Saturday 1 March 2014

Seabirds wrecked!


I'm sure you've all heard that all the awful weather over the last few months has taken it's toll on out Atlantic seabirds with large numbers being washed up dead on  NW European coasts recently. I had a look along blackrock sands from the Cricieth end of the beach to the outlet/stream at the Porthmadog end on Wednesday (c.1km) and counted a minimum of.

Razorbill       101
Guillimot        28
Kittiwake       7
Shag              1
Fulmar           1
Raven            1

Not sure what happened with the Raven. Checked the first 20 birds for rings then got put off by a few stinky corpses! I hope numbers bounce back over the next few years.

1 comment:

  1. Always worth checking for rings! I was searching along the tideline at Aberdaron 2 weeks ago and drew a blank on the 6 or so dead auks I found. I then saw what appeared to be no more than a couple of primary feathers in the debris and seaweed, but as I lifted this away I found what remained of a Shag with a shiny ring :-) Turned out to be a very worn BTO ring so I am expecting to hear that it was quite old.
    PhilB
    Bryncroes

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