Time To Say Goodbye

Apologies for the lack of blog posts recently, internet has been down in the South Atlantic for the last two and a half weeks; it’s amazing that we have internet out here at all!

Anyway, this post was supposed to be from a few weeks ago, so here it is now…..

Mid-winter’s day has just passed and the island has most definitely entered the quieter winter period. All Mollys have departed and more recently we said goodbye to our final Sooty fledgling. Our first Molly egg was laid in the study colony on 22^nd September 2016 and the final fledgling departed on 24^th April 2017. Our first Sooty egg was laid in the study colony on 30^th September 2016 and the final fledgling left the island on 8^th June 2017.

Neither of us have had the pleasure to monitor a species for such a long time before. It has been fascinating to watch these chicks grow over the months, and we have watched our albatross friends leave Gough with fairly mixed emotions.

Below are some final photos of this season’s birds, including the moment when one of our young Mollys took its first ever flight, after months of patiently waiting on the ground.

A final wing test (David Kinchin-Smith)

Lift off! (David Kinchin-Smith)

What a feeling! (David Kinchin-Smith)

And out into the Atlantic (David Kinchin-Smith)

Practice makes perfect (David Kinchin-Smith)

One final Sooty (David Kinchin-Smith

An adult....but you get the idea (David Kinchin-Smith)

David