As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Thursday 10 April 2014

Does climate change herald sad end of cliff top kittiwake colony in Seaford?

Rising sea temperatures could threaten the future of the popular kittiwake colony at Splash Point in Seaford, according to the RSPB.

Kittiwakes st Splash PointThere is evidence of a link between rising sea temperatures and a reduction in the numbers of the birds’ main food source, sand eels.
If the colony cannot adapt to find another supply of food it will struggle to survive, the conservation charity warned.

In other parts of the country the impact of rising sea temperatures is already being felt.

Seabird declines are particularly serious in the Northern Isles of Scotland and some colonies in the South East have also been badly affected.

In the early 1990s there was a colony of almost 3,000 pairs of kittiwakes at Langdon Cliffs near Dover in Kent, but this colony has declined alarmingly and in the last few years only a few tens of nests have been recorded.

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