Natural History
June 2013
Peregrines on City Hall clock tower 2013
June 7 Update
Eventful couple of days. Received a call yesterday that a young Peregrine was on the ground near City Hall. Directions weren't brilliant so had to go hunting around and finally found a young male hunkered down at the edge of one of the footpaths in Alexandra Gardens, under some overhanging vegetation. Amazingly you could walk past within a couple of feet and it didn't move. He was duly picked up and taken back to the roof of City Hall at the base of the tower where he was fitted with a BTO ring and a colour-ring Blue FH, the first photo is of him looking lass than happy with his experience but hopefully it will keep him out of trouble until he can fly strongly enough to gain height.
Then this morning I had another call from the RSPB to say that a young Peregrine was on a statue in King Edward VII Avenue. I met up with Phil Pinder and there was the bird sat on the statue (second photo). This one was unringed so we knew it was a different bird to yesterday, I tried to catch it so it could be ringed but wasn't quite quick enough and it flew off strongly. Which is a good thing as it suggests it should survive. Apparently it had been seen feeding earlier so it's good to know that the parents are feeding them even quite some way from the tower.
No sign of the young female today though.
Peregrines on the City Hall Clock Tower 2013
June 6 Update
All three youngsters are practically fully grown now and one of the males has even left the nest ledge. He was seen on a roof above the west entrance to City Hall yesterday morning where he will be safe enough.
The other two, a male and a female, could be seen wing flapping and getting themselves ready for their first flight. It won't be long before they're out and about.
So far, so good, although the next two or three days are still perilous for the youngsters as they don't have the strength to get back to the higher ledges in the first few days after their first flight. Fingers crossed that all three will be safe and fledge this year.
May 2013
Peregrines on the Clock Tower 2013
May 29 update
Well the chicks are now about a month old and the change in the last 10 days or so has been dramatic. The pictures show them at about 20 days and then a mere 8 days later, changing from fluffy white balls to something resembling a Peregrine.
If all 3 chicks fledge - possibly a big if given the knack they have of falling off the tower before they can fly properly - this will be a very good year. Well, I suppose it is anyway as the adults wil have raised 3 chicks to fledging age, just that the nest site isn't particularly safe for youngsters!
Judging by the size of the young it looks like there may be one female and 2 males. At one month the difference in size between the sexes is apparent even from a distance.
The next 2-3 weeks will be very challenging for the youngsters, I hope they manage to stay on the tower!
Peregrines on the Clock Tower 2013
May 3 update
Plenty of feeding taking place today and I think there may now be 3 chicks. Their heads are becoming more visible by the day so it should soon be very obvious how many chicks there are. Female seems to be doing most of the feeding at the moment with the male bringing in the food.
I hope the chicks are more sensible this year when they are bigger and don't get too adventurous too soon - the ledge by the nest isn't very wide!
Watch their progress here
February 2013
Falkland Islands 2013: February 4th update
04.02.13
I ended up sampling two different shores at Hill Cove, one below the main settlement and the other at the far east end of Byron Sound by the West Lagoons area (Photo 1). Each was slightly different although fairly low in diversity with clean fine sand. In between those I also went to Shallow Bay (Photo 2) which was further east and north and very rocky. Here I found some interesting worms that I don’t think I had seen elsewhere under the rocks and in crevices. As the tides have been getting later the morning tides have been gradually creeping towards more viable times themselves. The second shore in Hill Cove was actually visited very early in the morning although I must admit my dedication to getting up before breakfast nearly waned when I heard rain lashing against the window. Luckily that passed and I did make it out.
Saturday morning dawned bright and still and the tide was slightly more sociable at 9am and, being a 5 minute walk down the hill, did not require too early a start. This was Port Howard where we were due to get the ferry back to the east in the afternoon, so a last easy site was a good way to finish. By mid-morning the wind had picked up and by lunchtime I had a feeling the ferry ride might be a little ‘lumpy’ but so long as we got back across the sound I didn’t care. Commerson’s Dolphins saw us off, playing in the waves alongside the ferry, a nice farewell (Photo 3). The trip was indeed lumpy but less than 2 hours later we were back in New Haven and after another 2 hours were in a very wet and blowy Stanley. Photo 4 shows the locations of the sampling sites.
The tour around West Falkland has been very successful with a range of different sites visited from all a around the coastline and I have collected some very good samples. Highlights that stand out were the large lugworms at Port Stephens (Photo 5) and the densely packed onuphidae colonies that occur in patches on many of the sandy shores (Photo 6). I have also seen many animals that I am sure I did not collect on the previous trip so that bodes well for the final species list.
Back at the office I set to finishing packing the precious samples. I had been regularly keeping up with changing the fluids in the pots while I was travelling and even sealing them up and putting them into small bags ready so as to make the packing process quicker. In no time at all I had 6 boxes packed and taped up. This was more than I had been expecting to have considering I have already sent 3 boxes back and I didn’t think the lady in the post office would be very happy to see me! Certainly I don’t think I gave her a good start to a Monday morning.
With my flight early tomorrow morning I only have today left here to wrap everything up. I’ve visited 23 different sites around both East and West Falkland over the last four weeks and after this second trip my map of sites looks much more comprehensive with points all around the coastline. Hopefully the eventual species list, together with a voucher collection that will be returned to the islands, that will come out of the project will enable future researchers out here to make better and more accurate identifications of this important group.
I have a radio interview this afternoon with the local station to talk about the research I am doing so that will be a good opportunity to explain to more people the purpose behind the visit.
So it just remains for me thank all of the islanders out here for their help, support and cups of tea during the trip (particularly those that helped and supported my car and supplied brake fluid).
The project also could not have continued without the support and assistance of the Shackleton Scholarship Fund and the Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales
Thank you all!
Teresa
January 2013
Falkland Islands 2013: January 31st update
31.01.13
It turns out that the car is not due to recover quickly and has been declared ‘unserviceable’ (a word that brought twinges of déjà vu and memories of my flight out). A replacement has been promised.
Still, I have a car on loan for now which got me to Crooked Inlet, a large winding creek on the southern side of the same peninsula I sampled yesterday. As with many such sheltered creeks the sediment was soft muddy sand and there were many promising holes and tubes poking out from even high up the shore. The creek is very flat and so the tide retreated quickly, so quickly that at one point I actually watched it move away from me. As the ground was so flat I spaced my sampling out with quite long distances between the locations, each time moving down to where the edge of the tide was at that moment. However the fauna at each location did not seem to change appreciably although I did notice that as I moved down, the animals increased in size, with the juveniles obviously staying higher up the shore and the adults being lower down. The soft muddy sand was home to some very large specimens of several different groups including orbiniids, maldanids, terebellids and lumbrinerids. The most interesting find of the day though was a species of nereid (ragworms) that I had not yet seen during this trip and had only found previously at three sites on East Falkland in 2011. This species is in fact a new, currently undescribed species that I was working on from the previous material before coming out here so it was great to find another site for it.
The speed at which the tide had retreated had led me to decide that it would be prudent to return up the shore 20-30 minutes before low tide was due in case it moved back in at the same speed. This marvellous plan however was scuppered by the tide deciding to turn half an hour early just as I had decided to try and sieve some sediment from the last site. As the site disappeared under water I retreated to my previous site with the oystercatchers jeering behind me and stubbornly sieved some there instead, all the while keeping a watchful eye on the line of water creeping its way towards me. Sieving done I retreated fully, albeit slowly, up the inlet back to the car.
At this moment I am watching the rain fall, hoping it stops by this afternoon otherwise it will be a wet trip to the beach later. I’m staying local today and sampling the main, large bay in Hill Cove. I saw it last night on my way back in from Crooked Inlet and it looked interesting with different rocky and sandy sections to it so I’m looking forward to investigating the life down there tonight.
Teresa
Falkland Islands 2013: January 30th update
30.01.13
Communication with the outside world has been sadly lacking for the last few days as I drive around West Falkland. Mobile coverage only extends to Port Howard and Fox Bay which is where I was able to send a text update from. Since then, mobile and internet access haven’t existed. I am now in Hill Cove, on the north coast of West Falkland where my hosts have been generous enough to allow me access to their broadband.
Getting here has been a long journey in more ways than one. From Fox Bay, I travelled to Port Stephens on the far southwest tip of the island and visited the charmingly named Moonlight Bay. A flat sandy bay with a rich array of animals in both sand and rocky outcrops I then encountered the largest lugworm I have ever seen, measuring 30cm in length!
Only slightly further north but with an opposing aspect, I went to South Harbour. Mostly rocky but with a small soft sandy section enclosed by the rocks I found some interesting crevices to explore as well as a bright orange sponge growing on the surface of many of the shaded overhangs which had fanworms embedded in it.
A long drive back north, past Fox Bay, brought me to Little Chartres Farm, the only place I have stayed in that was not part of my sampling list. The farm is located at the top of the Chartres River which then heads west widening into a large estuary which was my sampling target. A short drive took me to Chartres settlement where I could walk down on to a large open shore with large areas of flat rocky ridges as well as a lot of very soft muddy sand, soft enough to sink into slightly but not disappear! Again, the variety of habitats on the shore provided me with lots of sampling opportunity. The soft sediment harboured some large mobile animals as well as many tubes with worms inside. There were so many animals to try and lok at that I sieved a few spadefuls of the sediment and kept everything retained so I could be sure of making as good an account of what was living there as possible. After leaving the shore at Chartres I then also stopped off on my way back to Little Chartres to have a look at the shore further up the river. There were some worms here but as far as I could tell only of a genus called Boccardia. These worms I have commonly found in most high shore regions and areas closer to freshwater input where the salt content is much more variable than further down a creek or estuary. I did of course collect a few for comparison anyway just to be sure they really were the same!
Northward travel resumed and I headed towards the northeastern tip of the island at Dunbar. The owners directed me further along the road to Hot Stone Cove Creek, a long, narrow bay which, as the tide receded, completely emptied out to leave an expanse of sand leading out to an exposed rocky point. The sand harboured an enormous population of lugworms (but not a population of enormous lugworms this time) but there was also a large diversity of other polychaetes squeezed in amongst them. The rocky headland was also interesting as on the exposed side the rocks were thickly covered in a pink encrusting alga which formed fairly loose crusts. Such crusts can provide a great habitat for animals such as worms so some sections of that went into a pot for investigation. After finishing on the shore my destination was the settlement at Hill Cove where I am staying now for a few days.
It was at this point however that circumstances went downhill rather disturbingly. Without going into long detail, the car I was driving started having a very bad day. This is not what you want when you are on a road that probably sees an average of less than one car a day and the nearest house is several miles away. In a stressful drive involving leaking brake fluid and an overheating engine I limped into Hill Cove which I knew would be the best place to be for help as I would have access to phones, internet and importantly an airstrip for help and, if necessary, car parts to get to me. Magically, the person who hired me the car turned out to have a partner here in the settlement who has taken the car away fixed one problem and is getting a part flown in to fix the other and promised me a spare car to use this afternoon so I can keep my sampling on track as I head west and slightly south to Crooked Inlet. Tomorrow my plan was to stay by the settlement to sample here so a car is not essential and hopefully by then the car will be well again!
Teresa
The launch of 'Wallace 100'
On the evening of Thursday 24th January I was fortunate to be invited to the Natural History Museum in London. The event was for the unveiling of a portrait of the intrepid explorer and brilliant naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace by comedian and fellow naturalist Bill Bailey.
The painting was donated to the NaturalHistoryMuseum in 1923 to mark the 100th anniversary of Wallace's birth but was moved in 1971. It has now been restored and returned to its original position on the main stairs of the Central Hall, near to the Charles Darwin statue.
The unveiling of the painting also marked the official launch of Wallace100 and the Wallace Letters Online website, both of which are part of the celebrations for this year's centenary anniversary of Wallace's death.
Some famous names of the natural science world were in attendance at the launch including Sir David Attenborough, whose hand I got to shake!
A number of organisations in Wales, including Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, will be joining the Wallace 100 celebrations. The museum is planning a number of activities and events to run alongside our exhibition planned for later this year. Keep an eye on our website for further information.
Falkland Islands 2013: January 26th update
Thursday: New Haven
Windy,cold, rocky gravelly shore. Watcghed by penguins, attacked by a tern!
Friday: Fox Bay West
Galeforce winds, driving rain, numb hands! Sandy shore, lots of lugworms, very long Orbiniids (20cm) but not much else. Onshore wind holding tide in.
Teresa
(Text update rather than email)
Falkland Islands 2013: January 25th update
23.01.13
No sampling today and very glad I was too as a torrential hailstorm (photo 1) battered the office windows! A third parcel is now with the post office and will hopefully be winging its way up the Atlantic by the end of the week. The rest of today has been spent preparing for my trip to West Falkland tomorrow. I will be over there for 10 days touring my way around the island to try and get as good coverage of the shoreline as I can. As my choice of shores is largely dictated by the existence of roads by which to reach them and places I can stay my choice of sites was fairly restricted but I think I have a fairly good itinerary.
The ferry goes from New Haven to Port Howard in the evening which gives me time to catch the tide in New Haven just after lunch (why miss an opportunity?!). I’ll then be travelling south down the east coast to Fox Bay, further south and west to Port Stephens before turning north to South Harbour. From there I keep heading north this time up the west coast, stopping in at Chartres and Roy Cove before reaching Dunbar in the northwest. From Dunbar I will move along the north coast to Hill Cove, West Lagoons and Shallow Bay before heading back to Port Howard and digging a few holes there for good measure. Then its back to Stanley, get the last parcels on their way home before packing myself off too. Photo 2 shows the locations of the various sites.
It will certainly be interesting to visit the shores on the west and see if there is any obvious difference in the fauna there, particularly as I get up to the northwestern areas. That part of the islands is affected by more northerly temperate currents rather than the colder southerly currents dominating the southeast so potentially there may be many different species there.
Internet access is unlikely for most of the tour although I am hoping to be able to send short updates for the blog whenever possible by text to report any notable events!
Teresa
