The Choughs of South Stack, Anglesey 22nd September 2022

For the last two weeks I have been a resident volunteer at the RSPB's South Stack Reserve which is situated at the northern tip of Holy Island in Anglesey, just beyond Holyhead in North Wales. The RSPB provide me with a very nice cottage to live in and in return I talk to visitors, of which there are still surprisingly many for this time of year,  about the joys of the reserve and its wildlife.

It is a win all round as the RSPB get me for free but in return, each week I work three days on and then have two days off to go birding or whatever  else I wish to do.

The star bird on the reserve is the Red billed Chough of which there are between thirty and forty currently present,  with numbers fluctuating throughout the year. I have seen and heard them every day, flying back and fore along the cliff faces or, on looking out of the cottage window, watch them feeding in the fields of short grass that are especially managed for them.

A mixed flock of Chough and Jackdaws

They are unmistakeable with their harsh, distinctive, loud keeaarr calls and their habit of congregating in groups, often feeding in the fields at the southern end of the reserve with Jackdaws or exuberantly and acrobatically swirling around in the air currents that sweep up from the sea and along the sheer cliffs of the South Stack.

Many of the visitors to the reserve ask about them and where they can be seen and I have to tell them that it is a matter of luck but eventually they should more likely hear them first and on looking up,  maybe see them come flying above their heads in a graceful, buoyant flight. One could almost describe it as exuberant. They seem to revel in the joys of flying, calling to each other, swooping and diving, riding the wind of which they are master, as they fly around looking for suitable places to feed.

Ronald Lockley in Letters from Skokholm described them as follows, summing up the essence of Choughs perfectly

'Their progress is a series of graceful wingbeats with gliding intervals; at times the chough flock hurries purposefully, but they are at their best in the aerial manouevres in the up draught above the perimeter of the cliffs.Here they shoot upwards and dive downwards playfully, now almost closing the wings completely, now opening them so that every primary feather is widely spread. The chough family toys in the still air over the bare cliffs like a group of great dark butterflies, or explores the soft cushions of the thrift with curved pickaxe beaks for insect life. Every call from the ground is accompanied by a curtseying dip of the head and a flip of the wings. Suddenly the whole flock takes to the air and flies restlessly on to some fresh feeding site'

To get to see them on the ground for an extended period is not easy as they are wary but I discovered that when the Visitor Centre closes at 5pm and most people have gone, the Choughs will venture down to feed under the picnic tables set out on the grass in front of the Visitor Centre, feeding mainly on their natural food of invertebrates but not averse to picking up scraps of food that have fallen from the various snacks taken at the picnic tables earlier in the day.

They stride about digging vigorously into the soft earth with their long curved red bills, bracing themselves with red legs spread wide and pushing their bills into the earth in a distinctive and forceful jabbing motion which is invariably successful, and results in them gently prising a worm or grub from the ground.

Most of the Choughs at South Stack are colour ringed as part of a long term study of their behaviour and movements although one or two young birds are free of the bling. Adult Choughs are handsome in their glossy blue black plumage complemented by bright red bills and legs while younger birds are a more subdued version, looking matt black with a tinge of brown around neck and head.

There are around forty Choughs currently present on the reserve, although the largest flock I have seen was twenty one. Eleven pairs breed on the reserve, making their nests in caves in the cliffs where they lay three eggs. Choughs pair for life and in quieter moments the pair can be seen showing affection, huddling close. They remain faithful to their own particular nest site returnng to it each year. 

Young birds tend to move around once fledged. A juvenile bird ringed on South Stack moved to the Isle of Man which is sometimes visible from South Stack and then returned to breed a year later on South Stack. Other young birds move to roost in slate quarries in nearby Snowdonia in winter.

In Britain the Red billed Chough used to breed all around the coast of Britain but became extinct at the beginning of the nineteenth century due to a loss of habitat, caused by changes in farming practices, and hunting. Now there are around 440 pairs, all to be found on the western side of Britain. Wales has 55% of the total population and they breed along the entire western coast. A substantial part of the remaining population is found on the Isle of Man and there are other isolated and much smaller populations at The Lizard and Land's End in West Cornwall as well as Loch Gruinart, on Islay in the Inner Hebrides.

Further afield they are found from southern Europe, North Africa to central Asia, India and China and are not considered globally threatened although in Britain they are currently of conservation concern.

Their continuing survival and improving numbers seems assured at South Stack as the RSPB are continually monitoring them and improving the habitat where possible