Hungry fledglings (and Med Gulls)

Tuesday, 06 July

As June passed into July I had been continually busy with recording numbers of young birds fledging on the reserve. Overall it looks like a good year but with a sting in the tail. I was hoping that the later nesters now hatching young would do as well as the early nesters and make it an excellent year for breeding productivity, but this is not going to be the case. The disappearance of small chicks on the island in the lagoon continues, with both Mediterranean and Lesser Black-backed Gulls the culprits. They predate the chicks to eat them (enough said…as it does get a bit gruesome) and are both efficient and persistent. On Sunday, as the wind speed increased to a fresh south-westerly, a Lesser Black-backed Gull tucked into the colony like it was fast food station, clearing out three broods of Black-headed Gulls during the afternoon. Unfortunately (for the small tern chicks) I have established that there are at least two adult Mediterranean Gulls predating. Yesterday both were patrolling (read ‘hunting’ there) the islands at the same time. One took an egg as well as a chick or two…

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Adult Med Gull patrolling over South Island looking for food. You would think that more of the nesting terns would drive them away (like the tern already in flight the second image is about to do).

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Fortunately most of the tern chicks are either fledged or very nearly and are very hungry as one of the images below indicates! Their first proper feathers vary quite a bit in colour between individuals; this sometimes becomes helpful for me tracking individual broods. They all stay to the same relatively small area during their first three to four weeks of life which also helps. I saw my first one taking flight on the first day of the month and yesterday many were trying out their wings as they rose into the air above the island. At one stage they looked like dozens of jack-in-the-boxes exploding from their homes! A couple ventured southwards over the main harbour waters while others flapped about over the lagoon. Many will leave the site soon. A few images below:

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Black-headed Gulls fledglings are also at the leaving stage, or have already left, and yet again this summer I left it to the last minute to count them before they disperse. There are more to come but so far almost 500 have fledged. The remainder are still hungry and their high pitched begging calls can be heard all around the lagoon.

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A few Black-headed Gulls and Common Terns (images below) are still on nests, either failed breeders from earlier in the season having another try or very late starters. Courtship activity can be seen from both of these species at the moment.

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And last but not least…. the Oystercatchers. It has been another week of swings and roundabouts on the reserve for this species. As one of the other pairs on North Island lost their two very small recently-hatched chicks over the weekend, the pair on South Island has been busy feeding their fast-growing youngster. Both parents, especially the male, can frequently be seen bringing in worms from the harbour to the lagoon. At other times the youngster shadows the male as he finds food around the edge of South Island and is quick to make sure that anything found is eaten!

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