A return to the blog

I’ve been wanting to get back into writing for quite a while, and have failed miserably at actually doing anything about it. Whilst I enjoy sharing images and small snippets on platforms like Instagram and Twitter, it’s just not the same as sharing longer pieces that provide more of the story behind these news reels. And so, I thought it was finally about time to get back to it! I’m going to attempt to try a weekly blog, particularly focussed on the beginning of my PhD work on Storm-petrels in the Faroe Islands (more to come on this), but also to capture some of the highs and lows of other wildlife explorations along the way (of which there are invariably many!).

To kick off the return of my blogging, or ‘Field Notes’ as I am to call this section, I’ll try and summarise the first two weeks of my time back in the Faroe Islands, where I will be until the end of September as I ‘officially’ begin my PhD!

I’m back on the rugged, windswept islands of the Faroes for my fourth summer; an annual pilgrimage to study the European Storm-petrel in the largest colony of its kind in the World. This immense breeding colony - of around 50,000 pairs - resides on the small, humpbacked island of Nolsoy, just a few kilometres east of the capital Tórshavn. A half-hour ferry crossing transports you to this bustling little island, which is full of a wealth of breeding birds in the summer months - Whimbrels, Arctic Terns, Black Guillemots, Faroese Starlings, Arctic and Great Skuas, Red-necked Phalaropes and Red-throated Divers, as well as its breeding seabirds like Puffins, Storm-petrels, Manx shearwaters and Kittiwakes.

This island forms the base for my research activities, much of which is focussed in the Storm-petrel colony itself. This is located an hour’s walk from the colourful little village of Nolsoy, towards the east of a towering basalt cliff that stretches 5 kilometres to the southern tip of the island. Below this cliff, in the jumbled wreck of boulder scree, is where the thousands of Storm-petrels breed. It’s a spectacular site, and not a bad focal site for my work!

Since 2021, I have been working with the local ornithologists on Nolsoy called Jens-kjeld Jensen (aka ‘the Birdman’ of the Faroes) and Jógvan Thomsen. These characters, amongst many others, have been fundamental to the development of my research activities here, and Jens-kjeld in particular has fascinated our studies by installing over 70 nest-boxes in the colony for Storm-petrels to nest in. These unique nestboxes are huge compared to those developed elsewhere - impressive constructions that involve a section of corrugated drainage pipe, a 1-2 metre entrance tunnel, and all of these buried beneath grass turf and rock. This design has been inspired by Jens-kjeld’s few observations of natural nest sites for Storm-petrels here on Nólsoy, and they have been hugely successful: we now have over 35 boxes inhabited, out of around 70.

These nestboxes are critical to our work, allowing access to nesting Storm-petrels with minimal disturbance; where we can monitor pairs through the arc of their breeding period, carry out GPS tracking on some birds, and deploy internal nest cameras to document the mysterious lives of these birds. The GPS tagging, in particular, will form a cornerstone of my research here, helping to reveal how these birds utilise the marine environment around the Faroe Islands (and much further afield). Their extensive foraging tracks will help us assess where important feeding areas lie offshore, and how these miniature birds interact with the plethora of offshore pressures we have thrown in their paths: from the glaring light pollution associated with oil and gas platforms, fisheries pressures and the emerging question of offshore wind farm developments in northern waters. And not to mention how climate change will wreak havoc with their lives.

Since arriving in the Faroes two weeks ago, I’ve been living out of a tent on the ‘camp ground’ on Nólsoy, supported by a number of local people whose open doors are offered to me for dry inside space. From this base on Nólsoy, I’ve been beginning the nestbox monitoring of Storm-petrels in the colony on the island, and have started some initial surveys of fish farms around the coast of the larger islands, Vagár and Streymoy, to see if Storm-petrels are attracted to these installations as foraging sites and associated artificial light.

The nestbox checks from these first couple of weeks have revealed some interesting puzzles for this season already: a key theme is of a late breeding season, with eggs appearing in the boxes just this last week (late July/early August). Usually we’d expect most birds to be on their single, white egg by mid July here. A number of well established pairs have not turned up in their boxes, and generally the number of pairs in the boxes aren’t quite what I’d hoped or expected. It’s hard to say what might be behind these observations as yet, and it could just be that some pairs haven’t arrived as yet - a late season indeed. But there’s certainly indications of some odd events so far. I really hope we’ll be able to get some GPS tags out on these breeding birds later on in their incubation period, and into the chick-rearing stage. But as this point, the main task is to carefully monitor the boxes, recording their behaviours on camera and begin some wider work on offshore surveys using a thermal imaging binoculars.

Some highlights from fieldwork so far has been the discovery of a Puffin pair breeding in one of our boxes, which has been really fun to document using the nest cams. It’s also been fantastic to enjoy the wealth of other summer birdlife that calls this rocky island home for a matter of months - clouds of Puffins swirling around the precipitous cliffs, Golden Plovers with a fledged chick near the harbour, Whimbrels fluttering around calling, singing and alarm calling with equal volume, and Arctic Skuas patrolling the island with their sleek, elegant form.

I’m now joined by a good friend of mine from Wales, Jimmy Carter, who is helping with this initial period of fieldwork; and another assistant joins this coming week in the form of young birder Ewan Turner. The pace of research will gain momentum as the nights grow longer and allow for more nocturnal studies of the birds, and as some of the breeding pairs begin to reach the key times for GPS tracking. We will see what the tumultuous Atlantic weather systems will allow this coming week!