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For just a few months of the year, | 0:00:02 | 0:00:04 | |
we share the United Kingdom with a remarkable group of animals. | 0:00:04 | 0:00:08 | |
Every summer, 8 million seabirds come to our shores to breed | 0:00:08 | 0:00:14 | |
and they come from quite literally all around the world. | 0:00:14 | 0:00:17 | |
Most of the time they live out there, | 0:00:17 | 0:00:21 | |
in the vast emptiness of the world's oceans. | 0:00:21 | 0:00:24 | |
But then, for a short time, they come ashore... | 0:00:25 | 0:00:28 | |
..for the breeding season. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:32 | |
It's one of the greatest wildlife gatherings on Earth, | 0:00:33 | 0:00:37 | |
and it happens right here on our doorstep. | 0:00:37 | 0:00:40 | |
It's noisy, colourful, dramatic, and, if we dig a little deeper, | 0:00:42 | 0:00:48 | |
it turns out that these birds' lives are packed full of surprises. | 0:00:48 | 0:00:52 | |
Welcome to the Springwatch Guide to Seabirds! | 0:00:52 | 0:00:57 | |
Seabirds are actually an astonishing group of animals. | 0:01:21 | 0:01:26 | |
25 different species of them come to the UK, | 0:01:26 | 0:01:29 | |
and each has its own special qualities. | 0:01:29 | 0:01:33 | |
The huge Northern gannet - powerful, the master of the ocean. | 0:01:33 | 0:01:38 | |
Delicate Arctic terns, known as swallows of the sea. | 0:01:42 | 0:01:48 | |
They fly from the Antarctic Ocean | 0:01:49 | 0:01:51 | |
to the northern isles of Scotland every year. | 0:01:51 | 0:01:55 | |
And fulmars have, um... rather unpleasant habits. | 0:01:57 | 0:02:02 | |
From "Eurgh" to "Ahh!" | 0:02:04 | 0:02:07 | |
After nine months apart, far out at sea, | 0:02:07 | 0:02:10 | |
the gentle courtship of the puffin | 0:02:10 | 0:02:13 | |
has delighted bird watchers for generations. | 0:02:13 | 0:02:17 | |
In the summer, you can find these wonderful birds | 0:02:19 | 0:02:22 | |
all around our coastline, from the Northern Isles of Scotland, | 0:02:22 | 0:02:29 | |
to the southern isles of Wales and England | 0:02:29 | 0:02:32 | |
and we're going to the very best places to see them. | 0:02:32 | 0:02:36 | |
I'm on Orkney, off the northern tip of Scotland. | 0:02:36 | 0:02:40 | |
Iolo Williams is on Skomer Island, off the southwest coast of Wales. | 0:02:40 | 0:02:46 | |
Michaela? She's in Bath, | 0:02:47 | 0:02:49 | |
where she's finding out why so many of our cities | 0:02:49 | 0:02:53 | |
now echo to the plaintive cries of seagulls. | 0:02:53 | 0:02:57 | |
And Chris? Well, he's rooting about in the bowels of Bristol Museum, | 0:02:59 | 0:03:04 | |
looking for things to help him explain some of the deeper mysteries | 0:03:04 | 0:03:07 | |
of these fascinating birds. | 0:03:07 | 0:03:09 | |
Together, we'll be taking a closer look at our seabirds | 0:03:10 | 0:03:14 | |
and how they're coping in a fast-changing world. | 0:03:14 | 0:03:18 | |
But first of all, | 0:03:21 | 0:03:23 | |
what brings these creatures of the sea to land for the breeding season? | 0:03:23 | 0:03:27 | |
Well, of course, they don't have any choice - | 0:03:28 | 0:03:31 | |
they can't exactly lay their eggs on water. | 0:03:31 | 0:03:34 | |
And millions of them choose our coastline | 0:03:34 | 0:03:37 | |
because it provides them with everything they need | 0:03:37 | 0:03:40 | |
to raise their young. | 0:03:40 | 0:03:42 | |
I used to think that scenes like this, | 0:03:44 | 0:03:47 | |
thousands of seabirds nesting, were going on all over Europe. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:51 | |
But that's not the case. | 0:03:51 | 0:03:53 | |
This is a very special place. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:56 | |
In fact, birds will come from literally | 0:03:56 | 0:03:58 | |
all round the world to the British Isles to nest. | 0:03:58 | 0:04:02 | |
There are two reasons - one is the variety of nest sites. | 0:04:02 | 0:04:05 | |
We've got everything that they need to nest on, from cliffs | 0:04:05 | 0:04:09 | |
to sand dunes, agricultural land, we've got the lot. | 0:04:09 | 0:04:12 | |
The second is the sea. | 0:04:12 | 0:04:15 | |
Our seas are so rich in food, | 0:04:15 | 0:04:17 | |
they can support literally millions of mouths. | 0:04:17 | 0:04:21 | |
I'm on Orkney, perhaps the seabird capital of the UK. | 0:04:24 | 0:04:29 | |
And this ancient archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland | 0:04:31 | 0:04:35 | |
is a Mecca for seabirds. | 0:04:35 | 0:04:38 | |
Every summer, nearly a million of them | 0:04:39 | 0:04:42 | |
descend on these islands to raise their young, | 0:04:42 | 0:04:45 | |
including 22 out of our 25 different species. | 0:04:45 | 0:04:49 | |
Just listen to this. | 0:04:54 | 0:04:56 | |
LOUD BIRD CALLS | 0:04:56 | 0:04:59 | |
These are the great seabird cities of Orkney | 0:04:59 | 0:05:02 | |
and there are literally thousands of birds | 0:05:02 | 0:05:04 | |
nesting all along this cliff. | 0:05:04 | 0:05:06 | |
It's epic. | 0:05:07 | 0:05:09 | |
Orkney has some of the tallest sea cliffs in the British Isles. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:15 | |
Relatively safe from predators, | 0:05:15 | 0:05:17 | |
and right next to the ocean they rely on for food, | 0:05:17 | 0:05:20 | |
seabirds choose these rock faces to lay their eggs | 0:05:20 | 0:05:24 | |
and rear their chicks. | 0:05:24 | 0:05:26 | |
Just look at them, all lined up on these narrow ledges. | 0:05:30 | 0:05:34 | |
But it's not as chaotic as it might perhaps look. | 0:05:35 | 0:05:38 | |
Now, what's fascinating about these cliffs | 0:05:42 | 0:05:44 | |
is the way the different species separate themselves out | 0:05:44 | 0:05:48 | |
when they come here to nest. | 0:05:48 | 0:05:49 | |
So you've got a sort of middle band here, | 0:05:49 | 0:05:52 | |
and that's where the kittiwakes and guillemots are nesting. | 0:05:52 | 0:05:55 | |
And then tucked away in sort of holes all around the place | 0:05:55 | 0:05:59 | |
are razorbills. | 0:05:59 | 0:06:01 | |
Just as they all choose different parts of the cliff, | 0:06:08 | 0:06:12 | |
they also have very different feeding habits. | 0:06:12 | 0:06:16 | |
Kittiwakes are known as surface feeders, | 0:06:16 | 0:06:19 | |
hardly dipping below the surface of the water. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:23 | |
And that's in complete contrast | 0:06:23 | 0:06:25 | |
to their neighbours on the cliffs, the guillemots. | 0:06:25 | 0:06:29 | |
They're some of the deepest diving of all seabirds, | 0:06:29 | 0:06:32 | |
capable of going over 100 metres underwater in search of food. | 0:06:32 | 0:06:36 | |
Now, unless you're a keen birder, | 0:06:36 | 0:06:38 | |
guillemots are easily confused with the razorbills. | 0:06:38 | 0:06:42 | |
The easiest way to tell them apart | 0:06:42 | 0:06:44 | |
is that a razorbill has white markings on its bill. | 0:06:44 | 0:06:48 | |
It also has a slightly fatter bill than the guillemot. | 0:06:48 | 0:06:52 | |
Guillemots have a totally black head, with a narrow bill. | 0:06:52 | 0:06:56 | |
But confusingly, up here on Orkney, | 0:06:58 | 0:07:00 | |
some of the guillemots have white markings round their eyes. | 0:07:00 | 0:07:04 | |
They're called bridled guillemots. | 0:07:04 | 0:07:07 | |
No-one knows what it's for, but the further north you go, | 0:07:07 | 0:07:10 | |
the more guillemots seem to be bridled. | 0:07:10 | 0:07:13 | |
I think it looks rather distinguished! | 0:07:13 | 0:07:15 | |
Up here on the cliffs, | 0:07:20 | 0:07:21 | |
the seabirds may be relatively safe from predators | 0:07:21 | 0:07:24 | |
but those thin ledges look awfully precarious to me. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:28 | |
How on earth do they stop the chick and particularly the eggs | 0:07:31 | 0:07:34 | |
falling off into the sea? | 0:07:34 | 0:07:37 | |
Chris is in the basement of the museum where he's found | 0:07:39 | 0:07:42 | |
exactly what he needs to explain how it all works. | 0:07:42 | 0:07:45 | |
Well, some of the smaller species like kittiwakes actually make nests. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:53 | |
Pretty good nests. | 0:07:53 | 0:07:54 | |
They'll fly some distance to collect weed, take it back to the ledge, | 0:07:54 | 0:07:58 | |
and then weld it together using their own faeces. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:02 | |
The result is a nest that's so substantial | 0:08:03 | 0:08:06 | |
it will last from year to year. | 0:08:06 | 0:08:08 | |
Further down the cliff, shags also use weed to make a nest. | 0:08:11 | 0:08:15 | |
But they also add a few sticks as well, | 0:08:15 | 0:08:17 | |
and they make a lovely cup to hold their eggs and chicks. | 0:08:17 | 0:08:21 | |
But other species, like the auks - guillemots, for instance - | 0:08:25 | 0:08:29 | |
make absolutely no nest at all. | 0:08:29 | 0:08:32 | |
No fabric is used in the making of their nest. | 0:08:32 | 0:08:37 | |
They simply lay their eggs onto bare rock. | 0:08:37 | 0:08:39 | |
So why don't they roll into the sea? | 0:08:43 | 0:08:47 | |
Well, it's all down to a magnificent adaptation | 0:08:47 | 0:08:50 | |
in the shape of the egg. | 0:08:50 | 0:08:51 | |
This is a guillemot's egg, and it's pear-shaped | 0:08:51 | 0:08:54 | |
and look what happens if it's accidentally dislodged. | 0:08:54 | 0:08:57 | |
It spins in a tight circle. | 0:09:00 | 0:09:04 | |
It stays on that rocky ledge. | 0:09:04 | 0:09:07 | |
It doesn't fall into the sea, many metres below. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:12 | |
Brilliant. Nature is endlessly inventive. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:17 | |
So those are the seabirds that breed on the cliff face, | 0:09:19 | 0:09:22 | |
but there's also another bird | 0:09:22 | 0:09:24 | |
that prefers to live at the top of the tower block, if you like - | 0:09:24 | 0:09:27 | |
the puffin. | 0:09:27 | 0:09:29 | |
Now, it may be a surprise to discover | 0:09:29 | 0:09:31 | |
that puffins like to nest underground in burrows | 0:09:31 | 0:09:35 | |
and one of the best places in the British Isles to see them | 0:09:35 | 0:09:39 | |
is the Welsh island of Skomer. | 0:09:39 | 0:09:42 | |
This little island is the largest | 0:09:42 | 0:09:45 | |
and most important seabird breeding colony | 0:09:45 | 0:09:47 | |
in the whole of southern Britain. | 0:09:47 | 0:09:50 | |
It's early April | 0:09:53 | 0:09:55 | |
and things are pretty quiet on Skomer at the moment. | 0:09:55 | 0:09:58 | |
Not too many puffins here yet. | 0:09:58 | 0:10:01 | |
But, out to sea, there's a sign of what's about to happen. | 0:10:02 | 0:10:06 | |
Every year, 6,000 pairs of Atlantic puffins | 0:10:12 | 0:10:15 | |
flock to this Pembrokeshire island. | 0:10:15 | 0:10:17 | |
It's the largest puffin breeding colony in southern Britain. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:23 | |
And I'm here to witness the return of the first migrants. | 0:10:32 | 0:10:38 | |
PUFFINS CALL | 0:10:40 | 0:10:43 | |
The air is filled with puffins flying around and calling. | 0:10:45 | 0:10:49 | |
They're all looking for someone. | 0:10:49 | 0:10:51 | |
PUFFINS CONTINUE TO CALL | 0:10:51 | 0:10:55 | |
Puffins are faithful to one life-long partner. | 0:11:12 | 0:11:15 | |
They're known to live for up to 29 years, | 0:11:15 | 0:11:18 | |
and, in that time, they'll return here every spring | 0:11:18 | 0:11:22 | |
to the same mate and the same burrow. | 0:11:22 | 0:11:24 | |
They only come to land to breed, that's it. | 0:11:27 | 0:11:30 | |
The rest of the year, they're out on the open ocean. | 0:11:30 | 0:11:32 | |
They really are a seabird, not a land bird. | 0:11:32 | 0:11:35 | |
And what you find is that they're concentrated in various areas, | 0:11:35 | 0:11:39 | |
areas that have been well-grazed by the rabbits, | 0:11:39 | 0:11:41 | |
areas that are full of holes. | 0:11:41 | 0:11:43 | |
It's like a piece of Swiss cheese under my arm here. | 0:11:43 | 0:11:45 | |
You've got puffins nesting in all of these burrows. | 0:11:45 | 0:11:48 | |
A good burrow on the cliff top, with easy access to the sea | 0:11:48 | 0:11:53 | |
and all the food it offers, is worth defending from newcomers. | 0:11:53 | 0:11:57 | |
PUFFIN CALLS | 0:12:31 | 0:12:34 | |
Once everything settles down, it's time for a spot of spring-cleaning, | 0:12:37 | 0:12:42 | |
and a bit of nest-building. | 0:12:42 | 0:12:46 | |
And then, the puffins finally have some special time for each other. | 0:12:55 | 0:13:00 | |
This is a pair here in front of me. | 0:13:03 | 0:13:05 | |
We had a little bit of nibbling, sort of courtship, just a little bit. | 0:13:05 | 0:13:09 | |
They're quite loving birds when you see the pair together. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:12 | |
BILLS CLICK | 0:13:12 | 0:13:14 | |
Bill clattering is a crucial part of re-establishing pair bonds. | 0:13:14 | 0:13:18 | |
It's the puffins' way of showing their affection. | 0:13:21 | 0:13:25 | |
And you might wonder, why has a bird like a puffin got such a huge bill? | 0:13:28 | 0:13:34 | |
The summer puffin is a beautiful thing - | 0:13:35 | 0:13:39 | |
just look at this lovely broad and colourful bill. | 0:13:39 | 0:13:42 | |
It also has bright gape flanges too, and wonderful pale cheeks. | 0:13:42 | 0:13:46 | |
It's all about communicating, it's all about display, | 0:13:46 | 0:13:50 | |
Mr and Mrs Puffin letting each other know exactly how they feel. | 0:13:50 | 0:13:55 | |
And it's a serious investment of material, | 0:13:58 | 0:14:02 | |
protein has gone into making that beak big, bright and beautiful. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:06 | |
Look at this puffin, a museum specimen | 0:14:06 | 0:14:09 | |
that was taken in the winter. | 0:14:09 | 0:14:11 | |
The bill has shrunk, and it's lost all of its colour. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:15 | |
It's not there to communicate anymore, | 0:14:15 | 0:14:18 | |
it's just there to get food for itself. | 0:14:18 | 0:14:21 | |
But for the moment, the puffins are in full breeding display. | 0:14:25 | 0:14:29 | |
The seabird breeding season on Skomer has really begun. | 0:14:37 | 0:14:40 | |
Back on Orkney, I'm heading to the tiny island of Copinsay. | 0:14:51 | 0:14:55 | |
It's a real hotspot for seabirds, | 0:14:58 | 0:15:02 | |
and I'm here to find some we haven't met yet. | 0:15:02 | 0:15:05 | |
Now, right down at the bottom of the cliffs here | 0:15:06 | 0:15:09 | |
are a whole rank of black birds. | 0:15:09 | 0:15:11 | |
Now those are shags. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:13 | |
Very similar to cormorants, you've probably seen cormorants. | 0:15:13 | 0:15:16 | |
But shags stay always near the coast, | 0:15:16 | 0:15:19 | |
whereas the cormorants come inland and they look black, | 0:15:19 | 0:15:22 | |
but if you look closely at them, they're anything but. | 0:15:22 | 0:15:26 | |
They're a kind of mysterious, magical green colour | 0:15:26 | 0:15:29 | |
with a bright, bright yellow bill. | 0:15:29 | 0:15:32 | |
And they're remarkable birds, shags. | 0:15:33 | 0:15:36 | |
They're very deep divers. They can go down to about 60 metres. | 0:15:36 | 0:15:40 | |
It always strikes me as amazing that a bird that can fly, can also dive. | 0:15:40 | 0:15:44 | |
It can live between worlds like that, | 0:15:44 | 0:15:47 | |
and they can hold their breath for well over a minute. | 0:15:47 | 0:15:50 | |
If you look a little higher up the cliff, | 0:15:52 | 0:15:55 | |
you can see these shags already have young. | 0:15:55 | 0:15:59 | |
They look almost reptilian! | 0:15:59 | 0:16:02 | |
Another seabird that breeds on Copinsay is the Northern fulmar. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:07 | |
And the fulmar's story is a fascinating one, | 0:16:09 | 0:16:12 | |
because the very first record of a fulmar nesting here in Orkney | 0:16:12 | 0:16:16 | |
was in 1900. | 0:16:16 | 0:16:18 | |
By the end of the 1980s, there were over 90,000 of them nesting here | 0:16:19 | 0:16:25 | |
and that number's stayed more or less the same. | 0:16:25 | 0:16:28 | |
It's thought that this dramatic increase in numbers | 0:16:30 | 0:16:33 | |
is down to discards from fishing vessels from the North Sea. | 0:16:33 | 0:16:36 | |
Suddenly, there was a totally new food source | 0:16:41 | 0:16:45 | |
available to seabirds like the fulmar. | 0:16:45 | 0:16:48 | |
Fulmars have one distinguishing feature | 0:16:54 | 0:16:57 | |
that makes them easily recognizable | 0:16:57 | 0:16:59 | |
and clearly different from a seagull - | 0:16:59 | 0:17:02 | |
a prominent tubular nostril on top of their bills. | 0:17:02 | 0:17:06 | |
But, Chris, what exactly is the tubenose for? | 0:17:07 | 0:17:11 | |
Well, all animals need salt, but none need too much of it. | 0:17:13 | 0:17:19 | |
Salt regulation is a very important affair | 0:17:19 | 0:17:22 | |
and if you're a seabird, feeding on a salty diet, | 0:17:22 | 0:17:25 | |
then clearly you've got a major problem. | 0:17:25 | 0:17:28 | |
As a bird, you can't sweat the excess salt away, | 0:17:28 | 0:17:32 | |
so how do you cope? | 0:17:32 | 0:17:33 | |
Well, in the case of the fulmar, | 0:17:33 | 0:17:35 | |
they have a small gland between the eye and the top of the bill | 0:17:35 | 0:17:38 | |
through which they pump all of their blood | 0:17:38 | 0:17:42 | |
and it's here that the excess salt is separated, | 0:17:42 | 0:17:46 | |
and it's here that the tubenose comes into play. | 0:17:46 | 0:17:49 | |
Because that excess salt goes into something | 0:17:49 | 0:17:52 | |
that we can only call salty snot, | 0:17:52 | 0:17:55 | |
and it's channelled through the tubenose, along the top of the bill, | 0:17:55 | 0:18:00 | |
it then runs down a groove in the bill | 0:18:00 | 0:18:02 | |
until it forms in a drip on the tip, | 0:18:02 | 0:18:04 | |
and it can fall away clear of all of the pristine feathers of the fulmar. | 0:18:04 | 0:18:09 | |
You see, if it didn't have the tubenose, | 0:18:09 | 0:18:12 | |
the salty snot would be running down its cheek, | 0:18:12 | 0:18:14 | |
and that's not a good look for a fulmar, | 0:18:14 | 0:18:17 | |
and it's not a good look for a small child. | 0:18:17 | 0:18:20 | |
And salty snot isn't the fulmar's only foul habit. | 0:18:22 | 0:18:26 | |
I've got to be a bit careful | 0:18:30 | 0:18:33 | |
because fulmars have a remarkable way of defending themselves. | 0:18:33 | 0:18:36 | |
If I was to get a little bit closer, | 0:18:36 | 0:18:38 | |
she would projectile vomit, she'd be sick all over me, | 0:18:38 | 0:18:42 | |
which is extremely unpleasant | 0:18:42 | 0:18:44 | |
because it smells horrible, whoops, he might do it too, | 0:18:44 | 0:18:47 | |
but worse than that, for a predator, say a peregrine, | 0:18:47 | 0:18:50 | |
if that sick gets over their feathers, | 0:18:50 | 0:18:54 | |
and they're very accurate at shooting it out, | 0:18:54 | 0:18:56 | |
it can mat the feathers up and peregrines have been killed | 0:18:56 | 0:19:00 | |
by getting too close to these fulmars | 0:19:00 | 0:19:02 | |
and getting covered in their sick. | 0:19:02 | 0:19:04 | |
One more thing about fulmars - | 0:19:05 | 0:19:08 | |
how old do you think she might be? | 0:19:08 | 0:19:12 | |
Many of these seabirds are very long-lived, | 0:19:12 | 0:19:16 | |
but fulmars, 20, 30 years. | 0:19:16 | 0:19:18 | |
One was ringed here in Orkney on the 18th of July 1951. | 0:19:19 | 0:19:26 | |
It was last seen nearly 41 years later. | 0:19:26 | 0:19:30 | |
That's not the end of the story, | 0:19:30 | 0:19:32 | |
it was ringed not as a baby but as an adult. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:35 | |
So it could have been easily, seven, ten years older than that. | 0:19:35 | 0:19:40 | |
That fulmar could be 50 years old | 0:19:40 | 0:19:44 | |
and that, folks, is almost as old as ME. | 0:19:44 | 0:19:48 | |
There are five species of tern that breed in the UK, | 0:19:52 | 0:19:56 | |
but this is perhaps my favourite, the Arctic tern. | 0:19:56 | 0:20:00 | |
Every spring, these beautiful birds, known as the swallows of the sea, | 0:20:01 | 0:20:06 | |
make an extraordinary journey, travelling over 20,000 miles | 0:20:06 | 0:20:11 | |
from the Antarctic Ocean to Orkney. | 0:20:11 | 0:20:14 | |
It's the longest migration ever recorded by any animal. | 0:20:14 | 0:20:19 | |
In a single lifetime, one of these delicate-looking birds | 0:20:19 | 0:20:23 | |
might have travelled over 1.5 million miles, | 0:20:23 | 0:20:26 | |
that's to the moon and back three times. | 0:20:26 | 0:20:30 | |
They weigh little more than 100 grams | 0:20:30 | 0:20:34 | |
and, to me, they look like they're made of paper. | 0:20:34 | 0:20:36 | |
Origami birds! | 0:20:36 | 0:20:39 | |
Let's think for a moment about the lives these birds lead out at sea. | 0:20:39 | 0:20:44 | |
They only spend around three months of the year living here, | 0:20:44 | 0:20:47 | |
in the relative shelter of our shores. | 0:20:47 | 0:20:50 | |
But the rest of the time, they're out there, | 0:20:50 | 0:20:53 | |
trying to survive in the great wilderness of our oceans. | 0:20:53 | 0:20:57 | |
One of the most spectacular of our seabird visitors | 0:21:06 | 0:21:09 | |
is the Northern gannet. | 0:21:09 | 0:21:12 | |
It's the largest of our seabirds, with a wingspan of six feet. | 0:21:12 | 0:21:16 | |
The gannet is capable of travelling huge distances in search of food. | 0:21:16 | 0:21:21 | |
And, of course, it also does this! | 0:21:21 | 0:21:25 | |
But how does it thump into the water without hurting itself? | 0:21:31 | 0:21:36 | |
Well, firstly, they have no external nostrils. | 0:21:37 | 0:21:41 | |
If you're throwing yourself into the sea at about 45 miles an hour, | 0:21:41 | 0:21:45 | |
you don't want water going up your nose hard. | 0:21:45 | 0:21:48 | |
Secondly, they have air bags over the tops of their heads, | 0:21:48 | 0:21:52 | |
through their necks, and on the fronts of their wings | 0:21:52 | 0:21:55 | |
and these cushion the impact as they hit the water. | 0:21:55 | 0:21:58 | |
But lastly, it's all to do with their body position, | 0:22:04 | 0:22:07 | |
because as they enter the water, | 0:22:07 | 0:22:09 | |
they put their wings back so that they go in, | 0:22:09 | 0:22:12 | |
in an extremely streamlined fashion. | 0:22:12 | 0:22:15 | |
They go into the water like torpedoes | 0:22:15 | 0:22:18 | |
and to see it is absolutely fantastic. | 0:22:18 | 0:22:22 | |
Many seabirds, like the gannet and Arctic tern, | 0:22:25 | 0:22:28 | |
choose to breed on very remote islands, | 0:22:28 | 0:22:31 | |
which most of us will never get to visit. | 0:22:31 | 0:22:33 | |
But there are plenty of other seabirds | 0:22:33 | 0:22:36 | |
that choose to come to us in seaside towns all over Britain. | 0:22:36 | 0:22:40 | |
Michaela went for a day out in Weston-Super-Mare, | 0:22:41 | 0:22:44 | |
where she met some of our most regular visitors, the seagulls. | 0:22:44 | 0:22:49 | |
But did you know there's actually no such thing as a seagull? | 0:22:51 | 0:22:55 | |
In fact, it's the collective name for a group of seabirds, | 0:22:55 | 0:22:58 | |
and, here in the UK, we commonly see 11 different species. | 0:22:58 | 0:23:03 | |
We call them seagulls because we think they all look the same - | 0:23:03 | 0:23:07 | |
big, white birds that live by the seaside, with a noisy call. | 0:23:07 | 0:23:11 | |
But, of course, they all have distinguishing features. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:14 | |
The two gulls you're most likely to see at the seaside | 0:23:19 | 0:23:23 | |
are the herring gull, and the lesser black-backed gull. | 0:23:23 | 0:23:26 | |
And it's easy to get them confused. | 0:23:26 | 0:23:29 | |
But let's take a look at them. | 0:23:29 | 0:23:31 | |
The herring gull is a very large, noisy bird. | 0:23:31 | 0:23:36 | |
It's got a light grey back and black wing tips. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:42 | |
And pink legs. | 0:23:43 | 0:23:45 | |
Now, this gull has yellow legs, a dark-grey back and a yellow bill | 0:23:48 | 0:23:54 | |
and that means it's a lesser black-backed gull. | 0:23:54 | 0:23:58 | |
If you've ever looked carefully at either of these gulls | 0:23:58 | 0:24:01 | |
during the breeding season, you may have noticed | 0:24:01 | 0:24:04 | |
they have a bright red spot on their bill. | 0:24:04 | 0:24:06 | |
But do you know what that's for? Chris? | 0:24:06 | 0:24:10 | |
Well, it's really important, it's a target, | 0:24:10 | 0:24:14 | |
a target for the young gull chicks to peck at | 0:24:14 | 0:24:17 | |
when the adult returns to the nest, | 0:24:17 | 0:24:19 | |
and if you watch them, as soon as it gets there, | 0:24:19 | 0:24:22 | |
they jab furiously at the spot, | 0:24:22 | 0:24:24 | |
this instigates the regurgitating behaviour in the adult | 0:24:24 | 0:24:29 | |
that ensures that the youngsters get their meal. | 0:24:29 | 0:24:33 | |
There's another gull that you're quite likely to see | 0:24:35 | 0:24:38 | |
down by the sea and that's the black-headed gull. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:41 | |
Despite its name, | 0:24:43 | 0:24:45 | |
its head is actually more of a dark chocolate brown colour. | 0:24:45 | 0:24:48 | |
But don't get confused, because in the winter | 0:24:49 | 0:24:52 | |
the black-headed gull loses its dark head. | 0:24:52 | 0:24:55 | |
It just gets left with these funny headphone-like markings! | 0:24:55 | 0:24:59 | |
These gulls have a red bill and red legs, too. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:04 | |
Honestly, seagull ID isn't easy, | 0:25:05 | 0:25:09 | |
but with a few tips it is possible to tell them apart. | 0:25:09 | 0:25:13 | |
Gulls are one of the most domesticated, | 0:25:20 | 0:25:23 | |
and most visible, of our seabirds. | 0:25:23 | 0:25:26 | |
But, on Skomer, Iolo's got a much shyer bird. | 0:25:27 | 0:25:31 | |
It's the middle of May | 0:25:34 | 0:25:36 | |
and the island is quickly turning into a crowded maternity ward. | 0:25:36 | 0:25:40 | |
Everywhere, there are seabirds sitting on eggs. | 0:25:40 | 0:25:43 | |
And the sky is busy with birds preparing for the arrival of chicks. | 0:25:52 | 0:25:56 | |
They're all out looking for food. | 0:25:56 | 0:25:59 | |
But after dark, this island turns into a very different place. | 0:26:06 | 0:26:10 | |
The air is filled with the eerie calls | 0:26:13 | 0:26:16 | |
of a rather curious seabird of the night. | 0:26:16 | 0:26:18 | |
The Manx shearwater is the most numerous bird on Skomer. | 0:26:21 | 0:26:24 | |
128,000 pairs of them come here to breed every year, | 0:26:24 | 0:26:28 | |
a third of the world population. | 0:26:28 | 0:26:30 | |
During daylight hours, | 0:26:34 | 0:26:36 | |
the adults are either hiding away in burrows underground, | 0:26:36 | 0:26:40 | |
where they lay their eggs, or far out to sea, foraging. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:44 | |
It's only at night that the Manx shearwaters will return to land | 0:26:48 | 0:26:51 | |
to swap incubating duties. | 0:26:51 | 0:26:53 | |
But why are Manx shearwaters so clumsy? | 0:26:59 | 0:27:02 | |
Well, it's all to do with the positioning of their legs. | 0:27:05 | 0:27:08 | |
Look, they're right at the back of the body here. | 0:27:08 | 0:27:11 | |
Now this is perfect for a life at sea, perfect for paddling, | 0:27:11 | 0:27:15 | |
and perfect for diving. | 0:27:15 | 0:27:17 | |
But it's no good for walking. | 0:27:17 | 0:27:19 | |
And I know this mounted specimen shows the animal walking, | 0:27:19 | 0:27:22 | |
but to be honest with you, whenever I've seen them, | 0:27:22 | 0:27:25 | |
they've been shuffling along on their breast. | 0:27:25 | 0:27:27 | |
Pretty hopeless. | 0:27:27 | 0:27:29 | |
And, of course, prone to predation | 0:27:29 | 0:27:31 | |
from some of the larger gull and skua species | 0:27:31 | 0:27:34 | |
and it's for this reason | 0:27:34 | 0:27:36 | |
that shearwaters only come ashore at night. | 0:27:36 | 0:27:40 | |
Unfortunately, there are still plenty of victims every year. | 0:27:42 | 0:27:47 | |
This is what happens when a Manx shearwater is caught, killed, | 0:27:47 | 0:27:51 | |
and eaten by the biggest predator on Skomer, the great black-backed gull. | 0:27:51 | 0:27:56 | |
And it's not just the great black-backed gull | 0:27:58 | 0:28:00 | |
that these seabirds have to fear. | 0:28:00 | 0:28:03 | |
They run the gauntlet of death every time they leave their ledge. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:07 | |
Lots of predators time their breeding cycle to that of their prey - | 0:28:09 | 0:28:13 | |
peregrines, | 0:28:13 | 0:28:15 | |
buzzards, | 0:28:15 | 0:28:17 | |
gulls. | 0:28:17 | 0:28:19 | |
And there's one seabird on Orkney | 0:28:21 | 0:28:23 | |
that has earned itself the nickname "the northern pirate". | 0:28:23 | 0:28:27 | |
Cruising the cliffs, the Arctic skua is a stunning bird - | 0:28:29 | 0:28:35 | |
graceful, streamlined, breathtakingly agile. | 0:28:35 | 0:28:38 | |
But it has a rather unusual speciality - kleptoparasitism. | 0:28:38 | 0:28:43 | |
The Arctic skua likes to chase and bully other seabirds | 0:28:43 | 0:28:47 | |
until they give up their food. | 0:28:47 | 0:28:50 | |
It's perfectly capable of catching its own meal, | 0:28:50 | 0:28:54 | |
but it just prefers to steal from others. | 0:28:54 | 0:28:58 | |
So far we've got a feel | 0:29:01 | 0:29:03 | |
for the tremendous variety of British seabirds, | 0:29:03 | 0:29:06 | |
and what a fascinating group of animals they are. | 0:29:06 | 0:29:09 | |
Each with their own special abilities and adaptations. | 0:29:09 | 0:29:14 | |
But as a group, | 0:29:14 | 0:29:15 | |
seabirds are experiencing some tough challenges right now. | 0:29:15 | 0:29:19 | |
The sea itself is changing quite dramatically | 0:29:20 | 0:29:24 | |
and birds like the Arctic skua are struggling. | 0:29:24 | 0:29:28 | |
Since the mid 1980s, | 0:29:28 | 0:29:31 | |
Arctic skuas in Orkney have declined by nearly 70%. | 0:29:31 | 0:29:35 | |
And unfortunately it's not the only seabird that's in trouble up here. | 0:29:37 | 0:29:41 | |
On a very windy morning, I met up with Eric Meek from the RSPB, | 0:29:43 | 0:29:46 | |
who's lived and worked with seabirds | 0:29:46 | 0:29:50 | |
on Orkney for over 30 years. | 0:29:50 | 0:29:54 | |
During that time, he's seen some dramatic changes. | 0:29:54 | 0:29:58 | |
Eric, at first sight, this cliff seems to have | 0:29:59 | 0:30:03 | |
lots of birds nesting on it, but all is not as it seems, is it? | 0:30:03 | 0:30:07 | |
No, and that's the case with a lot of our seabird colonies, | 0:30:07 | 0:30:10 | |
but this one perhaps more than any other. | 0:30:10 | 0:30:13 | |
It looks quite busy, at the moment, but compared to the mid 1980s, | 0:30:13 | 0:30:17 | |
there's only a tiny fraction of the birds that were here then. | 0:30:17 | 0:30:21 | |
What sort of numbers are we talking about? | 0:30:21 | 0:30:24 | |
Well, the kittiwakes have gone down by over 90%. | 0:30:24 | 0:30:27 | |
90%?! | 0:30:27 | 0:30:29 | |
And the guillemots are down by over 90% as well. | 0:30:29 | 0:30:32 | |
Regular bird watchers say the cliffs of Orkney have gone quiet, | 0:30:33 | 0:30:38 | |
and you can see what they mean. | 0:30:38 | 0:30:41 | |
Great seabird cities like this one at Row Head on mainland Orkney, | 0:30:43 | 0:30:49 | |
are peppered with empty ledges, | 0:30:49 | 0:30:51 | |
which until recently would have been full of breeding seabirds. | 0:30:51 | 0:30:55 | |
30 years ago, how would this have looked? Can you remember? | 0:30:55 | 0:30:59 | |
Just a seething mass of birds. | 0:30:59 | 0:31:04 | |
We made a film about Orkney birds | 0:31:04 | 0:31:06 | |
called Northern Flights actually in 1989. | 0:31:06 | 0:31:09 | |
So that's 23 years ago. | 0:31:09 | 0:31:10 | |
And it's there in the film for everyone to see. | 0:31:10 | 0:31:14 | |
And it is just a mass of seabirds. Just a hive of activity. | 0:31:14 | 0:31:19 | |
And compared to then, things are very, very different now. | 0:31:19 | 0:31:23 | |
Gosh. | 0:31:23 | 0:31:24 | |
If you look closely, you can see a sad sight - | 0:31:26 | 0:31:30 | |
some abandoned kittiwake nests. | 0:31:30 | 0:31:33 | |
The birds did try to breed, | 0:31:33 | 0:31:35 | |
but then, they gave up. | 0:31:35 | 0:31:38 | |
So what on earth is happening up here in Orkney? | 0:31:38 | 0:31:41 | |
During the breeding season, | 0:31:42 | 0:31:44 | |
a lot of seabirds rely on a single food source, sand eels. | 0:31:44 | 0:31:48 | |
These small fish are full of fatty acids and packed with proteins, | 0:31:53 | 0:31:58 | |
essential for growing chicks. | 0:31:58 | 0:32:00 | |
But there's been a real shortage of sand eels in recent years. | 0:32:00 | 0:32:04 | |
And with less food available, some seabirds on Orkney are struggling. | 0:32:04 | 0:32:09 | |
To see this decline must be quite upsetting for you. | 0:32:13 | 0:32:18 | |
It's extremely upsetting, and very, very disappointing. | 0:32:18 | 0:32:21 | |
The saddest thing is that there's no quick fix. | 0:32:21 | 0:32:25 | |
So things are looking very serious for some seabirds in Orkney. | 0:32:28 | 0:32:33 | |
But what about in the south? | 0:32:33 | 0:32:35 | |
Well, surprisingly, that's a very different story. | 0:32:38 | 0:32:43 | |
The seabirds on Skomer are actually doing pretty well. | 0:32:43 | 0:32:46 | |
So where are we headed then, Tim? | 0:32:47 | 0:32:49 | |
It's June, and Iolo's joined Professor Tim Guilford, | 0:32:49 | 0:32:53 | |
a seabird scientist from Oxford University, | 0:32:53 | 0:32:56 | |
to find out how the breeding season is going this year. | 0:32:56 | 0:32:59 | |
Here we go. Tread carefully here. | 0:33:03 | 0:33:06 | |
Yeah, you must be really careful | 0:33:06 | 0:33:07 | |
cos this is just a honeycomb of burrows under here. | 0:33:07 | 0:33:10 | |
OK. There we are. | 0:33:10 | 0:33:12 | |
So what exactly are we doing here then, Tim? | 0:33:12 | 0:33:15 | |
Well, Iolo, we're measuring the growth rate of the baby puffins | 0:33:15 | 0:33:19 | |
to see how the reproduction on Skomer is going. | 0:33:19 | 0:33:23 | |
Right, OK. | 0:33:23 | 0:33:24 | |
Dave, let's have a look and see if there's anything in this burrow. | 0:33:24 | 0:33:27 | |
Hopefully there's one in here. There was one in here a little while ago. | 0:33:27 | 0:33:31 | |
How old is this one then, Dave? It's a fair size. | 0:33:31 | 0:33:34 | |
Um, this one is just over a month old, so he'll be gone pretty soon. | 0:33:34 | 0:33:38 | |
Right, you want to weigh and measure that, Dave, | 0:33:38 | 0:33:40 | |
so we can put it back as soon as we possibly can. | 0:33:40 | 0:33:44 | |
So he's got a wing of 139mm. | 0:33:44 | 0:33:47 | |
OK, yup. So weight is what? | 0:33:47 | 0:33:51 | |
-270 grams. -270 grams. | 0:33:51 | 0:33:54 | |
And roughly what weight will he be when he heads off to sea? | 0:33:54 | 0:33:59 | |
That's a reasonable weight. | 0:33:59 | 0:34:01 | |
The heaviest one I've found this year was 385 grams, | 0:34:01 | 0:34:06 | |
which is actually the heaviest one I've ever found on the island, | 0:34:06 | 0:34:09 | |
but they fledge anywhere between 275, 320 or so. | 0:34:09 | 0:34:14 | |
So this, Tim, this is a good sign. | 0:34:14 | 0:34:16 | |
It shows that these birds are very well fed. | 0:34:16 | 0:34:18 | |
Yeah, this is a nice example | 0:34:18 | 0:34:20 | |
of how well they are doing on Skomer, I think. | 0:34:20 | 0:34:22 | |
And eating what mainly? | 0:34:24 | 0:34:25 | |
Eating sprats and sand eels, those are the preferred foods, | 0:34:25 | 0:34:28 | |
but sand eels are an important part of their diet. | 0:34:28 | 0:34:31 | |
What puzzles me is why puffins on Skomer are doing so well, | 0:34:33 | 0:34:37 | |
and yet on Orkney and some of these northern islands, | 0:34:37 | 0:34:42 | |
the population's crashed. | 0:34:42 | 0:34:43 | |
That's right. And it's that distinction between what's happening | 0:34:43 | 0:34:46 | |
here in Pembrokeshire and what's happening in the north, | 0:34:46 | 0:34:49 | |
that has fascinated ecologists for some time. | 0:34:49 | 0:34:51 | |
And it has to be something to do, we think, | 0:34:51 | 0:34:53 | |
has to be something to do with the availability of sand eels. | 0:34:53 | 0:34:56 | |
So down here sand eels are as big, | 0:34:56 | 0:34:58 | |
as healthy as they have been for years. | 0:34:58 | 0:35:01 | |
In the north, and in Scotland, there have been serious declines | 0:35:01 | 0:35:05 | |
in sand eel availability. | 0:35:05 | 0:35:07 | |
Why is that? Is it climate change? Is it over-fishing? Or what, Tim? | 0:35:07 | 0:35:11 | |
We don't know for certain | 0:35:11 | 0:35:13 | |
and it could be a combination of those two factors and other things. | 0:35:13 | 0:35:15 | |
But we do know that there have been increases in sea surface temperature | 0:35:15 | 0:35:19 | |
in the North Sea in recent years. | 0:35:19 | 0:35:21 | |
And these have coincided with the decline | 0:35:21 | 0:35:24 | |
in puffin productivity and populations. | 0:35:24 | 0:35:27 | |
And we also know that these higher temperatures affect the plankton | 0:35:27 | 0:35:32 | |
on which sand eels feed and this has a knock-on effect | 0:35:32 | 0:35:35 | |
into the seabird productivity. | 0:35:35 | 0:35:36 | |
And of course fewer sand eels, fewer puffins. | 0:35:36 | 0:35:39 | |
That's absolutely right, yeah. | 0:35:39 | 0:35:41 | |
In recent years, climate change has caused | 0:35:43 | 0:35:45 | |
the North Sea water temperature to rise by almost two degrees. | 0:35:45 | 0:35:50 | |
And this has had a huge effect on the delicately-balanced marine ecosystem. | 0:35:50 | 0:35:56 | |
Cold water plankton species that the sand eels rely on for food | 0:35:56 | 0:36:00 | |
have moved north in search of colder water. | 0:36:00 | 0:36:03 | |
And the new, warmer-water species that have replaced them | 0:36:03 | 0:36:06 | |
bloom at the wrong time for the developing sand eel larvae. | 0:36:06 | 0:36:10 | |
Without enough food at the right time, | 0:36:10 | 0:36:13 | |
the sand eel population has crashed. | 0:36:13 | 0:36:15 | |
Are we going to see population declines, | 0:36:16 | 0:36:19 | |
like we're seeing on the northern islands, | 0:36:19 | 0:36:21 | |
eventually down here as well? | 0:36:21 | 0:36:23 | |
Well, we can't say for certain, and obviously we hope not, | 0:36:23 | 0:36:27 | |
we hope that it's an isolated situation in the North Sea. | 0:36:27 | 0:36:30 | |
But if climate change is part of the cause of that, | 0:36:30 | 0:36:33 | |
then I guess, in the long term, it is very likely | 0:36:33 | 0:36:36 | |
that we will see such changes here as well, | 0:36:36 | 0:36:38 | |
but for the moment things are looking good. | 0:36:38 | 0:36:40 | |
So it seems there's a clear north-south split, | 0:36:41 | 0:36:45 | |
with seabirds on southern islands like Skomer doing well. | 0:36:45 | 0:36:50 | |
Whilst those on northern islands like Orkney are struggling. | 0:36:50 | 0:36:54 | |
In fact, they're doing so badly up here on Orkney, | 0:36:55 | 0:36:58 | |
there's a chance we may lose some of them altogether. | 0:36:58 | 0:37:01 | |
Like the Arctic tern. | 0:37:01 | 0:37:04 | |
I'm back with Eric on the island of Westray, | 0:37:11 | 0:37:14 | |
and today we're going to try and ring some Arctic tern chicks. | 0:37:14 | 0:37:19 | |
But we're met with a very sad sight. | 0:37:19 | 0:37:23 | |
Look at that. That is sad. | 0:37:23 | 0:37:26 | |
That's a dead chick. | 0:37:26 | 0:37:28 | |
Poor little thing. | 0:37:29 | 0:37:31 | |
Interesting, you know, to know why that's died. | 0:37:31 | 0:37:34 | |
We don't know, maybe it's not getting enough food. | 0:37:34 | 0:37:39 | |
By monitoring the number of ringed birds | 0:37:39 | 0:37:42 | |
that return to Orkney each year, | 0:37:42 | 0:37:45 | |
Eric is able to measure breeding success | 0:37:45 | 0:37:48 | |
and survival rates of these seabirds. | 0:37:48 | 0:37:50 | |
-A nest with two eggs, just here. -Look at that! | 0:37:53 | 0:37:56 | |
When they're getting plenty of food, they'll lay a clutch of three. | 0:37:56 | 0:37:59 | |
And, you know, if their food supply's really good | 0:37:59 | 0:38:02 | |
they'll rear all three chicks. | 0:38:02 | 0:38:04 | |
But in recent years, the food supply hasn't been so good. | 0:38:05 | 0:38:09 | |
So this is a clutch of two, some years we just see clutches of one. | 0:38:09 | 0:38:13 | |
There's another clutch of two over there. | 0:38:13 | 0:38:15 | |
But, so far, no more chicks. | 0:38:16 | 0:38:18 | |
OK, so there's a scrape here. | 0:38:23 | 0:38:25 | |
-Just with a single chick there, do you see it? -I've got it. | 0:38:25 | 0:38:29 | |
-They're brilliantly camouflaged. -Fantastic. | 0:38:29 | 0:38:32 | |
-It just sits absolutely still, Eric. -It does. | 0:38:34 | 0:38:37 | |
Look at that! | 0:38:37 | 0:38:38 | |
So this chick, small as though it is, it's OK to ring. | 0:38:38 | 0:38:42 | |
88751. | 0:38:43 | 0:38:46 | |
So, Eric, you've been studying these birds, these terns, for how long? | 0:38:48 | 0:38:54 | |
Well, I first came to Orkney 31 years ago, at the beginning of 1981. | 0:38:54 | 0:38:58 | |
And the year before I came, 1980, | 0:38:58 | 0:39:01 | |
there'd been a big tern census, both in Orkney and Shetland. | 0:39:01 | 0:39:05 | |
And in Orkney the figure was a phenomenal 33,000 pairs. | 0:39:05 | 0:39:11 | |
-That's pairs? -Yup. -33,000 pairs! | 0:39:11 | 0:39:14 | |
And in Shetland there were 31,00 pairs. So these are big, big numbers. | 0:39:14 | 0:39:20 | |
Some days during the breeding season, | 0:39:20 | 0:39:22 | |
we could go into some of these big colonies | 0:39:22 | 0:39:25 | |
and ring up to 1,000 chicks in a day. | 0:39:25 | 0:39:27 | |
Absolutely phenomenal. | 0:39:27 | 0:39:29 | |
Then around about 1984, 1985, | 0:39:29 | 0:39:34 | |
we were still ringing big numbers of chicks, | 0:39:34 | 0:39:38 | |
but in one of those years we didn't get a single recovery. | 0:39:38 | 0:39:42 | |
Now, that was very odd, we didn't know exactly what was going on. | 0:39:42 | 0:39:46 | |
And what seems to have happened actually, is that those chicks | 0:39:46 | 0:39:49 | |
didn't fledge, they didn't survive. | 0:39:49 | 0:39:51 | |
The food supply had failed and they probably never left the colony. | 0:39:51 | 0:39:55 | |
And from then on, we started seeing more and more problems | 0:39:55 | 0:39:58 | |
in these tern colonies with numbers declining, | 0:39:58 | 0:40:01 | |
years of very, very poor breeding success. | 0:40:01 | 0:40:04 | |
And what about now? What is, what's the latest figure? | 0:40:04 | 0:40:07 | |
Well, this looks like a great colony, doesn't it? | 0:40:07 | 0:40:09 | |
Yeah, it does. | 0:40:09 | 0:40:11 | |
But we've only got about 70 or 80 pairs here. | 0:40:11 | 0:40:14 | |
But if you think overall, you had, what was it, | 0:40:14 | 0:40:17 | |
33,000 pairs here on Orkney. | 0:40:17 | 0:40:19 | |
How many pairs do you think you've got now? | 0:40:19 | 0:40:21 | |
We reckon that the numbers have gone down now by three quarters. | 0:40:21 | 0:40:24 | |
We've probably only got about a quarter of those birds left, if that. | 0:40:24 | 0:40:28 | |
Crikey. | 0:40:28 | 0:40:30 | |
Let's put him back, Eric. | 0:40:30 | 0:40:33 | |
Ah, brilliant, just the same as my chickens, | 0:40:38 | 0:40:42 | |
put a shirt over their head, and they're completely relaxed. | 0:40:42 | 0:40:45 | |
Let's go. | 0:40:47 | 0:40:48 | |
Bit of a magician, Eric. Wonderful. | 0:40:48 | 0:40:51 | |
It's very sad to think that seabirds like the Arctic tern | 0:40:54 | 0:40:58 | |
could soon be lost as a breeding species - | 0:40:58 | 0:41:01 | |
they'll still visit, but not stay to breed. | 0:41:01 | 0:41:04 | |
Unfortunately, we aren't suddenly going to be able to reverse | 0:41:04 | 0:41:07 | |
the effects of climate change, | 0:41:07 | 0:41:09 | |
so there's very little we can do to help. | 0:41:09 | 0:41:11 | |
But there is a team of RSPB researchers, | 0:41:21 | 0:41:24 | |
who are involved with some extremely exciting new science. | 0:41:24 | 0:41:28 | |
Until now, we've known very little | 0:41:30 | 0:41:32 | |
about what our seabirds do once they leave their colony. | 0:41:32 | 0:41:36 | |
So these researchers are fitting birds | 0:41:36 | 0:41:38 | |
with small electronic tags | 0:41:38 | 0:41:41 | |
to work out where they're going to feed during the day, | 0:41:41 | 0:41:43 | |
how far they go, how long they spend fishing. | 0:41:43 | 0:41:47 | |
The data they're gathering is giving us some remarkable new insights | 0:41:49 | 0:41:53 | |
into the lives of our seabirds, | 0:41:53 | 0:41:55 | |
which in the future may enable us to do something to help. | 0:41:55 | 0:41:59 | |
I've come to meet Andy Knight from the RSPB | 0:42:05 | 0:42:08 | |
here in Orkney to find out more. | 0:42:08 | 0:42:10 | |
Some of the results already here. What does this one show us? | 0:42:12 | 0:42:16 | |
Yes, if you look at this one, this is a shag. | 0:42:16 | 0:42:19 | |
And you can see from here there's a lot of activity there. | 0:42:19 | 0:42:22 | |
So this is all in a 24-hour period. | 0:42:22 | 0:42:24 | |
So there's obviously a lot of to-ing and fro-ing. | 0:42:24 | 0:42:26 | |
To give you an idea of scale, this is on Copinsay | 0:42:26 | 0:42:29 | |
and that island's what, half a mile long? | 0:42:29 | 0:42:32 | |
So it's travelling very little distance at all. | 0:42:32 | 0:42:34 | |
Shag doing pretty well. They're a generalist feeder, | 0:42:34 | 0:42:38 | |
so they can feed on pretty much any species they want, | 0:42:38 | 0:42:41 | |
as long as they can get it in their mouth. | 0:42:41 | 0:42:44 | |
And the chicks don't mind what they get. | 0:42:44 | 0:42:46 | |
They regurgitate the fish, | 0:42:46 | 0:42:47 | |
so doesn't matter whether it's a big or small fish, it's just mush. | 0:42:47 | 0:42:50 | |
So that's the shag, and it's doing fairly well. | 0:42:50 | 0:42:54 | |
But what about this one? | 0:42:54 | 0:42:57 | |
Yeah, now this one is kittiwake. | 0:42:57 | 0:43:00 | |
This is a plunge feeder. | 0:43:01 | 0:43:03 | |
It's a different way of feeding to the shag. | 0:43:03 | 0:43:05 | |
So it can only get food from the surface. | 0:43:05 | 0:43:07 | |
It can only bring back one fish at a time, the sand eel, | 0:43:07 | 0:43:10 | |
it can't choose which, it would just be sand eels. | 0:43:10 | 0:43:13 | |
And you can instantly see that there's quite a difference there. | 0:43:13 | 0:43:17 | |
In the other map there, Copinsay filled your image there. | 0:43:17 | 0:43:21 | |
Here, Copinsay is just a dot, | 0:43:21 | 0:43:24 | |
you can't even make it out on the map. | 0:43:24 | 0:43:26 | |
You've got most of the rest of northeast Scotland, | 0:43:26 | 0:43:29 | |
all the way down to Aberdeen here, | 0:43:29 | 0:43:30 | |
the ferry time from Aberdeen to Orkney is eight hours, | 0:43:30 | 0:43:35 | |
so that's a long way. | 0:43:35 | 0:43:37 | |
Well, that must be travelling what, over 100 miles here, isn't it? | 0:43:37 | 0:43:41 | |
Would you say? | 0:43:41 | 0:43:42 | |
Way more. Several hundred kilometres. | 0:43:42 | 0:43:44 | |
To get one fish? | 0:43:44 | 0:43:46 | |
To eventually bring one fish back. | 0:43:46 | 0:43:48 | |
One fish back to the chick. Is that usual? Is that what you'd expect? | 0:43:48 | 0:43:52 | |
As an ecologist, it's absolutely not what you'd expect. | 0:43:52 | 0:43:56 | |
So it's having to go and find where those sand eels are. | 0:43:56 | 0:43:59 | |
And to breed successfully, you would expect it to travel | 0:43:59 | 0:44:02 | |
just a short distance to bring fish regularly back. | 0:44:02 | 0:44:05 | |
And, in this case, it obviously isn't managing that. | 0:44:05 | 0:44:08 | |
So there on that map, we can see why the kittiwakes are in trouble. | 0:44:08 | 0:44:12 | |
They're having to travel an enormous distance. | 0:44:12 | 0:44:15 | |
But there's something else positive here, maybe in the long term, | 0:44:17 | 0:44:21 | |
because it seems to be sort of stopping in specific areas. | 0:44:21 | 0:44:26 | |
It does, and the research is, that's really the purpose of it, | 0:44:26 | 0:44:30 | |
to find out exactly where these birds are feeding, | 0:44:30 | 0:44:33 | |
we can identify where the key feeding areas are and from that, | 0:44:33 | 0:44:39 | |
that will help us to determine in the future | 0:44:39 | 0:44:41 | |
how we protect these sea areas for the long-term benefit of these birds. | 0:44:41 | 0:44:45 | |
Not just the places where they nest, but the places where they feed, | 0:44:45 | 0:44:49 | |
which is something we just didn't know before. | 0:44:49 | 0:44:51 | |
We're pretty good at protecting our seabirds on land. | 0:44:54 | 0:44:56 | |
We've created nature reserves | 0:44:56 | 0:44:59 | |
at many of the larger seabird breeding colonies. | 0:44:59 | 0:45:02 | |
But seabirds spend most of their lives out at sea | 0:45:02 | 0:45:07 | |
so if we're really going to help them, | 0:45:08 | 0:45:11 | |
ideally, we need to start protecting them out there too. | 0:45:11 | 0:45:15 | |
The hope is research like this | 0:45:20 | 0:45:22 | |
will allow us to identify feeding hotspots in the ocean, | 0:45:22 | 0:45:26 | |
which one day we can designate as new Marine Nature Reserves. | 0:45:26 | 0:45:30 | |
But this is not a simple story. | 0:45:33 | 0:45:37 | |
While many of our seabirds, like the kittiwake, | 0:45:37 | 0:45:40 | |
are experiencing sharp declines, others are doing much better. | 0:45:40 | 0:45:44 | |
Bass Rock, off the east coast of Scotland, | 0:45:45 | 0:45:48 | |
hosts around 20% of the entire world population of Northern gannets. | 0:45:48 | 0:45:54 | |
And the colony is expanding every year. | 0:45:54 | 0:45:58 | |
Since 2001, numbers have gone from 42,000 breeding pairs, | 0:45:59 | 0:46:06 | |
to well over 55,000, good news. | 0:46:06 | 0:46:10 | |
Here on Orkney, it's a similar situation. | 0:46:10 | 0:46:13 | |
I'm back with Eric, who's brought me to Noup Head. | 0:46:15 | 0:46:19 | |
From time immemorial, the only gannet colony in Orkney | 0:46:21 | 0:46:26 | |
was on Sule Stack, 40 miles out into the Atlantic that way. | 0:46:26 | 0:46:29 | |
And then in 2003, two new colonies suddenly sprung up, | 0:46:29 | 0:46:34 | |
on the little island of Sule Skerry, | 0:46:34 | 0:46:36 | |
which is about five miles from the Stack, | 0:46:36 | 0:46:37 | |
and here on the Noup, just out of the blue, three nests were found. | 0:46:37 | 0:46:43 | |
That was 2003. By 2009, there were 500 nests here. | 0:46:43 | 0:46:47 | |
They just went up like a rocket. | 0:46:47 | 0:46:49 | |
And now, this year, we've just counted them again | 0:46:49 | 0:46:52 | |
and there are 623 nests. | 0:46:52 | 0:46:55 | |
So does that mean overall gannet numbers are actually increasing? | 0:46:55 | 0:46:58 | |
They seem to be at the moment. | 0:46:58 | 0:47:00 | |
And the reason for them coming here is possibly because | 0:47:00 | 0:47:04 | |
Sule Stack got over-populated, there's about 5,000 pairs there. | 0:47:04 | 0:47:07 | |
So as far as we know, at the moment this is a good news story in Orkney? | 0:47:07 | 0:47:11 | |
Yes, it's one of the few in the seabird world. | 0:47:11 | 0:47:14 | |
Why do you think the gannets are doing so well? | 0:47:14 | 0:47:17 | |
Well, they're not totally dependent on sand eels. | 0:47:17 | 0:47:19 | |
All the other birds we've been seeing | 0:47:19 | 0:47:21 | |
eat almost nothing but sand eels, and if they can't get sand eels, | 0:47:21 | 0:47:25 | |
then their breeding success is badly affected. | 0:47:25 | 0:47:27 | |
The gannet is a big bird. It can fly long distances. | 0:47:27 | 0:47:31 | |
It can hunt for food over a wide area away from the colony. | 0:47:31 | 0:47:35 | |
And it can hunt on much bigger fish, things like mackerel, for example. | 0:47:35 | 0:47:38 | |
And they also eat a lot of fisheries discards, | 0:47:38 | 0:47:42 | |
the fish that are being thrown back into the sea off fishing vessels. | 0:47:42 | 0:47:45 | |
And they're incredibly spectacular when they fish. | 0:47:45 | 0:47:48 | |
-Oh, absolutely. -Thumping into the water. | 0:47:48 | 0:47:50 | |
Vertical dive, from 100 feet up or more. | 0:47:50 | 0:47:53 | |
Putting their wings back and just slicing through the water. | 0:47:53 | 0:47:56 | |
-And what a spectacular sight that is. -Fabulous bird. | 0:47:56 | 0:48:00 | |
It seems that right now | 0:48:03 | 0:48:05 | |
the most successful seabirds are those capable of adapting. | 0:48:05 | 0:48:10 | |
Even, in some cases, moving away from the sea itself. | 0:48:10 | 0:48:14 | |
Michaela's heading to the city of Bath | 0:48:16 | 0:48:18 | |
where seabirds like the herring gull and lesser black-backed gull | 0:48:18 | 0:48:23 | |
are becoming an increasingly common sight. | 0:48:23 | 0:48:26 | |
Listen to that noise - now that is the sound of seagulls. | 0:48:26 | 0:48:29 | |
And when I was a little girl, | 0:48:29 | 0:48:31 | |
if you heard that, it meant that you were in a town or city by the sea. | 0:48:31 | 0:48:35 | |
But, these days, that's not the case. | 0:48:35 | 0:48:37 | |
You could be anywhere in the country, even in the land-locked city of Bath. | 0:48:37 | 0:48:43 | |
Today I'm meeting ornithologist Peter Rock, | 0:48:43 | 0:48:46 | |
who's spent the last years studying the rise of gulls | 0:48:46 | 0:48:50 | |
in our towns and cities. | 0:48:50 | 0:48:52 | |
Peter, I must say, I've always found the City of Bath a very nice place. | 0:48:53 | 0:48:57 | |
-Yup. -But what do the gulls find so attractive about Bath | 0:48:57 | 0:49:00 | |
and other towns and cities? | 0:49:00 | 0:49:02 | |
OK, now, turn your gull brain on. And have a look out there. | 0:49:02 | 0:49:05 | |
And what you can see is a whole load of islands with very steep cliffs. | 0:49:05 | 0:49:10 | |
That means that they're very safe. No predators. | 0:49:12 | 0:49:16 | |
Hardly any disturbance. | 0:49:16 | 0:49:18 | |
Our towns offer other benefits too, like street lighting | 0:49:19 | 0:49:23 | |
that means they can forage later into the night. | 0:49:23 | 0:49:25 | |
And, of course, there are a lot more food opportunities. | 0:49:27 | 0:49:30 | |
These birds know everything there is to know about food | 0:49:32 | 0:49:35 | |
within a radius of 100km of here. | 0:49:35 | 0:49:37 | |
They know where restaurants are leaving their waste out. | 0:49:37 | 0:49:41 | |
They know all the landfills, of course. | 0:49:41 | 0:49:43 | |
They know everything they need to, which is why they're so successful. | 0:49:43 | 0:49:47 | |
Seagulls are moving into our towns and cities all over the UK, | 0:49:50 | 0:49:56 | |
it's not just Bath. | 0:49:56 | 0:49:57 | |
It seems the places we choose to live are more and more attractive to them | 0:49:57 | 0:50:01 | |
as they struggle to make a living at sea. | 0:50:01 | 0:50:03 | |
Today Peter's going to be ringing some of this year's chicks. | 0:50:03 | 0:50:07 | |
Grab him. | 0:50:07 | 0:50:08 | |
Grab him?! | 0:50:08 | 0:50:10 | |
That's it, grab him! Grab him, yeah, lovely. | 0:50:10 | 0:50:12 | |
It's the best way for him to keep tabs on these urban gull populations | 0:50:14 | 0:50:18 | |
and find out more about what's going on. | 0:50:18 | 0:50:20 | |
So this is where we're doing our ringing? | 0:50:20 | 0:50:22 | |
Shove them right up against the wall, look. That's it. | 0:50:22 | 0:50:25 | |
When Peter's ringing the chicks, he also takes some measurements, | 0:50:26 | 0:50:30 | |
which allow him to work out their age, sex, | 0:50:30 | 0:50:33 | |
and even what species they are. | 0:50:33 | 0:50:35 | |
Because when they're this young, | 0:50:35 | 0:50:38 | |
lesser black-backed and herring gulls look very similar. | 0:50:38 | 0:50:41 | |
I just open the wing. | 0:50:41 | 0:50:42 | |
The primaries are all dark, | 0:50:42 | 0:50:45 | |
and in particular that area there is darkish and plain. | 0:50:45 | 0:50:48 | |
-So this is a lesser black-backed? -This is a lesser black-backed gull. | 0:50:48 | 0:50:51 | |
In herring gulls, this would all be very pale | 0:50:51 | 0:50:54 | |
and it would be very mottled | 0:50:54 | 0:50:56 | |
and then the primaries would be brown as opposed to blackish. | 0:50:56 | 0:50:59 | |
How old do you reckon this one is? | 0:50:59 | 0:51:02 | |
By the size of him, six weeks. | 0:51:02 | 0:51:05 | |
And I expect them at six weeks to have a wing of around about 300, | 0:51:05 | 0:51:09 | |
and you can see that this one is actually 301. | 0:51:09 | 0:51:12 | |
Thanks to Peter's detailed records going back decades, | 0:51:12 | 0:51:16 | |
we've learnt a huge amount about the seagulls that are now living inland. | 0:51:16 | 0:51:20 | |
And they're a very different bird | 0:51:20 | 0:51:22 | |
from the birds we see around the coast. | 0:51:22 | 0:51:25 | |
These urban gulls will never go back to the wild. | 0:51:25 | 0:51:29 | |
They will always go to another urban colony, if they're female, | 0:51:29 | 0:51:34 | |
or back to their own colony if they're male. | 0:51:34 | 0:51:37 | |
-So an urban gull will always be an urban gull? -Yep, yeah. | 0:51:37 | 0:51:40 | |
-Can I let this one go? -You certainly can, yes. | 0:51:40 | 0:51:43 | |
Now, remember he can bite, but he won't bite hard. | 0:51:43 | 0:51:45 | |
OK. Oh, hello, hello. Where shall I put him? | 0:51:45 | 0:51:48 | |
Shove him down there, that'll be fine. Just let him go. | 0:51:48 | 0:51:52 | |
OK, ready? One, two, three, go. | 0:51:52 | 0:51:53 | |
Don't have to throw him, just put him down. | 0:51:53 | 0:51:55 | |
Oh, he wants to stick around, this one. No, he's off! | 0:51:55 | 0:51:58 | |
So Peter, urban numbers of gulls are up, rural numbers are down, | 0:51:58 | 0:52:02 | |
but how is the population doing as a whole? | 0:52:02 | 0:52:05 | |
What we're looking at is a decline overall in the population. | 0:52:05 | 0:52:08 | |
The difference of course is that urban gulls are very successful, | 0:52:08 | 0:52:13 | |
and are increasing rapidly. | 0:52:13 | 0:52:15 | |
Whereas rural gulls are declining, | 0:52:15 | 0:52:18 | |
and quite dramatically, too, actually. | 0:52:18 | 0:52:20 | |
We're looking at a situation where, eventually, urban gulls | 0:52:20 | 0:52:25 | |
will be more numerous than rural gulls. | 0:52:25 | 0:52:28 | |
Urban gulls are taking over the world, you mark my words. | 0:52:28 | 0:52:31 | |
Actually, I'm not joking! | 0:52:31 | 0:52:32 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:52:32 | 0:52:34 | |
It seems that some of the most successful seabirds are the ones | 0:52:37 | 0:52:41 | |
that have ditched the sea and headed inland for alternative food sources. | 0:52:41 | 0:52:45 | |
And it's incredible how well these urban gulls are doing. | 0:52:45 | 0:52:49 | |
However, if their success continues, | 0:52:49 | 0:52:52 | |
it could cause them problems, | 0:52:52 | 0:52:54 | |
as many local residents and councils view them as pests. | 0:52:54 | 0:52:59 | |
These big birds can make a dreadful mess. | 0:53:01 | 0:53:05 | |
And that terrible noise. | 0:53:05 | 0:53:06 | |
GULLS CALL | 0:53:06 | 0:53:08 | |
You know, all they're actually saying to each other is, | 0:53:08 | 0:53:12 | |
"Come and mate with me, or get lost!" | 0:53:12 | 0:53:14 | |
What a racket. | 0:53:14 | 0:53:16 | |
I guess if we're going to keep enjoying seabirds in the UK, | 0:53:17 | 0:53:20 | |
we ALL need to adapt. | 0:53:20 | 0:53:23 | |
We're extremely fortunate that, every summer, | 0:53:25 | 0:53:29 | |
eight million seabirds choose to come to our shores | 0:53:29 | 0:53:33 | |
to have their young. | 0:53:33 | 0:53:34 | |
Their breeding season provides us with a wonderful wildlife spectacle. | 0:53:36 | 0:53:41 | |
But, of course, it all comes to an end | 0:53:44 | 0:53:47 | |
when the seabirds return to the sea. | 0:53:47 | 0:53:50 | |
Iolo's back on Skomer for one last time. | 0:53:57 | 0:54:00 | |
It's late June, | 0:54:04 | 0:54:06 | |
and we're getting to the end of the seabird breeding season. | 0:54:06 | 0:54:09 | |
Some of the chicks are starting to think about fledging. | 0:54:10 | 0:54:14 | |
Careful where we go, just watch your footing there. | 0:54:14 | 0:54:18 | |
'But first of all, Tim's taking me to meet | 0:54:18 | 0:54:20 | |
'one of the island's newest arrivals.' | 0:54:20 | 0:54:23 | |
-Let's see what we've got in there. -Right, let's see what we've got. | 0:54:23 | 0:54:27 | |
Ahh, what a beautiful bird. | 0:54:27 | 0:54:28 | |
That's brilliant. Come on, little guy. | 0:54:28 | 0:54:31 | |
How old is that, Tim? | 0:54:31 | 0:54:33 | |
That's five days old, Iolo. | 0:54:33 | 0:54:35 | |
-Five days! Is that all? -Yeah. | 0:54:35 | 0:54:36 | |
-It's grown a lot in days, hasn't it? -Yeah, yeah. | 0:54:36 | 0:54:39 | |
-We'd better weigh it. -We're going to weigh it. | 0:54:39 | 0:54:42 | |
And a typical Manx shearwater beak already. That long beak. | 0:54:42 | 0:54:44 | |
Oh, yes. You can already see it's a baby Manx shearwater. | 0:54:44 | 0:54:47 | |
That's 135 grams. | 0:54:47 | 0:54:50 | |
-Do you want me to hold him for you? -Yeah, why don't you? | 0:54:50 | 0:54:52 | |
Come here, boy, get my hands nice and warm. | 0:54:52 | 0:54:55 | |
Look at that, what a little beauty! | 0:54:55 | 0:54:58 | |
Hey, get your head up, look, don't worry, we mean you no harm, | 0:54:58 | 0:55:01 | |
I'll just keep you warm. | 0:55:01 | 0:55:02 | |
And this will be in its burrow for how long now? | 0:55:02 | 0:55:05 | |
Almost another 70 days. | 0:55:05 | 0:55:07 | |
So it's not going to leave until mid-September? | 0:55:07 | 0:55:10 | |
That's right. Early September. | 0:55:10 | 0:55:11 | |
It'll be one of the last birds on the island, won't it? | 0:55:11 | 0:55:13 | |
Everything, all the other seabirds pretty much will have finished | 0:55:13 | 0:55:16 | |
long before the shearwaters fledge. | 0:55:16 | 0:55:18 | |
And in fact, most of their parents will have gone | 0:55:18 | 0:55:21 | |
by the time they fledge as well. | 0:55:21 | 0:55:22 | |
And, of course, they go all the way down to South America. | 0:55:22 | 0:55:25 | |
That's right, yes. | 0:55:25 | 0:55:26 | |
So a journey of, what, 25,000km round trip, probably. | 0:55:26 | 0:55:30 | |
Plenty of food down there for them. | 0:55:30 | 0:55:32 | |
Right, I'd better give you that to put back. | 0:55:32 | 0:55:34 | |
Thank you very much then, what a stunning little bird. | 0:55:34 | 0:55:37 | |
Thank you for that, that's a real privilege. | 0:55:37 | 0:55:39 | |
Now, Tim, we've known for quite some time that our Manx shearwaters | 0:55:39 | 0:55:44 | |
go all the way down off the coast of South America, | 0:55:44 | 0:55:47 | |
but what we haven't known until now, Tim, | 0:55:47 | 0:55:50 | |
is where our puffins go in the winter. | 0:55:50 | 0:55:52 | |
So the picture for puffin migration has been very patchy until recently, | 0:55:53 | 0:55:57 | |
when we were able to use geo-location technology | 0:55:57 | 0:56:01 | |
to track individual puffins using these little devices here. | 0:56:01 | 0:56:05 | |
And where do they go? | 0:56:05 | 0:56:06 | |
Well, it's a very interesting picture. | 0:56:06 | 0:56:09 | |
The answer seems to be that they go pretty much everywhere. | 0:56:09 | 0:56:12 | |
I mean, I'm exaggerating, | 0:56:12 | 0:56:13 | |
but they have this highly dispersive migration. | 0:56:13 | 0:56:15 | |
From Skomer, we have puffins which... | 0:56:15 | 0:56:17 | |
breeding puffins which migrate out towards Greenland, beyond Greenland. | 0:56:17 | 0:56:22 | |
We have some which migrate down into the Mediterranean. | 0:56:22 | 0:56:25 | |
And each individual is doing something different. | 0:56:25 | 0:56:29 | |
In fact, puffins from neighbouring burrows, | 0:56:29 | 0:56:31 | |
who've spent the summer living just a couple of feet away from each other, | 0:56:31 | 0:56:36 | |
could end up spending the winter thousands of miles apart. | 0:56:36 | 0:56:39 | |
The breeding season on Skomer is drawing to a close. | 0:56:45 | 0:56:48 | |
It's time for the seabirds to start heading back out to sea, | 0:56:48 | 0:56:52 | |
and their chicks will soon follow them. | 0:56:52 | 0:56:56 | |
For these young birds, it's a brave jump into the great blue yonder, | 0:56:56 | 0:57:01 | |
but also a brave leap into a very uncertain future. | 0:57:01 | 0:57:05 | |
Let's for a moment be ruthlessly realistic. | 0:57:09 | 0:57:13 | |
The process of climate change is not going to stop, | 0:57:13 | 0:57:17 | |
the temperature of these seas | 0:57:17 | 0:57:18 | |
is going to continue to rise inexorably. | 0:57:18 | 0:57:21 | |
So what's going to happen right here in Orkney, right now? | 0:57:21 | 0:57:25 | |
Well, some of our seabirds, unfortunately, | 0:57:25 | 0:57:28 | |
are not going to make it. They've had it. | 0:57:28 | 0:57:30 | |
But I don't think those magnificent sea cliffs | 0:57:30 | 0:57:33 | |
are going to fall silent. | 0:57:33 | 0:57:36 | |
It's just going to be a process of change. | 0:57:36 | 0:57:38 | |
The numbers are going to change, and the types of bird nesting there | 0:57:38 | 0:57:41 | |
are also going to change. | 0:57:41 | 0:57:44 | |
But maybe, over the centuries, that change has gone on anyway. | 0:57:44 | 0:57:48 | |
We've just got to hope that some, at least, | 0:57:48 | 0:57:51 | |
of our seabirds can keep pace with what's happening now. | 0:57:51 | 0:57:55 | |
A lot of work is being done to find out what's going wrong | 0:57:59 | 0:58:03 | |
with our seabirds, and what we can do to help them. | 0:58:03 | 0:58:07 | |
But I can't urge you enough to get out and visit | 0:58:07 | 0:58:11 | |
one of these seabird colonies for yourself in summer. | 0:58:11 | 0:58:15 | |
The Orkneys, the Bass Rock, the Skomer Island Complex - | 0:58:15 | 0:58:19 | |
these are wildlife spectacles with no compare. | 0:58:19 | 0:58:22 | |
They're better than the Serengeti. | 0:58:22 | 0:58:24 | |
They're better than Antarctica. | 0:58:24 | 0:58:26 | |
They really are the best of British wildlife. | 0:58:26 | 0:58:30 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:58:53 | 0:58:56 |