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  4. Manx Shearwater (Puffinus puffinus)

Manx Shearwater (Puffinus puffinus)

This small, smart, black-and-white shearwater follows huge shoals of small fish, such as herrings and sprats, and catches them by plunging into the water from a modest height or by pursuing them in an underwater dive. In contrast to some shearwaters, it tends to do this in quite small parties, and often during the day.

Manx Shearwaters return to their flat-topped island breeding sites every March, and here the male and female meet again in their burrow after spending the winter apart. But newly formed pairs have the task of first finding their own burrow, or digging one for themselves in the soft, grassy soil. Some pairs share theirs with rabbits or Puffins, although they obviously use separate chambers of the same burrow system. Once these preliminaries are over, everyone goes out to sea again for a week or two to feed up and get into breeding condition.

These vulnerable seabirds only come in and out of their nest sites at night, so that they avoid the dangerous presence of gulls and other potential predators. If the other adult or the chick is in the burrow, they will find it by hearing the family member’s voice, but there is also evidence that each nest-site has its own distinctive smell, and so they literally follow their nose in the darkness.

Once breeding is over, Manx Shearwaters leave colony and island behind and travel right away from Europe, eventually finding their way to the east coast of South America, almost to the fringe of the Antarctic. The feeding is rich here, and allows most birds to survive and return again the following spring.