Masters of flight set for Atlantic journey

THIS is one of the best times of year to see Manx shearwaters off our coasts.

They are masters of flight, gliding effortlessly over the wave tops on stiff wings. As they tilt, or shear, from side to side first the black upperparts, then the brilliant white underparts come into view.

The adults are starting to leave their nesting colonies on remote islands on the first stage of a journey that will take them far out into the Atlantic, many as far south as the coasts of Brazil and Argentina.

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They have spent the summer hatching a single egg and rearing the chick in an abandoned rabbit burrow spending their days far out at sea gathering food and only returning to the burrows after dark to avoid being killed by predators such as great black-backed gulls.

Britain and Ireland host 90 per cent of the world population, some 250,000 to 300,000 pairs, and the bulk of these are on just three sites, the islands of Skokholm and Skomer off the Pembrokeshire coast and the Scottish island of Rhum.

A daytime visit to one of these sites gives no hint of themany thousands of chicks waiting silently in the burrows beneath your feet.

But after dark the skies are full of shadowy shapes and eerie wailing cries as the adults return and each, by some unknown means, finds the burrow containing their incubating mate, or chick.

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I was fortunate enough to visit the colony on Skokholm one night and with the help of night vision goggles was able to see the adults crash landing, then shuffling on "all-fours" on fluttering wings and tiny feet into the burrows. To take off again they had to struggle up any available rock and launch themselves into the air.

On dark nights they were safe, but on bright moonlit nights the gulls were waiting and took a heavy toll.

After the adults have gone the chicks, almost double the weight of their parents, stay in the burrows and live off their fat reserves until their plumage and muscles are both fully developed for the journey south.

Next month they too are off, some of them making the 6,000 to 7,000 mile journey to rejoin their parents in less than a fortnight.

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As the Manx shearwaters leave our shores another species that has bred on islands in the South Atlantic, the sooty shearwater, arrives here on the furthest reach of a migration that has taken it up the coasts of South and North America, then across the Atlantic away from the winter in the southern hemisphere. There were sightings off Spurn, Flamborough Head and Marine Drive, Scarborough at the weekend.

Good sightings of both species plus skuas and other seabirds can be had from the RSPB's Skua and Shearwater Cruises which start from Bridlington Harbour on weekends from August 28 to October 3. For full details and to book ring 01 262 850959 or e-mail [email protected]

The first signs of autumn migration have been in evidence with birds such as whinchats, yellow wagtails pied flycatchers and wheatears on the move inland.

On the Yorkshire coast there were Icterine warblers, red-backed shrikes and wrynecks seen at Flamborough and Spurn, an ortolan bunting was seen at Flamborough and barred warblers at Filey and Long Nab near Scarborough. A juvenile citrine wagtail was seen at Spurn.

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The juvenile whiskered tern has remained at the RSPB's Saltholme reserve, a juvenile white-winged black tern was seen at Hornsea Mere while there was a rare inland sighting of a roseate tern at the Nosterfield nature reserve in North Yorkshire.