News round-up

(Please note that this post was written Monday the 24th November but due to internet problems is only being posted now).

Sorry for the delay in posting but things have been pretty hectic lately, sadly mostly due to dull, ineffectual committee meetings which one has to attend just in case something important is raised – but of course it generally isn’t!!!

We should, however, have some exciting new developments on Denis in the coming days and I hope very much to be able to report back to you on Denis’ role in a new conservation first sometime next week… so keep checking back.

In the meantime let me just summarise matters from my visit to the island of November 14th-16th which I haven’t reported on yet:

• Fairy tern and Tropicbird progress:
  Fred and Tina are both progressing well and I have added the latest photos at the foot of the page. The first fairy tern juvenile appears to have finally left its perch which is good, whilst the second now appears adult except for the remnant brown barring on its wings. Only one of the other two tropicbird ground nests is currently occupied but does give the impression it may be incubating.
• Shearwater colony:
  All appears well at the shearwater colony with the egg I previously reported on still under incubation (see posts of November 7th and October 26th).
• SMR update:
  Great news that we have a new chick in Territory 1 and also that the juvenile under Catherina’s captive care appears well on the way to recovery which is most encouraging. The new pair that we hoped was forming in the southern portion of the island (see post of October 7th), however, appears to have failed. the female is no longer resident there and the male has been found wandering further afield no doubt in search of the female. The female has not been seen for a few days now but it is assumed that she has resumed floating – so I will keep you up updated on developments.
• Migratory birds:
  There has been a notable decline in the number of wading birds around the island recently but I did twice see the juvenile Purple heron during my last visit so that is still resident having first been seen on October 3rd (see post of October 5th).