pp6

As predicted, the weather has taken a turn for the worse over the past couple of days (typical), meaning that Cammy tests have taken a bit of a hit. Not deterred, we ventured to the hides in the rain yesterday and were pleased to have a productive day on ‘BirthWatch’, recording 3 more births. The similarly exciting ‘GullWatch’ is providing some useful observations too, with our noticing that many individuals sit in vantage points around the colony until the scent of birth wafts their way. Then what can only be described as pandemonium ensues, with gulls hustling amongst each other for scraps of umbilical cord or placenta whilst often dodging protective lunges from new mothers, who are extremely protective of their pups and probably dazzled by swathes of grey and white. It appears that the large adult greater black-backed gulls get “first pickings” of the placenta shortly after it has been delivered (or at least noticed), with juveniles fighting over leftovers later on. Evidence of a “pecking order” me thinks… We have a number of other birds on the island, including the graceful northern fulmar (see picture), rock pipits, kestrels and merlins. Recent arrivals also include colourful migratory redwings, winter visitors from Iceland.

Hopefully this turn of the weather will prove fruitful for our somewhat lacking water supply, both of our wells are pretty low. Don’t worry, we collect rainwater outside the hut so if worse comes to worst we can drink this (and there’s always beer of course). The rainwater, however, may have an “essence d’uric acid”, courtesy of the murmuration of starlings that tend to hold important meetings on the hut roof – generally first thing in the morning.

Also, the rainbows have disappeared. We are quite alarmed by this, but are leaving food-gifts outside of the hut for the Leprechauns as a peace offering in the hope that they will sort this out for us.

Today marks our half way point. Here’s to an equally enjoyable second half.

In a previous blog we told you that we think the seals breeding on Rona have different ‘personalities’, and today we thought that we’d talk about noted differences between some of our girls. Take Jolene (can you spot the ‘JL’ on her?), a female we’ve seen here in many seasons – she’s a “feisty lady” and can be aggressive towards other seals when she wants to be, but is a good mum usually. This can’t be said for Femsneck, who has a habit of abandoning her pups, or Sigma who has been known to steal pups to raise alongside her own! Other females such as O8 seem to be pretty good mums year on year, but occasionally have a blip – last year she abandoned her pup before weaning. Other females seem to relish motherhood and can be very socially attentive, for example 15-4 often plays with her pups which can be fun to watch.

Grey seals are ‘capital breeders’ meaning that they breed and feed at different times. This means that Rona mums usually stay with their pups from birth to weaning (approximately 3 weeks) without leaving them to go to sea and forage. Breeding therefore requires a large energetic investment from females – a 200kg mother can lose 80kgs raising a pup. Therefore differences in how females use their energy reserves become very interesting. Investigating ‘personality’ differences (like we do with ‘Cammy’- see Luke and I at the office below!) can help us to view variations in energy expenditure from an interesting perspective: for example, do mums such as 15-4 who are more socially active with their pups transfer their energy (or fat reserves) less efficiently than others, who may do the minimum required to raise their pups to a viable weaning weight? Exciting ideas!..

We managed to record more births today, adding to our collection nicely. These videos will be really useful later on for assessing the impact that gulls in the colony might have on newborn pups (they seem to have a taste for blood, you see).

Today has been poor for rainbows (only 3) which is sad, but on the plus side it was lovely and sunny with very little wind- we could almost have been somewhere in the Caribbean! Pina Colada anyone? Of course, we’re now expecting a hurricane tomorrow as we have planned to do Cammy tests out amongst the seals… (I’m renowned for my optimism you know…).

Yesterday a plane flew over the island – this is the first aircraft we’ve seen here, and it wasn’t just any old plane, it was our colleagues from theSea Mammal Research Unit – Callan Duck and Chris Morris. They are photographing grey seal colonies to help estimate how many grey seals there are in Scottish waters. Over the years it has been found that the number of grey seals has been increasing in Scotland. However, the situation in North Rona is different, as the population here is declining. Therefore, linking the findings of the aerial surveys and our work is particularly important, as any discoveries we make could help us to understand factors influencing changes in colony size and structure. For example, does the decline in number of animals breeding at North Rona lead to a shorter breeding season?

Over the past few days we have extended our photo identification surveys to the north of the island. We were surprised on our first visit to “the north” to find a strange grey seal ecotype: the “croco-seal”. These animals are very similar in appearance to our familiar greys, but have a habit of submerging in the deep pools found at this end of the island, waiting to surprise naïve researchers. One such seal, shown here, almost had us in the pool with her, so severe was our reaction to her unexpected emergence to breathe! From adventuring around the island for these photo surveys, we have continued to identify a lot of old faces – seals that return to North Rona to breed. We found Banana up north – she hadn’t been seen in the south for a few years.

We have also been continuing with our “Cammy” tests and have now managed to successfully test 6 individuals, and are having much better luck with pot-holes- good progress!

Other miscellaneous points of interest: rainbow count now somewhere in the millions; scarf colour number 2 has been reached; rum is running worryingly low (as is water…come on rain!); Amelia is STILL obsessed with ‘Bananagrams’ and has been playing by herself recently, and we have just discovered how to take panoramic views of the island using Charlotte’s camera.

Ladies, gentlemen and children….introducing CAMMY, son of ROCKY! We’ve already mentioned in our blogs that we know individual seals at our colony, and indeed, that we have known several of them for many years. Over this time, we have realised from our observations that contrary to popular belief, grey seals are not just grey blobs that eat fish. Indeed they seem to have distinct ‘personalities’, just as we see elsewhere. For example, some animals are naturally more “relaxed” than others no matter what whilst others seem “bolder” or “more aggressive”. We test this in the colony by recording different individuals’ responses to a mildly alarming sound stimulus – a wolf call. This is delivered by our specially designed RCV (remote controlled vehicle), aka ‘Cammy’. We have started conducting these “Cammy tests” this week and have managed to successfully test two animals (even if Cammy did take a couple of tumbles down some hidden pot holes…!). Charlotte and Luke showed great determination on the first test day, waiting outside in seemingly endless rain showers for a Cammy-friendly break. Points for effort?

In other news, we have objectively observed that there are an unusual amount of rainbows (even of the double variety: what does it mean?!) on North Rona. We have determined that this can mean one of two things: either this is a magical isle where dreams can come true, or alternatively an indication of what can only be described as variable weather conditions. We favour the former and are now simultaneously on the look-out for leprechauns and pots of gold at the bottom of the rainbows in our study area, as well as births.

Finally, Amelia has become obsessed with ‘Bananagrams’- a favourite evening past-time. Friends and relatives, you should be worried. Is “Ai” really a word? Also, Luke found a carrot today that he truly believes is shaped like a seal. Make of this what you wish…

We saw lots of births yesterday – the season is definitely picking up. Three of the known animals pupped yesterday – one of them did a great job of diverting the gulls away from the newborn pup. After giving birth, she moved a metre or two into a pool where she delivered the placenta. Moving back to the pup, it was left to an adult GBB to find the placenta and heave it (it weighs about 2-3 kgs) into the shallows where about 15 other gulls descended on it, all away from the pup and mum.

Luke and Amelia take time out to explore the interior of St Ronan’s cell in the village ruins.

Since we last blogged the science has been kicking up a gear! We’ve been on “Birth Watch” which involves long days of sitting in the hides and watching our girls to see who’s likely to pup. So far we’ve managed to film 3 live births, however it seems that the seals know how to time their births inconveniently and many give birth when we leave the hide! Quite a few old favourite mums have shown up already including: O8, Boobies, FFN, Parsley, Dancer, SM and Alien and not all have pupped yet so hopefully we’ll capture a couple of their births.

Today we went catching to weigh and measure seals in the colony. We do this so that the weights of this year’s pups can be compared to those of previous years, giving an indication of how this breeding season compares to others. In doing this we soon discovered that pups are neither small nor cuddly!!

One evening Paddy gave us a a brief history of Rona, including the story of St Ronan. St Ronan came to the island with his 2 sisters. However, after he made a comment about his sister’s “fine legs” one day, the happy trio were separated. One sister decided that relocating alone to nearby Sula Sgeir was a sensible idea under the circumstances. Later we went to find St Ronan’s “cell” in the village ruins. Having survived 1400 years of gale force winds, we were impressed by it’s sturdiness (but not about having to crawl into it!).

Next time we will be reintroducing….. Rocky IV!

At last we’ve got started into this season’s science programme. We’re here to find out what’s happening at this breeding colony by looking at what our known females (some we’ve seen here since 1998) are doing. The North Rona colony has been in decline for some time now, our studies are suggesting that there are a number of reasons for this.

Already we’ve spotted at least 15 of the known girls using their unique coat patterns, and recorded a birth on video. Unfortunately we can’t download it because of bandwidth restrictions, but it will go up on the site eventually.

The team is settling into a working routine – not much enthusiasm for early starts……

We need to say a belated thank you to:

the Wild Orchid folks in Durness; John and especially Hugh at PDG (we appreciated it); Hamish, Roisin & Tara for their marvellous hospitality; drivers Lauren & Ross (what a team); Sean and family, and last but not least last year’s team for hiding/removing things which made for an exciting first few days- some anxious moments when the cooker couldn’t be found!

best,

P, A, C & L.

Plenty of jobs to get through today. But the most exciting thing was our trip over to the top of the slope to see how the colony was doing. It was blowing a full gale from the north, so the wind was straight in our faces, making it almost impossible to hold binoculars steady. Down below us there were 15 females, 6 pups and 2 males – the real start of the season.

It seems to have been a very dry year so far – there’s not much water in the well, so a wee bit of rain wouldn’t go amiss.

We promised introductory pics – here’s the team.
best,
P, A, C, L.

Paddy has sent in the first news update from Rona……

Sunday was our arrival day, and after 4 hours of hauling the gear to the hut, we started the job of getting the hut into shape. It has survived another year in one piece and it’s great to be back.

This year we have a completely new team backing me up. I asked them to describe each other as an introduction for the blog, here’s what they said.

Amelia Saxby – Amelia has excellent etiquette, and newly braided hair, which one would be proud to sport. Amelia has just finished her Master’s degree with a thesis on Rona grey seals. This is her first chance to visit Rona in person, and she will be in charge of photo identification as well as the nightly recitals of Mrs Beeton’s Household Management.

Charlotte Cairns – Charlotte is the only veggie of the team! She recently finished her Master’s at Durham University and this is her first season on Rona. She will be undertaking behavioural work with the female grey seals, when not knitting her scarf or quizmastering musical intro games!

Luke ‘Skywalker’ O’Connor – is part Jedi knight: forceful and determined. He may not have flown the Millennium Falcon, but he is indeed a fly boy and will be involved in a pilot study using a new piece of equipment to get remote photo-id pictures.

I’m Paddy Pomeroy, scientist at the Sea Mammal Research Unit and I have the pleasure of once again leading this expedition. We have a very busy schedule this year and we’ll be trying to keep you in the loop with how we get on, what seals we see from previous years and any odd things that occur. It looks like there may be a few of those………..

best,

P, A, C, L.

Welcome to the start of the 2012 North Rona grey seal fieldwork season.
The team set off from St Andrews today after a few last minute hitches.
Introductions to the new team will follow when we get set up on the island.