The importance of the colony has been underlined by the fact that globally
kittiwakes are thought to have declined by around 40% since the 1970s.
The Environment Wales-funded project fitted tiny GPS devices - in the style of a TomTom - to razorbills and
kittiwakes on Bardsey and has already revealed surprising data.
"Our study suggests the existence of two odor signatures in
kittiwakes: a sex and an individual signature.
Between 1999 and 2009, breeding
kittiwakes fell by 40 per cent fulmars, by 38 per cent and herring gulls, 43 per cent.
Colony size has ranged from 1000 (1972) to 6273 (2007)
kittiwakes. Like Browne Island, this site showed no obvious temporal trend in numbers of
kittiwakes (Table 1), and annual counts have also been highly variable (CV50%).
The corpses of emaciated birds, including fulmars, guillemots and
kittiwakes, have been reported on east coast beaches this year.
Kittiwakes' new kit is fitted with pre-cut foam inserts that can be removed to make space for pH and Conductivity Meters (either stick or hand-held), electrodes, spare probes and chemical reagent liquids, tablets and powders, all of which are supplied as part of the company's Water Treatment range.
Cops are hunting the four youths after they gunned down fulmars,
kittiwakes and cormorants in the Moray Firth.
Vulnerable species include black-legged
kittiwakes, common guillemots, and Atlantic puffins.
The beach and lighthouse are good places to see migrating terns, gannets, skuas,leach's petrel,
kittiwakes and various sea ducks.
Pictures are in acrylic, pastel and colour pencil, with subjects ranging from otters, foxes, swans,
kittiwakes and other British birds and mammals, and big cats such as jaguar, tiger (above) and leopard, with a corner for more domestic beasts such as cats, dogs and cows.
Kittiwakes (Rissa spp.) are small, fish-eating gulls that avoid terrestrial and aerial predators by breeding in loose aggregations on seaside cliffs, where they construct nests of mud and vegetation on projecting rock ledges (Cullen 1957).
Kittiwakes build nests with seaweed on narrow ledges.
VISITORS to the Newcastle Gateshead Quayside are being asked to monitor the well-being of nesting
kittiwakes, after birds became trapped in netting on buildings last year.
