With nature and a camera

Chapter VII. Sea-birds and their haunts

Jackdaws as egg-stealers

The defenceless character of all the Terns makes their eggs and young easy prey for any winged depredator that happens to come along. Jackdaws fly over from the mainland to harass them, and sometimes even levy toll upon the nests of the Lesser Black Backs and Herring Gulls, whose eggs they finish devouring on the top of St Cuthbert's Tower. This necessitates a periodical inspection of the little bit of flat roof by the watchers, who have to depend upon it for the collection of their fresh water, and therefore cannot afford to have it fouled by offensive matter.

Lesser black-backed gulls

Often our attention would be called across the water by a great clamour and commotion, and, turning our field-glasses in the direction from whence it came, we could see a vast congregation of Terns hovering close over some particular part of their breeding station in a wild, shrieking mass. Presently a Lesser Black-backed Gull would rise and take his departure, followed by a host of angry but quite helpless Terns. Peregrine Falcons occasionally pay the Farne Islands a visit, and fly away with whatever they desire without let or hindrance.

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The mortality amongst sea-birds of all kinds, reckoning the loss of eggs and young ones, from purely natural causes alone, must be very great in the course of a season. We saw a great number of young Terns lying dead everywhere upon their islands, and Watcher Darling told us that two years ago very few Arctic or Common Terns got away. He picked up several dead ones with sand-eels in their bills, and concluded that there was no small fry for them, and that the eels, although the natural diet of Sandwich Terns, were too large for the young of the smaller species to swallow.