Monitoring of St Kilda's rare Leach's storm petrel
- Published
One of this year's fluffy storm petrel chicks
Conservationists have been monitoring the progress of rare Leach's storm petrel chicks on the remote Scottish archipelago of St Kilda.
The work, involving National Trust for Scotland rangers, is carried out every year and begins when the birds are still only days-old balls of fluff.
The St Kilda archipelago is a stronghold for Leach's storm petrels
Leach's storm petrels are found at only a handful of sites.
St Kilda has 94% of the UK's breeding population.
Monitoring the birds involves weighing them
The monitoring involves regularly weighing the chicks.
St Kilda lies about 40 miles (64km) west of North Uist, the nearest inhabited place to the archipelago.
The last islanders left St Kilda in 1930 and people only now live on Hirta on a temporary basis to work at the military site, or on wildlife conservation projects.
St Kilda also has a snowy owl that has been catching the rangers' attention
All images copyright of National Trust for Scotland St Kilda Rangers.