Welsh Journals

What this seems to indicate is that the kleptoparasitic repertoire of the Lesser Black- backed Gull is a comparatively recently acquired behavioural adaptation in just a few members of a behaviourally polymorphic species. Bergtson (1966) has suggested that kleptoparasitism may have evolved accidentally as an opportunistic strategy and such seems to be the case with the kleptoparasitism of Gannets by Lesser Black-backs. While it is true that such a strategy could have been adopted through imitation of Great Skuas (Catharcta skua) while on autumn passage, such passage is rare and the Great Skua generally only adopts such a strategy at their breeding sites (Meinertzhagen 1959). It is more probable that accidental disgorging by Gannets first attracted the Gulls which became 'keyed in' to the bathing movements which Gannets make after a successful catch (Nelson 1978). The kleptoparasitism of Puffins, by Lesser Black- backs, however, is so similar to that practised by Herring Gulls that it is most likely that it has been copied from them. This probably took place as the M. E. Howgate, MSc, FLS, Department of Zoology, University College London, Gower Street, London WCIE 6BT. Communicating with the local community on and around a National Nature Reserve The scientific management and other conservation aspects of a number of the National Nature Reserves in Wales have formed a prominent part of the contents of the new series o/Nature in Wales. The various reserves have been described by the relevant Warden or Senior Warden and these descriptions have commonly been complemented by quotations from the works of specialists in the various disciplines represented on the reserves. The present article, however, looks at work on a reserve from a very different and much more personal standpoint. It is the text of a paper on a Warden's experience communicating with his local community, given by invitation at an NCC Seminar for Chief Wardens held at Plas Gogerddan, Aberystwyth in 1983. The author contributed the much more 'conventional' Lesser Black-back population expanded and took over cliff-top nesting sites, above the Puffin colony previously the prerogative of Herring Gulls. It is also possible that cross-fostering experiments carried out on Skomer in 1962 and on Skokholm in 1963-4 (Harris 1970) could have initiated this transfer of habit, but the nearness of these dates to the first positive sighting of a Lesser Black-backed Gull kleptoparasitising Puffins -July 1963 seems to rule out this possibility. References Arnason, E. & Grant, P.R. 1978. Ibis, 120, 38-54. Ashcroft, R.E. 1979. Ornis. Scand. 10,100-110. Bergtson, A.S. 1966. Quoted in Brockmann, H. J. & Barnard, C.J. Anim. Behav. 27, 1979, 487-514. Corkhill, P. 1973. Bird Study 20, 207-220. Flynn, J.E. 1957. Brit. Birds 50, 537. Harris, M.P. 1965. Ibis, 107,43-53. Harris, M.P. 1970. Ibis, 112, 488-498. Harris, M.P. 1980. Ibis, 122,193-209. Lockley, R.M. 1953. Puffins. Dent, London. Meinertzhagen, R. 1959. Pirates and Predators. Oliver & Boyd. Mylne, C.K. 1960. Brit. Birds 53,86-88. Nelson, J. B. 1978. The Sulidae, gannets and boobies. Oxford University Press/University of Aberdeen. Richford, A.S. 1978. Nature in Wales 16 (1), 32-36. W. I. Jones description of part of his 'patch' in volume 2 of Nature in Wales. The experiences I have drawn upon to make these comments have been gained in my own patch which I must describe in order that you have some context in which to place the observations I make. I am warden of five National Nature Reserves of oak woodland which average out at about 100 acres each and are situated in the Vale of Ffestiniog in the north of Meirionnydd or west Gwynedd. These reserves are mostly adjoined by farmland of a marginal nature and forestry plantations. The farms and the reserves belonged at one time to the Oakley estate whose manor house, Plas Tanybwlch, is now