Running out of puff! Is much-loved seabird doomed to breeding extinction on mainland Britain's south coast?

                                                

Puffins - once 'thick as grass' on Dorset coast but now in rapid decline

DOUBTS are growing over whether Puffins will remain as a breeding species on the south coast of mainland Britain.

In recent years, no more than three  pairs have been present at Purbeck in Dorset  - none of which has raised any chicks.

It is a far cry from the 1930s when the species was  described as "thick as grass" on the Dorset coast. In 1958, 85 birds were recorded in Purbeck.

The Puffins are monitored by the National Trust whose coast project officer, Ben Cooke, says:

"We fear that even if just one of the Purbeck birds were to have been  lost to the storms of winter, it would be another step closer to the loss of the whole group. 

"We are waiting with some trepidation to see if all six birds reappear this spring."

In 2024 and 2025, birds were seen nest‑building, but no fish deliveries to sites where there might have been chicks.

It was thought they may have  succumbed to predators such as rats or Carrion Crows, but a study of no fewer than 70,000 photographs taken by cameras installed on the breeding ledge revealed no predators.

It is now thought that any eggs laid may not have hatched for reasons that are unclear.

Human disturbance is not thought to be factor because this is minimal between 5am and 8am when the birds are most active.

Bird tours company "not too heavily impacted" by ongoing conflict in Middle East

                                             

They like to get out and about - one of the company's brochures from a previous year

AS the conflict rages on in the Middle East, global bird tours  operator Naturetrek has issued an update.

It states: "Fortunately, our business operations have not been impacted too heavily overall by the ongoing travel disruption in the Middle East. 

"Naturetrek customers who were on holiday in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Oman at the outbreak of the conflict in Iran are now safely home.

"Those about to travel to India and Sri Lanka have been placed on alternative routes and airlines." 

It tells customers: "If you are booked on a Naturetrek tour and are due to travel with Emirates Airlines through Dubai or with Qatar Airways through Doha in the coming months, please be assured that we are monitoring the situation closely. 

"As your tour operator, it is our responsibility to ensure that any cancelled flights are rebooked, and we always operate our tours in line with Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office advice for your destination (which includes any country that you might transit through en route). 

"If the FCDO advises against travel to your destination, or if we cannot offer a suitable alternative flight to get you to your destination, then in line with our terms and conditions we will offer you the option to rebook your tour or receive a full refund.

"Currently, Emirates and Qatar are allowing flights up to mid-April to be rebooked. 

"For future departures, we are waiting to see how the situation progresses and will get in touch with you with an update as we approach the balance due date for your tour."

Panel of wise birders deems that 'ship-assisted' corvid should not be added to the 636-strong British List

                                                     

Taking flight - but not landing a place on the British List

THE records committee of the British Ornithologists' Union has decided not to add the Pied Crow to the British List.

Members reached their verdict unanimously after considering a bird that spent the period between  June 13, 2018, and May 21, 2019, in various parts of England and Wales.

The committee's report states: "The Pied Crow is an abundant  species of sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, Aldabra and Comoros.

"It is largely sedentary though, in some areas, seasonal movements may be dictated by rainfall. 

"Instances of vagrancy to temperate Europe by birds of Afrotropical origin are exceptional but ship-assisted passage is a potential means of arrival.

"However, there are only a small number of documented records of Pied Crow actually aboard ships: at sea off Western Sahara and around the Canary Islands, and there is also possibility that these records concerned individuals known to have escaped on the Canary Islands." 

In chronological order, the British sightings over a period of 12 months included:

* Easington, Kilnsea and Spurn, Yorkshire

* Gibraltar Point, Lincolnshire

* Great Yarmouth, Winterton-on-Sea, Caister-on-Sea, Cromer,  East Runton, Norfolk

* Clevedon, Avon

* Pencarnan, Pembrokeshire

* Thornwick Camp and Flamborough, Yorkshire 

* Spurn, Yorkshire

* Gibraltar Point, Lincolnshire

* Holland Haven, Essex

* Winchelsea, Seaford, and Litlington, Sussex, 

* Cot Valley, Land’s End, St Just and Nanjizal, Cornwall

* Clovelly, Lundy, Morte Point, and Woolacombe, Devon

* Dover, North Foreland, St Margaret’s at Cliffe, Foreness Point, Swalecliffe, Broadstairs and North Foreland, Kent 

Crucially, the committee noted that "on June, 8, 2018, a Pied Crow  briefly visited a ship travelling from Russia to Britain in the south-eastern North Sea".

In all likelihood, this was the bird that went on to spend time flying hither and thither on the mainland. 

The report continues: "The committee's policy towards ship-assisted vagrants is not to admit port-to-port or coast-to-coast transportees on to the British List.

"Suspected ship-assisted birds should only by admitted to the List if the species is considered capable of making an unassisted crossing under favourable circumstances.

"The committee did not consider the 2018-2019 Pied Crow to be a vagrant and voted unanimously to not add the species to the British List which thus remains at 636."

The committee consists of:

Chair: Alexander Lees (Manchester Metropolitan University)

Secretary: Chris Batty (Lancashire)

Members:

Ross Ahmed (Tyne and Wear)

Pierre-André Crochet (Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, France)

Mark Golley (Norfolk)

Andrew Holden (ex officio, BBRC)

Mark Thomas (RSPB)

Jane Turner (Cheshire)

Leila Walker (BOU Chief Operations Officer)

BOURC Category F Sub-committee:

Prof Umberto Albarella

Jo Cooper (British Museum)

Dr Dale Serjeantson

Dr John Stewart

BOURC consultants:

Steve Dudley (Category C consultant; former BOU Chief Operations Officer)

Martin Stervander (National Museums of Scotland, museums consultant)

Keith Naylor (historical records consultant)

The Wryneck says: Few will object to the record committee's verdict, but it needs to clarify its policy on ship assisted birds. What, for instance, is its definition  of a port? Solely the point at which the vessel is anchored  - or the wider environ which may extend to 100 metres or more?  As for the line about whether a bird is "considered capable of making an unassisted crossing under favourable circumstances". That is a whole debate in itself.

It has long been extinct, but it is certain that this remarkable marine bird will never be forgotten

Just like that! Prof Tim Birkhead produces the egg

IF his career had taken a different path, perhaps renowned birder, author and Sheffield University academic Tim Birkhead might have been been a stage magician.

Early in his talk to Lincolnshire Bird Club's annual meeting, the good professor startled his audience by nonchalantly conjuring from his trouser pocket the egg of a long-extinct bird. . . a Great Auk.

It was a replica of course, but for the rest of his informative and amusing hour-long presentation, he went on to fascinate his listeners with results from more than two decades’ worth of research into this huge and extraordinary marine bird. 

Almost two years after the demise of the last birds off Iceland, this is a species that - perhaps even more than the Dodo - continues to capture the imagination of birders in the UK , Northern Europe, Canada, the United States and beyond.

One of the species' greatest devotees, according to Tim, was  retired aviator Ivan Hewitt - nephew of a Grimsby brewing magnate - who obsessively devoted much of his inherited wealth  to the acquisition of almost every Great Auk skin and egg that came up for auction.

It was last year that saw the publication of Tim’s book, The Great Auk  - Its Extraordinary Life, Hideous Death and Mysterious Afterlife.

His own journey of discovery took him from a contact in Barnsley (!)  to Funk Island, off Newfoundland, once a breeding stronghold where today patches of grass grow from the carcases of dead Great Auks, butchered by mariners over many centuries for their meat and feathers. 

What partly fired  the author's motivation and determination to complete his  book was  he vehemence and sometimes downright rudeness with which he was obstructed by some from whom he sought assistance in his research. 

When he requested permission to examine brood patches in the skin of an example of a Great Auk held in a collection in a museum in France, the curator refused him point blank.

On another occasion, when he inquired of a fellow biologist advice on the whereabouts of 13 missing Great Auk eggs, back came the abrasive reply: "Keep your nose out!"

Declared Tim: "Everything is secret and furtive about the Great Auk.

"And if you look for information about the bird on AI, much of it is nonsense. That's because there is so much incorrect information on the website."

At least in theory, scientific advances mean that it is possible to "de-extinct" species such as the Great Auk.

In the United States, at least two companies - Colossal Biosciences and Revive & Restore - are aiming to do that.

But Tim reckons that such enterprises are driven by commercial, as opposed to conservation, considerations.

He saw little sense in such initiatives given that the current state of the environment offers little prospect that re-created species would thrive.

"Far better for the money to spend the money on conserving what we still have," he maintained.

During his presentation, the speaker was generous in his praise for Fergus the Silent, Michael McCarthy's excellent, but little-known novel, about the Great Auk. "It would make a great film," he insisted.

Tim himself contributed some of his seabird knowledge as background to McCarthy's book but discreetly declined to say whether one of the characters might actually have been based on him.

Following his presentation, then  a question-and-answer session, Tim was thanked by LBC chairman Phil Espin, who, coincidentally, is planning a forthcoming trip to St Kildare -one of just eight known  locations where the Great Auk is believed  to have bred.

The Great Auk  - Its Extraordinary Life, Hideous Death and Mysterious Afterlife Is published by Bloomsbury.

Tim (fourth left) with LBC committee members - from left, Mike Harrison, Pete Locking, Prof Ian Newton (club president), Phil Espin, Phil Hyde, Chris Grimshaw, Sally Prescott and Jon Cooper

Illustrated two-volume Victorian study of Hummingbirds expected to fetch £400-plus at Gloucestershire auction

This study of a Ruby-crested Hummingbird is one of the coloured plates in William Jardine's two-volume The Natural History of Hummingbirds (1840) which is due to go under the hammer at a sale to be conducted by Dominic Winter at their premises in Cirencester,  Gloucestershire, on April 8. The Lot is expected to fetch between £400 and £600.

High hopes that grounds of Beckhams' family home in Oxfordshire could become magnet for songbirds

                                                         

All that's missing is the binoculars - the Beckhams have a taste for country life (photo: Instagram) 

PLAUDITS to Sir David Beckham and wife Victoria for their efforts to create plenty of songbird habitat on what was once arable land in the grounds of their home near Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire.

Their ongoing planting project features many hundreds of native trees, shrubs and hedging plus an adjacent wildflower meadow with more than 20 varieties of wildflower and grass.

Importantly, a small lake has been created with an island in the centre.

The celebrity couple plant to install a bridge to this island plus festoon lighting though this proposal has sparked an objection from a neighbouring landowner and is subject to planning consent being granted by the local council.

It is not known what bird species are accommodated on site, but if either Sir David or Lady Beckham - or any family members - decide to take up birding, we could find out.

                                             

The grounds' landscape design by Portus and Whitton shows  the pond which  is likely to be attractive to birds - not just waterfowl but possibly also Kingfishers, Green Sandpipers and Grey Wagtails

      

  

RSPB has "exciting" post in Scotland for someone to keep tabs on breeding sites of uncommon species of duck

                                              

                                                     

Common Scoter - declining breeding population in Britain

A BIRDING job with a difference is being offered by the RSPB.

The charity has a 12-month vacancy in Scotland for a . . . Common Scoter Manager.

Since the 1970s, the UK breeding population of Common Scoter has plummeted in both numbers and range.

It is classified as Critically Endangered  and listed on the Scottish Biodiversity List as one of the country's  rarest breeding species an d at risk of extinction.

Says the job description: "This exciting role within our North Highland and Hebrides area team will lead on operational management and day-to-day coordination of external contractors and staff to undertake a suite of investigative studies and prepare a delivery project aimed at halting the decline and restoring breeding populations.  

"The successful applicant will be working across six Common Scoter breeding locations in Scotland in the Highlands, Perth & Kinross and Argyll & Bute areas."

It continues: "We are looking for a highly competent individual to oversee the development phase of our ambitious Saving Scotland's Scoters work programme. 

"The project includes but is not limited to: 

* Designing and testing management measures such as feeding area buffers

* Pike removal trials

* Aquatic invertebrate and thermal drone surveys

* Predator and competitor assessments

* Investigating, planning, costing and seeking approvals for site specific management solutions for individual lochs.

The salary is in the range £33,027 - £35,259 per annum, and the deadline for applications is midnight next Thursday April 2.

For more information, contact:  Alison.MacLennan@rspb.org.uk