Out west last night

I was out west with a group last night and we ranged across Marwick head. Although the cliffs look quite sparsely populated the good news is that we saw the first of the Kittiwakes starting to hatch their young. It might only have been two nests but several nests had birds on eggs and there was a lot of nest building activity in progress. Fingers crossed that this is the start of a more successful breeding season for them this year. The auks give more cause for concern tho as their sparse numbers might lead to a lack of cohesion in the colony as a whole. Even at this stage the Ravens seem to be getting a bit of free rein in predating the less occupied ledges, but I suppose only time will tell how it go's. On a brighter note the gull colonies look to be doing ok near me. Reports are coming in from surveys and it looks like Terns are well settled on eggs in their colonies at sights all over the isles. I know we keep getting to this stage and it falls to bits but hopefully this will be a better sort of year.