Silke and I have been monitoring the 4 pairs of Oystercatchers we can see from the cliff top between Aberporth and Tresaith for the last 4 years: lots of drama but not many fledged chicks. This year however we have 2 pairs with one well grown youngster each, one sitting for a second time after an early failure, and one failed and not to be seen!
It is an interesting but frustrating study as the failures due to the numerous challenges of life on the cliff are hardly ever seen. We do know that the youngsters are encouraged to jump from their ledges 5 to 10 metres above the wave cut bench and that one pair seemed to learn from their failures and this season kept the chick up on the cliff until it could scramble and flutter. This particular chick was near to two rock platforms well above the highest tide and these became strewn with a carpet of limpet shells which we haven't seen before when chicks are fed morsels by the adults and presumably the limpet shells are left all over the rocks and washed away.
We have also been amazed at how chicks use the appropriate micro habitats of the rocks to hide during their plumage changes so often hard to find even with optics!
Luckily the July Spring Tide is not coming with a storm so the most vulnerable will be the sitting bird whose chick will hatch imminently and only have corvids, gulls and paddle boarders to worry about if it survives the drop!