EDGE INFORMATION FILE…….GUILLEMOTS

Guillemots are in the same family (the Auks) as Puffins and Razorbills. They are superbly adapted, streamlined, strong swimmers. Propelled by their feet and wings they regularly dive to over 50 metres (160 ft) for their food (fish and crustaceans) and can dive as deep as 180 metres! Their ribs have long, backward pointing projections on them, which are connected to the adjacent rib creating a cage effect – this reinforced rib cage protects the lungs and body from the high pressures they have to withstand under water. Their wings are relatively small compared to their body size, which means that they have to flap them very rapidly in flight. However, this small size is an advantage when diving underwater as they are used as effective propulsion units. Back in the air, Guillemots can travel over 30 miles to reach fishing grounds, often flying in small parties of 10 –20 birds.

Sources of Info:

Birds of Britain and Northern Europe - C. Perrins. 1987. Collins New Generation Guide.

South Devon Seabird Trust:

www.seabirdtrust.co.uk

Guillemots return to the same breeding sites around February / March year after year. The single egg is normally laid in …. onto the bare rock on a cliff ledge, it is hard-shelled, about 8cm in length and pear-shaped / conical, this shape means it rolls in a circle if disturbed rather than rolling off. The egg's colour can vary from white to blue with a wide possible spectrum of spots and blotches; it is thought that this ‘uniqueness' helps a parent to recognise its own egg on the packed ledges. Both parents incubate, for around 28 – 34 days, balancing the egg on their feet and covering it with their belly plumage. The colony is always alive with activity and noise, the adults calling with a long rolling ‘arrrrrrh' as they greet each other and defend their tiny territory (the smallest in the bird world!) with their dagger like bills. Packing together so tightly on the cliff ledges is a very good deterrent to marauding gulls that try and steal the eggs and chicks.

Growing chicks are sometimes known as jumplings because at about 20 days, although they still can't fly, they jump from their cliff ledge at dusk down to the sea. The male either jumps down after its chick and then calls until they are reunited or is already down on the sea calling in encouragement; they then head out to sea together. The chick continues to develop at sea and flies about 3 weeks later. While the male is looking after the chick he undergoes his feather moult and becomes flightless for a time as well. The young guillemot will take about 2 years to mature into its full adult plumage and it won't start to breed until it is about 4 years old. The oldest a guillemot has been known to live for is 32 years!

Guillemots have faced many threats in the past. Egg collecting was popular in Victorian times due to the highly variable colours of their eggs. At Berry Head in the 60's and 70's pleasure boat owners would take pot shots at the birds to enable the tourists to watch the whole colony fly off in alarm, this was incredibly damaging for the eggs and young. By the mid 70's the colony was down to only about 400.

Today Berry Head is a National Nature Reserve and the ‘Brixham Penguins' are still a major attraction for people but they are now properly protected. You can view them with binoculars from the cliff top viewing point or via the live video camera link up in the visitor centre. The Berry Head Colony is at least 1400 strong, the largest on the Channel coast and the most southerly in the UK .