You Big Softy!

Apologies for the wait for these latest instalments from Gough. It appears January isn’t a good month for internet out here!

We also apologise for this terrible title. The blog today is about our Soft-plumaged Petrels so if you can think of a better pun for the title please leave a comment. Clearly today isn’t a day for eloquence.

But first thing's first - we mentioned in the blog at the start of the month that our prions would soon be hatching. So here are a few photos of our adorable chicks from Prion Cave yesterday……

Little.... (David Kinchin-Smith)

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

One proud parent (David Kinchin-Smith)

The prions never fare particularly well on Gough but more chicks have hatched than we were expecting so it bodes well for the rest of the season.

So over to a new species for the blog and another stunner, the Soft-plumaged Petrel. We were followed by ‘Softies’ for most of the voyage out to Gough, and they have one of the most exuberant flight styles of any of the petrels, looping all over the place rather erratically! Like many of the burrow nesters on the island, softies return to the island after dark to avoid predation. And it is the whistles and wails from them and our Great Shearwaters which serenade us each night.

One smart petrel! (David Kinchin-Smith)

They are a relatively small petrel and as such have smaller burrow entrances which can be quite difficult to find. Eggs are laid between November and December and should be hatching any time now. However, from our monitored burrows, all birds are still on eggs so I’m afraid there aren’t any pictures of chicks just yet. Once the chick hatches it is brooded for around the first week. It is then fed by both adults until it fledges at around 3 months old.

One of our incubating adults (David Kinchin-Smith)

A sneak peak of the egg (David Kinchin-Smith)

We will keep you posted of the progress of our softies. With an estimated 400,000 pairs on Gough you can imagine the racket each night! And by racket, I mean the best lullaby ever!

David

Signed, SEALed, Delivered...

Apologies for the long gap in our posts, it's been a hectic few weeks here on the island. We've had visitors!! A National Geographic expedition to research and film on all four islands in the Tristan group came to Gough last week, so we've been busy showing them as much of the incredible wildlife here as possible before they had to leave to head back north to Tristan da Cunha. It was so nice to see new faces, and to be able to show our lovely island and all of its inhabitants off!

It’s not just birds that come to Gough to breed; we also share the island with Subantarctic Fur Seals. Our beaches are currently swarming with dense colonies of seals, whose pups are around 35 days old at the moment. The larger males have been around since October and have been fighting to maintain their territories and gather their harems. They will head back to sea around the end of January, by which time the females will have given birth to their pups and will be pregnant again.  These colonies are noisy, smelly places, with about 300,000 seals spread across the island. In fact, Gough holds around 80% of the population of the species.

Our beaches are full of adult Fur Seals at the moment (Em Witcutt)

Recently we headed down to the beaches to weigh 100 of the very sweet pups. They weigh about 6kg when they are first born, and put on weight very quickly so are currently around 9kg. We’ll return at set intervals throughout the year to reweigh the growing pups and check on their progress. They will remain on the beaches for around 10 months, after which they will head out to sea and not return for at least 4 years. 

Nahhhhhh, little cuties (Em Witcutt)

A curious pup coming to investigate at lunch time (Em Witcutt)

More soon...

Em

Mysterious Cave Dwellers

Seabirds living in caves? Surely not!

Prions nest all over Gough, from burrows to rocky crevices, and the main study colony just so happens to be in a cave. These delightful birds are one of the most numerous on Gough and there may be some two million pairs on the island!

Outside the cave.....(David Kinchin-Smith)

......and inside (David Kinchin-Smith)

Prions are a small, blue-grey petrel with a fairly remarkable bill. Known as ‘Whalebirds’, a combination of filtering lamellae and an expandable gular pouch in their broad bills means that these birds are able to filter feed like, as Ryan et al. (2007) aptly puts it, “a tiny baleen whale”.

Until very recently, Broad-billed Prions were thought to be the only breeding prion species on Gough. However, research by Ryan et al. (2014) over the course of a few years revealed evidence for two separate prion species on Gough. The prions breeding in the main study colony of Prion Cave were shown to be significantly smaller billed and bred some three months later than those elsewhere on the island. The Prion Cave birds are more similar in size and their timing of breeding to Macgillivray’s prions, a species found on Amsterdam and St Paul islands in the temperate Indian Ocean. There is still so much waiting to be discovered on the island, and our prions are just one of Gough’s many mysteries.

Magnificent Macgillivray's! (David Kinchin-Smith)

The closely related Broad-billed Prion (David Kinchin-Smith)

Each year, around 50 prion nests are monitored in the Cave. The first eggs were discovered in late November and we will hopefully be welcoming our first chicks over the next couple of weeks.

Pair-bonding at the start of the season (David Kinchin-Smith)

Followed by preparing the nest (David Kinchin-Smith)

And now incubating an egg! (David Kinchin-Smith)

David

Reference.

Ryan, P. G. et al. (2014) The occurrence of two bill morphs of prions Pachyptila vittata
on Gough Island. Polar Biol (2014) 37:727–735

Ryan, P. et al. (2007) Field Guide to the Animals and Plants of Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island

Atlantic Au Revoir

It’s another goodbye blog from us today; this time to our Atlantic Petrels. One of the jobs we’ve been working on recently has been to revisit our Atlantic Petrel study burrows to count the number of chicks who have made it to fledging age. This gives us an idea of how successful the breeding season has been. We can compare this to data from previous years to see what is happening in the long term.

Hunting for Atlantic Petrel burrows (David Kinchin-Smith)

Atlantic Petrel burrows are big; one of the signs we look out for (David Kinchin-Smith)

Atlantic Petrels are one of the more mysterious of the birds on Gough, and are also one of the most threatened. They nest underground in large burrows, only returning to the island under cover of darkness. There are many unanswered questions about how these birds live, and how we can protect them. They are endemic to the Tristan island chain, with the overwhelming majority breeding on Gough (around 1.8 million pairs). They are also Critically Endangered. This is mostly because mice predate a large proportion of chicks before they are old enough to fend for themselves. Sadly, very few will ever grow old enough to leave the island and fly out to the Ocean that they are named for. Because such a large proportion are reliant on Gough the threat our mice pose to the species cannot be underestimated. If our population was to disappear, it is likely that Atlantic Petrels would become extinct.

An adult Atlantic Petrel (David Kinchin-Smith)

Atlantic Petrels return to the island around March, and lay one egg towards the end of June, often in the same burrow that they used in previous years. The chicks hatch in August and will not fledge for 135 days, an extraordinarily long time for this size bird.

An Atlantic Petrel chick (Em Witcutt)

More soon on another of our burrow nesters; the Soft-Plumaged Petrel. In the meantime, have a very merry Christmas! 

Em

Gony, Gony, Gone!

Not too many words in this blog. Just some nice pictures to celebrate all things albatross! We’ve just returned from a trip to Gonydale to do a final fledgling count of our Gonys (Tristan albatrosses), and there really weren’t many left. However, as one season draws to a close, the next begins……adult Tristans are returning to Gonydale in some number, pairing up and prospecting for nests. And we should have eggs by the end of the month! 

Pairs which have successfully raised a chick this year will take this next season off in order to moult and recover body condition. That means the adults returning to Gough now will likely be birds which failed to raise a chick in 2016 or were successful last year.We will bring you news (and pictures) of this next season’s Gony chicks once they hatch. Incubation will last some two and a half months and once hatched the chicks will not fly for around eight to nine months!

But in the meantime……..we have our first Sooty Albatross chicks! The first was discovered on 4^th December (also my sister's Birthday!) and chicks have been popping up along Gough's sea cliffs during the last week. Chicks will be brooded for the next couple of weeks and will remain with us until fledging around April/May. So enough words, here are some photos……

David

A Gony family at Gonydale (David Kinchin-Smith)

Still downy a few weeks ago (David Kinchin-Smith)

Not long until take-off (David Kinchin-Smith)

Huge feet! Or small hands.....(David Kinchin-Smith)

Taken at a respectful distance (David Kinchin-Smith)

One proud parent (David Kinchin-Smith)

Our Molly chicks growing fast! (David Kinchin-Smith)

Mini-Molly

Exciting news from the island today… we have our very first Yellow-Nosed Albatross chick!!

STOP PRESS: New-borns on Gough Island (Em Witcutt)

Found during my regular monitoring rounds, it was something of a relief to spot a tiny bundle of grey fluff in place of an egg. The first egg was found on the 22^nd September, and Molly’s usually have to incubate for between 64 and 70 days before the eggs hatch. This means that chicks could have arrived any time from about a week and a half ago, and I’ve been waiting with baited breath! My monitoring colony has 5 chicks, and there are plenty more appearing all over the island. I also came across a good number of eggs in the process of hatching; the chicks hidden inside making very sweet ‘pipping’ noises to their parents, and even some with holes in the eggshell.  Hatching can be a lengthy process, but I’m hoping that many more will have broken free by the time I next visit the colony.

Caught in the act; a hatching egg (Em Witcutt)

Molly chicks are very sweet. Tiny and defenceless at the moment, they are entirely dependent on their parents for food, warmth and protection from the ever-present Skuas, who would sweep them up in an instant if given the opportunity. The adults will continue to take turns in caring for the youngster for now. However, the chicks will grow quickly, and will soon be too big for the Skuas to handle. 

Their parents will then leave them to fend for themselves, and both head out to sea in search of food for their offspring. This change in behaviour is timed to perfection. As the chick grows, so will it’s need for food. Soon enough one adult would no longer be able to satisfy their greedy youngster, and both are needed to meet its demands.

A proud parent examining its prize (Em Witcutt)

Our chicks won’t be leaving us until April, when they may not return to land for eight years. Expect plenty of pictures as they grow…

Ahhhhh.... (Em Witcutt)

Em


PS It's taken so long for the internet to let me load this post that by now we have over 20 chicks! 

Mind Your Head!

If there’s one bird not to mess with on Gough, it’s the Tristan Skua. Despite being dwarfed by our larger albatross species and Giant Petrels, they are one of the most powerful predators on the island. And it’s not just the other wildlife that falls victim to the skuas; after just a few months in the South Atlantic we have been clattered on the head more than a few times by these territorial birds. This is because over the last month their eggs have been hatching and small chicks have been appearing around the island. So we can’t really blame the skuas for their attacks as they are excellent parents, simply protecting their chicks. It’s just unfortunate that a number of pairs choose to make their nests on the paths, or very close to them!

What you looking at!? (David Kinchin-Smith)

Fleeing for our lives (Em Witcutt)

Tristan Skuas are very similar in appearance and behaviour to Great Skuas (or Bonxies) back at home in the UK. They are thought of as a subspecies of the Subantarctic Skua and Falkland Skua and, fortunately, are one species which isn’t threatened out here. Gough is home to about 1000 pairs with another few hundred non-breeders which gather in groups around the island called ‘clubs’.

Our helipad is one of our busiest skua ‘clubs’ (David Kinchin-Smith)

Skuas are only really capable of incubating two eggs, which they do so by resting them on their feet. Both adults take their turn, with incubation lasting about a month. We discovered our first eggs on 1^st October. Our chicks will fledge after a couple of months of care from their parents, being fed a wide variety of Gough Island seabird delicacies. Adults employ a number of tactics to obtain this food, be it catching birds in flight during the day, walking around and listening to movement at night or even digging up burrows of our underground species. Our chicks will eventually join our skua ‘clubs’ and some birds may even remain on the island for the rest of the year - one of the few species to do so.

An incubating bird earlier this year (David Kinchin-Smith)

Just one week old (David Kinchin-Smith)

It is understandable to have mixed feelings towards Tristan Skuas after discovering their prey carcasses all over the island. However, they are the consummate survivor, devoted parents and need to feed like anything else. They are great birds and have definitely earned my respect.....and that’s not just because of the bruises on my head!

Displaying - wings raised and raucous call (David Kinchin-Smith)

David

Reference.
Ryan, P. et al. (2007) Field Guide to the Animals and Plants of Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island