Dire breeding season for British and Icelandic seabirds

[rlchew]

I visited Shetland in May/June of this year and was very concerned to hear from the locals on a number of occasions that they anticipated a very poor breeding season at their major seabird breeding colonies.

I recall that Kittiwakes were particulalry notable by their absence compared with my previous vivit to Shetland in 2003.

Sadly, a very poor breeding season seems to have been the case ....

Dire breeding season for British and Icelandic Seabirds

The UK has some awesome seabird colonies which provide a wonderful birdwatching experience. Reports of breeding failures and declining numbers are now unfortunately becoming an annual event .

Richard

[Dogghound]

Kittewakes feed from the surface, due to the warmer waters sand eels their main food have remained deep which is not a problem to diving birds but it is to kittewakes as they dont surface in the numbers they require. This is a key reason for their decline.

[Tracey.A]

It's a similar story for Puffins as well sadly, because their main food sourse is also sand eels.

Tracey

[Dogghound]

Puffins can dive though which makes them less susceptible to this. Alot of the birds we got last year were in a very poor condition and didnt have a great breeding season as they were recovering, it seems to be their wintering areas that are the problem.