Cod is Great

Hornøya seabird cliff is a true wildlife spectacle.  In seabird terms it is like the Farne Islands with knobs on (and without the hoards of people).  As we approached the island, clouds of auks lifted from the sea around us.  Once on land, waves and waves of Puffins and Guillemots wheeled around, settling on the cliffs, fighting over a scrap of precious ground and then leaping off the cliffs en masse to descend to the sea again. The mass wheeling around is accompanied by fighting in all areas.  In particular the Puffins provide some amazing fight scenes .  However, if you want to witness this activity, it is relatively short-lived for a few weeks in early spring as the birds arrive back on the cliff and claim territory.  Surveys suggest that between 100,000 and 150,000 birds breed on the island, recent surveys show 20,000 pairs of Puffin, 6,000 - 7,000 pairs of Guillemot, 400-500 pairs of Brünnich’s Guillemots and 12,000 pairs of Kittiwake. 

Boats out to the island are provided by Vardo Harbour KF (www.vardohavn.no), dropping you at a small jetty on the island.  A Biotope hide sits at the base of the cliff, cleverly designed to provide shelter in all weather conditions.  A path then winds along the base of the cliffs, with auks just above your head, and then rises up to the top of the island to provide eye-level views of the birds and then the most spectacular views of the wider area.  Undoubtedly, part of the attraction of this site is its wildness, but it should be possible to get more people to enjoy this spectacle. Increased visitor access could be achieved without detrimental effect if careful thought is given to access provision.

However, there are other less obvious and potentially much more important factors affecting the seabird populations. Luckily the seabirds in Varanger have been well studied.  The Guillemot population collapsed by more than 80% during the winter of 1986/1987, but has since steadily increased.  By contrast, there has been a large decline in Kittiwake numbers in the Varanger region since 1980.  Food availability has long been suggested to play a major role in regulating seabird populations. In general, seabirds feed on small pelagic fish and the younger age classes of larger predatory fish.   The fish species considered important on Hornøya are Capelin and Cod. When the Guillemot population collapsed in 1986/1987,  a long-term study showed that the abundance of the key fish prey was very low.  As the numbers of Guillemots increased, the study showed the annual variation in population growth could best be explained by the variation in abundance of Cod fry and Capelin. So what about the Kittiwakes?  Studies have shown that Kittiwake clutch size is a good indicator of feeding conditions.  Although clutch size of the Hornoya birds is good, they have continued to decline whilst other colonies in the region have increased.  The reason remains unclear.  However, on our own visit it was clear that Mink are numerous on the island and this should certainly be of concern.  

Fish populations are also of great importance to the local community of course; as it states on the harbour-side building at Vardo “Cod is Great”.  As you travel around the area, fish drying racks are an obvious feature. ‘Stockfish’ is an unsalted fish, especially Cod, dried by cold air and wind on wooden racks called hjell.  The drying of food is the world's oldest known preservation method and dried fish has a storage life of several years.   Stockfish is Norway's longest sustained export commodity and apparently the most profitable export over the centuries.  It is popular and widely eaten in Mediterranean countries (and by me!).

So Cod is indeed Great.   It supports the local community and the fantastic seabird populations.   The sustainable management of fish stocks are clearly paramount to this wonderful place.

Gullfest 2014

There is a lot of truth to the saying that there is no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing.  If, like me, you generally feel that temperatures of -25^o C, blizzards and cold winds are to be avoided, then think again.  With a couple of pairs of thermal long johns, a down jacket and wool socks on board, I was off to Varanger in arctic Norway to join in Gullfest 2014, the brainchild of Tormod Amundsen and Elin Taranger of Biotope.no.

This year’s event was largely a tour of the key birding sites of the region, anchored by a series of talks and events in the communities along the route.  The first stop was a traditional Norwegian cabin in the Pasvik taiga ( www.dogpower.no ), or more correctly, the first rather rapid stop was a roadside Hawk Owl just outside the airport. A good start.  It was with some trepidation that we headed for the forest cabin - what it lacked in electricity, it made up for in forest birds - Pine Grosbeaks, Siberian Tit, Willow Tit, Arctic Redpoll, Northern Bullfinch and Siberian Jay.  All at point blank range - a feature of the whole trip.  With the feeders around the cabin kept nicely stocked with seed, birds were coming and going all day. A lack of light pollution, a starry night, -25^o C, the Northern Lights and a Reindeer stew cooked by our hosts all added to the experience.

Hornøya seabird cliff is simply mind blowing. 100,000 seabirds were arriving to claim their tiny cliff ledge territories.  Waves and waves of Puffins and Guillemots wheeled around and around, settling on the cliffs, fighting over a scrap of precious ground and then descending to the sea again en masse. Brunnich's and Black Guillemots, Razorbills, Shag and Kittiwakes add to the throng, with Glaucous Gulls and, if you're lucky (we weren’t), Gyr Falcon overhead.

Then out by boat into the Eider Vortex. Now I am not an ‘OMG’ person; it's a bit cringe-worthy, but, OMG!  Around 25,000 Common and King Eiders flying past, over and behind you is one of THE wildlife spectacles to be found anywhere.  As it turned out, it was even more OMG than usual, as Tormod later spotted a Pacific Eider in his photographs that must have flown by us on the day. I’m still searching through mine!

Places like the Vadsø fjordhotel ' The Birders Basecamp' (www.vadsoefjordhotell.no ) make it easy.  Bloat out on the local food (Reindeer heart and asparagus with crowberry for starters -yum) then sort out the next day’s birding.  The locals used to have two words for birds; måse and titting (big birds - little birds) but now they have a 'what's about' board in reception.  The best was saved for last – a morning in the floating hide at Båtsfjord – but more of this later.  Overall, this was a great trip; fantastic birds, fabulous birding company and frozen toes (okay just joking).  I want to go again.  Huge thanks to Tormod and Elin for organizing it all.

Sunken hides

Meeting up with Tormod and Elin of Biotope last year has inspired a lot of discussion on the form and function of observation hides and viewing platforms.  We are looking at bringing some of their ideas to the UK and one of the tough parts of my job is that I now have to go up to Varanger, Norway next week for Gullfest 2014 in order to get a close view of some of their designs.

Recently, I was up at the RSPB Dearne Valley reserve at Old Moor running a soils and hydrology course.  It is always a pleasure to visit this well run and ‘thinking’ reserve. Two booming Bitterns in the small area of reedbed is their reward for good habitat management. The scrape management is excellent and underlined by the 30 species of wader recorded last year (the 4^th best RSPB site). However, my attention this visit was drawn to their new ‘sunken hide’ – a hide with the viewing slots at ground level so you are eye-to-eye with the buntings, finches and Tree Sparrows coming in to a feeding station.  Last year, on my last visit, we had discussed how we could provide new types of viewing and photographic opportunities and no surprise, the team has delivered. More details here.

Also getting in on the act is Rye Meads. A new Kingfisher bank and bat hibernaculum is taking shape on the edge of the scrape, accompanied by a low level, close viewing and photographic hide.  But the best is yet to come….

Pics above - Old Moor reed bed (RSPB Dearne Valley), their 'sunken hide', Rye Meads Kingfisher bank taking shape.

Goa

In a taxi, overtaking a lorry, with a scooter overtaking us and a bus heading straight for all of us.  It can only be India; a great destination for a birding trip. However, the times they are a-changin, as someone once said. On this, my fourth visit to Goa over 20 or more years, I stayed up near Morjim beach. When we were first here the ferry across the Chapora river took five cars every 15 minutes, now the new bridge takes 50 cars a minute.

Morjim beach now has few or no birds due to disturbance. The sand banks that once teemed with sand plovers now have drunken Indians and topless Russians. The Russians come to Goa in increasing numbers and they seem highly unpopular with the locals, who complain about their prostitutes, money and drugs. The Olive Ridley turtle nesting site has just two nests this year, underneath the makeshift football pitch.

To the south, Baga paddyfields get smaller and smaller, a new road leads to a festival site built on one end. The Pintail Snipe now both drum and bass. The greying taxi driver/bird guide once proudly ushering birders to his shiny new van dashes over as he recognises me from six years back, as the plush, tinted windowed, a/c Toyota motors by. The new money has passed him by. And the first one now will later be last.

However, just up river from Morjim beach there are still birdy places to be found if you search them out. Sandbanks with large flocks of Pallas's, Slender-billed and Heuglin's Gulls, Lesser Crested, Great Crested and Caspian Terns, riverside paddies with ibis, jacana, storks and waders.

I ventured out on a few of the usual trips. A trip up the Zuari river with point blank kingfishers, marsh muggers and waders. We took a trip with our taxi man in his now battered old van around Chorao island and the Salim Ali reserve. On the way he is desperate to show us the Indian Pitta in the scrub next to his house. He checks it out every day but with no-one to show. The island produces Lesser Adjutants, Woolly-necked Storks, harriers, waders galore, pipits and chats. Back at the hotel, the scrub next to, and overhanging, the pool provides daily practice on Taiga Flycatcher, Green Warbler and Blyth's Reed Warbler, with Crested Treeswifts adding glamour overhead and Syke's Warblers on the nearby scrubby hill.

British birders seem to be few and far between in Goa today. The young turks of birding have long since moved on to new frontiers. However, this is still a good place to cut one's Indian birding teeth. Although some of the old haunts are not what they used to be, there are still plenty of birds to be found if you get off the beaten track.

Storm surge

A tour of many of the sites affected by this winters stormy weather continued this week with a trip up to Mersehead on the Solway coast. Arriving on site just after dawn, several hundred Barnacle Geese were on the fields along the entrance track, 150 Pinkies flew over and 50+ Pintail fed on the shallow floods.  The task was to look at the impact of the surge tides in early January; this was abundantly clear from the 10 m of dune system washed away, the four breaches in the seawall and the piles of rubbish dumped across the fields by the receding tides. The pools of water across the fields were strangely variously saline or fresh, but the Natterjack Toad pools were unfortunately strongly saline.

The surge tide that hit eastern England in early December led to some dramatic headlines and has certainly had some profound effects on coastal habitats.  There was extensive flooding of more than 40 conservation sites behind seawalls and shingle/dune ridges from the Tees estuary south to Essex. These were mainly coastal grazing marshes and reedbed habitats but included some of our best-known east coast nature reserves.  Seawalls protecting at least seven conservation sites have been breached in East Anglia.  In some locations, mainly Norfolk, there are multiple breaches to seawalls.  The damage to infrastructure on some sites (birdwatching hides, footpaths, fencing etc.) has been extensive.  At Snettisham for example, as well as extensive ‘re-shaping’ of the wader roost banks, almost all of the reserve infrastructure has been destroyed.

Almost inevitably, the words ‘ecological disaster’ have been used in various accounts, but was it really such a disaster?   The impression after looking at these sites is one of both winners and losers. Although some wildlife sites at or close to the coast are sensitive to flooding by saltwater, many are remarkably resilient. It is their ability to recover and the frequency of significant flood events that matters.  Furthermore, many coastal sites are evolving in response to coastal processes; this changes the mosaic of habitats and species, but not necessarily the value of the sites. These processes can also result in the natural ‘repair’ of coastal features such as breached barrier beaches. The storms have created some exciting new habitat in many cases and it will be interesting to see what develops this coming summer.  Some coastal grasslands, designated sites but with dull and unimaginative management and trapped behind artificial sea walls, have been opened up to coastal dynamics. How will the Red Hemp Nettle and Ringed Plovers fare at Snettisham now that acres of their favoured bare shingle habitat have now been opened up.

There are extensive repairs that need to be done but they should be in the form of adaptive management. For example, at Havergate island the breached sea walls will be rebuilt but with reprofiled spillways so that floodwaters can more easily enter the site without damage but then quickly be let out through sluices. These events will happen again and we need to be prepared.

Photos: from top - Barnacles at Mersehead, Natterjack, surge re-shaping at Snettisham, Red Hemp Nettle.

The Golden Wellies

The RSPB runs an internal competition The Golden Wellies to find the best passage wader site each year.  There are both league and knockout elements to the competition to test good wetland management throughout the year.  Monthly counts of waders are recorded; they have to be ‘feet down’ on a managed fresh/brackish scrape or flood (not tidal). This year the results of the Wellies for 2013 have ‘leaked’ and I can exclusively reveal that the winner of the best passage wader site in the RSPB last year was Frampton Marsh. Frampton, recording 32 species, just pipped Minsmere (31) to the title after the latter had led the competition for most of the season.  The highlights of Frampton’s year included Black-winged Stilts, Dotterel, Baird’s and Buff-breasted Sandpiper, as well as at least 4 Pectoral Sandpipers and up to 6 Temminck’s Stints.

Fairburn Ings finished in 3^rd place in the Premier League, just beating local rivals Dearne Valley on Gull Difference (a measure of wader diversity each month). That these sites are just 2 species short of the top spot highlights the importance of well managed inland wader habitat.  Up and coming South Essex and old hand Lodmoor/Radipole were promoted from the Championship up into the Premier league this year, both with 27 species.   Snettisham and Exminster Marshes were promoted from League One.

In all, 43 species of wader were recorded during the year, with a peak monthly count across all sites of 100,353 waders being recorded in September.  Monthly peak counts included 14 Temminck’s Stints and 260 Whimbrel in May, 11,819 Dunlin in July, 476 Ruff, 206 Curlew Sandpipers and 67 Wood Sandpipers in August, and 13 Pec Sands in September.  I hear new scrapes are already being prepared for the start of the 2014 competition. 

The Premier League and Championship finished like this:

The Premier League                                                The Championship

1.   Frampton Marsh    32 species                             South Essex Marshes     27

2.   Minsmere                31                                         Radipole/Lodmoor         27

3.   Fairburn Ings          30                                         Belfast Lough                 26

4.   Dearne Valley        30                                          Saltholme                       26

5.   Dungeness              28                                         Arne                                26

6.   Titchwell                 28                                         Mid-Yare                        23

7.   Rainham  Marsh    28                                         Ham Wall                       23

8.   Ouse Washes          28                                         Havergate Island            23 

9.   Ouse Fen                 27                                         Leighton Moss                22

10. Old Hall Marsh      26                                          Pulborough Brooks        22

11. Burton Mere           26                                          Fen Drayton                   19 

12. Conwy                    24                                          Campfield Marsh          19

13. Loch of Strathbeg   22                                          The Reef                         17

14. Otmoor                    19

Pics: The Wellie, Frampton scrapes, Buff-breast (and Ruff) at Frampton (photo- Steve Keightley)