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| A Puffin |
A number of seabirds, in particular Puffins, have been found
washed up along the south coast, joining the odd dead turtle and dolphin, all having
succumbed to the recent exceptional storms.
The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) have received a
record number of reports of Puffins, wearing uniquely-numbered metal rings, that
have also been washed up dead on the coasts of France and Spain.
In a normal winter, the BTO would expect two or three ringed
Puffins to be found in France and Spain, but during the last few weeks, over 35
have been reported. The previous highest number of ringed birds found was back
in 1979 when 17 dead Puffins were reported.
It is well known that British Puffins head out into the
Atlantic for the winter months, riding out the worst that the weather can throw
at them. As the winter progresses, our Puffins make their way into the
Bay of Biscay before heading back to their breeding colonies and the burrows
that they used the previous summer. Birds found in this current wreck have come
from colonies in west Wales, northern Scotland, Orkney and Shetland.
Mark Grantham, Ringing Officer at the BTO, commented “Up
until the last couple of weeks it seemed that our Puffins might have survived
the worst of the winter. However, from the reports of ringed birds that are
being washed-up on the Biscay beaches it would seem that the recent storms were
just too much for many of the birds.“
He added, “It is still early days and the number of ringed
birds found is likely to rise further, but we must remember that if over 35
ringed birds have been found, many un-ringed birds must have been affected
too.”
As if all of that is not enough to contend with, there are
also reports of seabirds being drowned in gill nets in the Weymouth Bay area. At
least 38 dead birds were discovered in just 4 hauled nets. Most of the
casualties were auks and possibly the problem arose because both birds and nets
are unusually concentrated in the relatively sheltered waters of the bay.
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