An evening with the Yelkouans!

It had been some time since I have been in close contact with Yelkouan Shearwaters. One early July 2023 evening I went to a Yelkouan Shearwater colony with a small team of BirdLife Malta sea bird experts who were studying these birds. In all we were three. We started at around 7 pm. The first checks were of some rat-control boxes. After witnessing a beautiful sunset, darkness then followed. The terrain that we were in was not an easy one, and one has to have a good fitness level. The Shearwater colony was in the north-west of Malta. Here these birds nest in holes and crevices in the sea cliffs. These cliffs do not cut down to the sea, but beneath them are clay slopes, rocks and vegetation. Positioning ourselves facing areas where Shearwaters are known to nest, we managed to see around ten shearwaters with the help of thermal camera. In all I managed to see five – three adults flying and resting on the ledges, and two young birds, including one that was ringed. With a thermal camera I could see a young ready to fledge out of its nest hole, flapping its wings. I kept on thinking about the dangers these birds face, and of which they are of course unaware. Dangers like predation especially by rats of Yelkouan Sherarwater chicks. These alien mammals are among the causes for Shearwater nest failures. When the chick grows and is ready to fly away from the nest to start its life out on the sea (returning to land only to breed), the first hurdle is to make it to the sea. Nests are not always located directly above the sea, so the young must have to fly the distance between the nest and the sea edge. If not, then the bird can fall and hit boulders, or even go down in heavy thorny thickets. If it manages to fly out to sea, there is still the dangers of flying towards the artificial lights and end up on land. Here the young and confused shearwater have very litle chances of survival. Every summer when the birds fledge, there are a number of pick ups of stranded shearwaters by the Birdlife Malta sea bird team after they receive calls from the public. Some are healthy enough and released a day or two later, direcly above a sea cliff. Others will need to gain a little weight before they are released, and so are hand fed for a few days before release.

That evening and night, I wished good luck to the Yelkouan we caught for ringing! And it was a memorable and enjoyble night out with the shearwaters. At almost 1 am I was in bed!