Coast to film Burhou's birds

BURHOU'S seabirds are to be featured on popular BBC2 series Coast.

A TV crew will visit the islet, which lies a mile off Alderney, later this year.

Burhou is famous for its puffins and storm petrels. Alderney Wildlife Trust, which is responsible for the protected area, launched PuffinCam two years ago and now wants to set up PetrelCam.

Coast presenters will help AWT set up a monitoring system, which has been sponsored by Sure.

'We're delighted that the team from Coast is coming across, as Burhou has a fascinating story to tell,' said trust manager Roland Gauvain. 'When they are here, the storm petrels will still be nesting, even though the islet is open to the general public by this point. Coast will be able to highlight the importance of these secretive birds.'

Roland hopes the national exposure will increase interest in the birds.

'It's vital that we show people the beauty of the natural world that exists in the Channel Islands' backyard and highlight what threatens it. We hope that the show will go out just as the puffins start their breeding season and will encourage people to access PuffinCam and monitor their progress.'

Roland said Burhou is an invaluable place for the future of both puffins and storm petrels in the Channel Islands and provides them with one of the few remaining locations in which to breed.

'Both birds are difficult to monitor and so being able to use PuffinCam and by introducing PetrelCam it allows us to watch, study and record their activity,' he said. 'Without this work, we would have little understanding of the threats that face these attractive little birds, nor be able to record the success of their breeding season.'

PuffinCam, which works by recording a short sequence of video when it detects movement, has been used together with limited visits to Burhou, which is closed to the public during the puffin breeding season.

This year the young puffins, known as pufflings, left Burhou three weeks earlier than usual and the number of adult puffins on the waters around the islet have started to decline as they head back out to sea for the winter.

'We think the warm weather at Easter may have played a small part, but there doesn't seem to be a particular reason as to why. We have spoken to the team in the Isle of May, which is also famous for its puffin colonies, and the conclusion is that it's just one of those years. It started a bit earlier than normal and therefore ended a bit earlier as well.'

Sure's chief executive Eddie Saints said: 'This is a great project which brings together Sure's technology and technical ability to support one of the islands that we serve. It's been fascinating watching the puffins this summer and hopefully we can look forward to many more puffins and petrels being monitored over the coming years.'

For more information, visit www.alderneywildlife.org