The Extended Pantheon

Living on Bird Island, as its name suggests, is always full of wildlife. But it isn’t just the giant petrels, penguins and albatross that make up our birdy heaven. There are plenty of other species around to keep us busy and entertained and here is a bit of information on just a few of them.

First up there are the shags. I have mentioned this elegant species before but unfortunately this update is not particularly nice as it appears that the breeding season has failed for many of them. We can’t say why this might be as yet, the studies are ongoing, but hopefully, much like the gentoos, they will bounce back from a poor year with a more successful one next summer.

The shag colony hasn't bred so well but they will try again next year

In winter I will actually be surveying the snowy sheathbills and South Georgia pintails a couple of times a month for population levels. But for now they are just getting on with their breeding season in the background of the larger birds. So to bring them into the spotlight a bit more here are some details on sheathbills and pintails – collectively called ‘duckbills’.

The sheathbills are regularly seen around base as they peck at carrion and faeces to find food but seeing their nests isn’t so easy. By making nests out of tussock under rock overhangs finding a nest is a challenge, and even though the chicks could be deemed more ‘ugly’ than other chick species’ I think they are worth it when a nest is found.

Finding nests can be difficult, but seeing a small sheathbill chick being protected by its parent (top) and a large sheathbill chick near to fledging (bottom) are great sights

The pintails are even more elusive when nesting. I did find a nest of 3 eggs in the tussock during a geep survey (the only nest of eggs found for a number of years on island!) but unfortunately was not able to get a picture. The adults themselves are a bit more timid and it can take a while of patient sitting to be able to let them come close to you for some better photos.

Pintails are cool little ducks when you see them close-up

What is really challenging with pintails though is getting a glimpse of the ducklings. They speed through the channels between clumps of tussock so quickly that all you get is a fleeting blur. They are so quick when first encountered our initial thoughts are ‘was that a rat?!’ (thankfully not though, Bird Island is in fact rat free and we monitor the situation to keep it that way). The very elusive nature of ducklings makes being able to photograph them in the open a very rare event indeed, so when Al and I came across one on a pond with its parent that didn’t dash away we didn’t waste time in getting a photo!

Brilliant to see a duckling going for a swim

Shags, sheathbills and pintails all get a small amount of monitoring in my role on island, but a couple of other species have no work done with them at all. South Georgia pipits are a common sight on island as they can be seen in tussock and in streams looking for small morsels to eat. It is brilliant to have a resident passerine, the most southerly breeding passerine in the world, and their song is a pleasant background tune to our time on island.

A pipit perched on some tussock

Another species we have is the kelp gull. Gulls (remember they are gulls – there is no such thing as a seagull) were one of my favourite groups of seabirds to work with back in the UK and although there is no surveying of them done here it is a nice reminder of gulls in general when a kelp gull comes onto the beach outside base. It is even better when we manage to find another rarer sighting on island, a kelp gull chick.

A kelp gull family, two adults with a fledgling chick

There are yet more species living on the island, many of them are burrow nesting petrels that are generally nocturnal so seeing them is difficult and photographing them is even harder. But hopefully I will get the occasional lucky sighting, much like with the storm petrel, to show in future blogs!

It is not just birds we have on island though, the seal work revolves mostly around fur seals in the summer and leopard seals in the winter but there is another species regularly on island. The elephant seals are giant creatures that are always funny to watch belly-flopping up the beaches.

An ellie staring down the camera

With all these species to see life in the field never has a dull moment and I can’t wait to see what surprises the wildlife has to offer during the rest of my stay here!