Using a drone, our new reserve warden Chris and volunteer James carried out a count of the cormorant colony at the Manx BirdLife Point of Ayre National Reserve
A bird’s eye view of the colony
With a high-resolution drone camera (and a licensed drone operator), they were able to get a more accurate count, with minimal disturbance. In total, they counted 60 Cormorants across the nest sites on ‘Cormorant island’ and the far bank.
Improvements in technology such as drones and trail cameras help staff and volunteer capacity (important for a small team) and to monitor the wildlife of the reserve from a safe distance, meaning less impact on the birds. We have several trail cameras placed around the reserve at the moment, and they allow us to see what is happening on site when we are not there.
Species counts and behaviour monitoring like this give us a better understanding of how well the populations at the reserve are doing and give an insight into how birds use the site when undisturbed by humans, and can be used when developing our conservation strategies at the reserve.
