This year’s fieldwork for the black guillemot project came to an end. Although we have not started with the analyses yet, when comparing this year’s with last year’s ringing totals one may wonder if something is amiss. First of all, even though we were more experienced in discovering nests, we found fewer occupied nests this year, 29 vs. 36 last year. However, this year has been uncommonly wet and a number of spots that were used for nests last year were inundated for part of this season... We were pleased to see though that some of the nest boxes we supplied were occupied.
Second, this year we ringed 24 young, whilst we managed to ring double that amount last year! The question rises whether there were not enough suitable nest sites this year due to some sites being unavailable because of the bad weather. I will request some funding to quantify the availability of nest sites on the islands. Perhaps we need to invest some time and money in creating more artificial nest sites. Furthermore, several young disappeared during this year’s fieldwork. It is unlikely that they have become increasingly good in hiding from us, so a number may have been predated upon since we did not find any remains. Hopefully the cameras placed near the nests may clarify their faith!
Second, this year we ringed 24 young, whilst we managed to ring double that amount last year! The question rises whether there were not enough suitable nest sites this year due to some sites being unavailable because of the bad weather. I will request some funding to quantify the availability of nest sites on the islands. Perhaps we need to invest some time and money in creating more artificial nest sites. Furthermore, several young disappeared during this year’s fieldwork. It is unlikely that they have become increasingly good in hiding from us, so a number may have been predated upon since we did not find any remains. Hopefully the cameras placed near the nests may clarify their faith!
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