Thursday 20 February 2014
The Environment Department is organising a count of seabirds washed up dead around the Island's coast this weekend (Saturday afternoon 22nd February). Ornithologists and volunteers sought through La Societe Guernesiaise, RSPB Guernsey and GSPCA are collecting birds so that data can be gathered on the numbers of birds which have been lost due to the poor weather conditions recently.
Over the last two weeks the storms in the Atlantic have brought very strong winds and heavy rainfall. As coasts were battered by the conditions so were seabird populations. Heavy seas have prevented diving birds such as Guillemots, Razorbills and Puffins from diving for food. Over the last two weeks the victims have started to wash up on beaches from the Bay of Biscay to Brittany, the Channel Islands and Cornwall.
There have been ad hoc reports of dead birds around Guernsey in the last two weeks, including gulls, Razorbills, Guillemots, Puffins and Shags. St Sampson's Douzaine found five at Belle Greve during a clean up and the Take 3 group cleaning Petit Port found two Puffins, two Guillemots and a Shag last Sunday (16th). States Works beach cleaning crew found a further 20 dead birds around west coast beaches since last Sunday.
The aim of the exercise on Saturday is to collect data in a single common format on dead seabird numbers for Guernsey's coastline. Alderney Wildlife Trust is collating this seabird data for the Channel Islands in co-operation with RSPB South West.
An Environment Department spokesperson said, "Some of our breeding birds are still at sea, there is no way to tell yet how badly numbers may have been affected. Such numbers of dead birds from storm conditions haven't previously been seen here. It's particularly sad to see regular reports of Puffins amongst them throughout the Channel Islands but highlights just how vulnerable some of our most iconic seabirds are."
Anyone finding a dead seabird is asked to record species, location and date found and then try to dispose of the body to avoid it being recounted by bagging and binning it. Send reports plus any information on rings or tags to env@gov.gg should be worn when handling dead birds and hands washed thoroughly afterwards.
Contact Information:
Environmental Services Unit
Environment Department
Tel: 717200
