrosses today... we thought it was about time for us to write about the other, none-birdy side of our work. There is an invasive plant called Sagina procumbens on the island, and there has been a project underway since 2000 to eradicate it. 

A Sagina plant (David Kinchin-Smith)

An infested area of bare earth (David Kinchin-Smith)

On the mainland Sagina is a small, harmless looking weed but if it gains a foothold on remote islands it can take over, forming dense mats through which nothing else can grow. It can fundamentally and irreversibly change the biology of island ecosystems, so is potentially a huge threat to the rare wildlife that calls Gough home. Because of this, a large chunk of our time is spent spraying this insignificant looking plant with herbicide in the hope of banishing it from this island. Its distribution has been limited to a 400m stretch of coastline close to our base, but we are still hoping to completely eradicate it. The area is divided into foot zones and rope drop areas, which we access by abseiling down onto the sea cliffs.

One of the most exciting parts of our job- abseiling down sea-cliffs on the hunt for Sagina (David Kinchin-Smith)

Snoekgat (Em Witcutt)

Snoekgat- the worst affected foot zone (Em Witcutt)

Looking back towards Snoekgat after a day of spraying (Em Witcutt)

It's not all about removing plants with herbicide, we also have measures in place to prevent the spread of Sagina to other areas of the island. It can be carried on shoes and clothing, so we limit visits to infested areas for the whole team, and anyone visiting a Sagina zone has to wear specific clothing that is then never worn in any other part of the island. Newcomers to the island attend a 'boot washing ceremony' on the boat to prevent more seeds being brought here from elsewhere. We also have salt water foot baths at every entrance to the Base to be used by anyone staying on the island. Hopefully our efforts will pay off, and we’ll leave this island with a little less of this troublesome plant than there was when we arrived!

Em