Wednesday 11th August comments: Our oceanic gull, the Kittiwake is quite possibly the noisiest bird on the island, but the sound isn't quite as deafening as it used to be! Numbers have declined since the early 1990's, when at their peak 8,129 pairs bred. The population then decreased to a record low of 1,712 pairs in 2013. Thankfully, with some productive breeding seasons in recent years, numbers have started to slowly increase.  This year followed the upward trend with 5,193 pairs recorded to be occupying nests around the islands' coastline, a 5% increase on last years count.

Kittiwakes are surface feeding birds and are less adaptable to changes in food sources than other seabirds that can dive deeper to take advantage of a wider variety of prey species. This makes them the one of the most vulnerable seabirds to changes in fish stocks and warming seas.