Birds of a rare feather observed together

Wednesday, April 4, 2018, 19:31

Special cameras give rare insight of Yelkouan Shearwater colonies

Birdlife Malta is offering bird lovers a rare insight into the intimate behaviour of Malta’s Yelkouan Shearwaters, through the use of specially designed cameras to observe their behaviour up close.

Captured on trail cameras, the recordings give the public the rare chance to witness the secretive lives of these rarely-seen seabirds as well as giving an insight into their breeding period from their homes deep within coastal cliffs.

The project, which aims to help conserve this vulnerable and protected species, uses cameras with no white flash or sounds for minimum disturbance, to record the daily occurrences of two particular nesting sites within Yelkouan Shearwater colonies – one at l-Irdum tal-Madonna in Mellieħa and another at Majjistral Nature and History Park.

L-Irdum tal-Madonna is where the main colony of this elusive species can be found, with around 500 breeding pairs.

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Mediterranean visitor is a birding milestone for Britain

06:00, 23 FEB 2016

BY ANDREW FORGRAVE

Bird Notes columnist Julian Hughes of RSPB Conwy reveals what birds have been spotted in the past week and where to go birding in the coming days

Many birders keep lists: the birds they’ve seen in their lifetime; birds seen in Britain, or in their home county; and some keep a “year-list” too.

The keeper of the British List, on which all these are based, is the British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU), a panel of experts who assess the sightings.

Last week, the BOU heralded a numeric milestone, with admission of the 600th species to the British List.

The Yelkouan Shearwater breeds on seacliffs in the eastern Mediterranean and winters in the Black Sea.

A few fly west into the Atlantic, and one of these birds was spotted off the south coast of Devon.

This is a possible visitor to North Wales, so seabird enthusiasts should gen up on the finer points of their identification before next autumn.

Continued ...

Good news for Spanish seabirds

The Spanish government has announced the establishment of 39 new marine protection areas which closely mirror the Marine Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas identified by BirdLife International’s Spanish partner SEO/BirdLife after a decade of scientific research tracking seabirds and understanding their behaviour at sea.

The Balearic shearwater is one of the birds 

that will benefit from the new protection areas

The new sites are Special Protection Areas for Birds (SPAs), designated under the European Birds Directive. The SPAs will offer protection to seabirds whilst they are at sea, complementing the existing network of sites on land.

Spain, with its Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines and islands, is extremely important for European seabirds, including Europe’s most threatened seabird, the Balearic Shearwater, and other species endemic to the Mediterranean, such as the Yelkouan Shearwater and Audouin’s Gull.

Continued

Invasion of Feral Cats Could See the End of a Seabird Endemic to the Mediterranean

Feb. 1, 2013 — The population of Yelkouan Shearwater of the French island of Le Levant is seriously under threat due to the invasion of feral cats, according to a French and Spanish joint study. The archipelago is home to the main colonies of this species.

Feral cats are considered one of the most dangerous invading species for animals native to Mediterranean Islands. Researchers from the Institute of Natural Products and Agrobiology (IPNA-CSIC) and France's Mediterranean Institute of Biology and Ecology studied the diet of these felines on the island of Le Levant in the French Riviera for two years, in order to get a picture of their impact on the Yelkouan Shearwater (Puffinus yelkouan) population. The results indicate that they are highly vulnerable to these predators, which now see them as a "main course".

"These seabirds only live on islands, which in the past were free from predators. As a result, they are agile at sea as they only eat fish and squad yet are feeble on the land," as explained by Elsa Bonnaud, lead researcher of the study in the Island Ecology and Evolution Group.

The Yelkouan Shearwater nests on the ground in small caves and is characterised by being clumsy. In other words, it cannot escape and its resources for defence are scarce because historically it has not evolved in the presence of predators. 

Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130201090610.htm