Rare Seabird Makes Comeback In West Country

3:16pm 16th September 2015

A rare seabird makes a comeback in West Country.

Thanks to two seabird conservation projects, the rare storm petrel has this year made a comeback in the West Country, breeding at new locations on the Isles of Scilly and for a second year on Lundy.

Storm petrels are tiny seabirds, about the size of a sparrow, that spend most of their lives at sea.

They nest in burrows and are extremely rare breeding birds in England - confined entirely to the West Country.

Up until last year the only place they nested was on a few outer rocks and islands in the Isles of Scilly.

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Lundy seabird recovery 'success after rat cull'

Culling the rat population on Lundy 10 years ago has led to a "striking" increase in the number of seabirds on the island, the National Trust has said.

The Lundy Seabird Recovery Project was set up in 2003 to help the Manx shearwater population, which had fallen to just 300 breeding pairs.

A survey this spring revealed a tenfold rise in numbers to 3,000 pairs.

It also recorded a substantial rise in other species, including puffins.

Wildlife haven

The previous decline in birdlife on Lundy was blamed on rats, which came via ships to the island off the North Devon coast and ate birds' eggs and attacked young chicks.

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