I ask Burns what her favourite time in the colony is. “I don’t think I have one,” she replies. “There is always something interesting going on. Now it’s the birds returning and pairing up, then it’s laying, then hatching, and the busiest time for us is when we are weighing all the chicks twice a day. As the chicks grow big they start to become very curious and roam about the colony, and then, come late July, they start to flex their wings. Perhaps when they are almost ready to leave is the most special. We’ve been out watching over them every day of their lives in every kind of weather, and now they have made it. They start leaping up into the wind with their wings outstretched, getting a metre or two into the air, shrieking with pure delight. Occasionally one lands on the harbour and is brought back here. But for most of them, on their first flight they are gone, and probably won’t return for four years.”