Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
At present people from town come down and rob the nests by the hundreds and I want to see it
stopped. If I can be any assistance to you, I shall only be too glad.
Only in the 1950s was the pressure reduced and the conservation value of the area generally recognised.
It is difficult to establish when kittiwakes first nested on the island, but they were often seen on the
cliffs of the Outer Head during the early twentienth century. Up to 60 birds were recorded in July 1928,
although there was no sign of breeding activity and no nests were seen. Nesting was not confirmed on
the Head until July 1943, when two pairs bred. Numbers appeared to increase after this date, but the in-
accessible location made surveys difficult. In 1952, however, surveys from a boat confirmed that kitti-
wakes were still breeding and a subsequent count in 1955 found 17 nests. By the mid-1960s the colony
had expanded to about 150 pairs, with nearly 70 nests visible from the Head itself in 1966, and in 1984
thetotalGowerpopulationwasbelievedtoconsistofover500pairs.Countsin1986,however,foundthat
the colony had declined to 153 nests and a further count from the sea in 1996 found that it consisted of
only 128 nests. This decline appears to have been related to increased predation by peregrines and greater
levels of human disturbance, but in the meantime colonies had been established elsewhere on the Gower
cliffs.In1992kittiwakes expandedtheirbreedingrangestill furthereast,nestingonMumblesPierforthe
first time.
Guillemots have been known to breed on the Worm since at least 1802. Photographs of the main
breeding ledge taken in 1907 suggested that there were around 300 pairs there, a similar number to that
present in 1925. There was a decline in numbers from 1925 until 1966 when only 50 breeding pairs were
seen. Numbers recovered after this date and a count from the sea in 1996 found 177 birds on the north-
facing ledges of the Outer Head. Razorbill populations have followed a similar pattern, with 250 pairs
reported in 1925 and only 10 pairs by 1974, while in 1991 around 35 pairs were present (Fig. 94). Ful-
mars were first recorded in Glamorgan on the Head in 1946, but breeding was not confirmed until 1956
at Lewes Castle on the mainland.
Great black-backed gull
Larus marinus
was listed as 'Black and White Gull' in the
Swansea Guide
of
1802 and in 1848 Dillwyn considered the species to be 'not uncommon' on the coast. Although described
as a very common resident in Glamorgan in the late 1890s the species bred only in small numbers, prin-
cipally on the Worm. The colony apparently reached its greatest size in 1941, when there were 25 pairs,
beforedeclining toonepairin1955,probablyasaresult ofincreasing disturbance byvisitors. From1967
until 1979 one or two pairs always bred on the island, but surveys in the early 1990s found that it had
ceased to breed in Gower. A colony of about 30 pairs of lesser black-backed gulls
Larus fuscus
existed in
the 1920s, but now only isolated pairs occasionally breed on the island. Today the majority of the nesting
birds can be found on the flat roofs of industrial buildings to the east of Swansea.
