Academic spends 40th year on remote island

In what is one of the longest-running investigations of its kind, Prof Tim Birkhead, from Sheffield University’s department of animal and plant sciences, will be conducting an annual census and ringing the birds to see how old they are when they begin breeding.

He first visited Skomer Island, off the cost of west Wales, in 1972 and since then he has returned every summer to study the guillemots.

Prof Birkhead said: “It has been an invaluable investigation, for example it is clear that climate change has had a huge effect on the guillemots as they now breed two weeks earlier than they did in the 1970s.

“We also know a huge amount more about guillemot biology than we did 40 years ago, and we can use changes in guillemot numbers to tell us what is happening in the seas surrounding the island.

“Long-term studies like this are few and far between but remain vital for understanding changes taking place in the environment.

“It’s been a constant challenge both to secure funding and to carry out the work itself as the birds breed on the sea battered cliffs of a remote island.”

Home to about half a million seabirds, including the guillemots, razorbills and puffins, uninhabited Skomer Island is a natural nature reserve, specially protected and a site of scientific importance.

Technological advances throughout the four decades have enabled Prof Birkhead to gain even more information about the birds.

He added: “Using new tracking technologies, we now have a very complete picture of where guillemots go to forage.

“During the breeding season they forage within about 60km of Skomer, but in winter they travel huge distances, moving between the Bay of Biscay and the far north of Scotland.”