MUTTONBIRD SEASON A BAD ONE

<-------This pic is of the Helicopter on the beach of the muttonbird island we go to every year.

We blogged on early signs that this years Muttonbird harvest was going to be a bad one. Weather patterns appear to play a huge part in the parent birds ability to feed the chicks in the burrows on the islands.

As we feared it is a bad season. Birds are dying in the burrows and parent birds aren't visiting the island to feed the chicks. It happens. We can expect and see about one really bad season every decade. So all the climate change believers wont be able to blame this years bad breeding season on global bloody warming.Last year the chicks were huge and plentiful. This year they are not. Shit happens - it has happened before and we expect it to happen again.

Word is that some muttonbirders are already coming off the islands.

It is a sad place to be when the birds are dead and dying . The islands are spooky without the underground and overhead hustle and bustles of chicks and parents.

We may visit to check the place out. It will be a sad trip.