Eerie silence falls on Shetland cliffs that once echoed to seabirds’ cries

Climate change has caused a catastrophic drop in the numbers of terns, kittiwakes and puffins

Robin McKieScience Editor

Sun 3 Jun 2018 06.59 BST

Sumburgh Head lies at the southern tip of mainland Shetland. This dramatic 100-metre-high rocky spur, crowned with a lighthouse built by Robert Louis Stevenson’s grandfather, has a reputation for being one of the biggest and most accessible seabird colonies in Britain.

Thousands of puffins, guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and fulmars gather there every spring to breed, covering almost every square inch of rock or grass with teeming, screeching birds and their young.

Or at least they used to – for this year Sumburgh Head is a quiet and largely deserted place. Where seabirds once swooped and cried in their thousands, only a handful of birds wheel round the cliffs. The silence is uncanny – the result of a crash in seabird numbers that has been in progress for several years but which has now reached an unprecedented, catastrophic low.

One of the nation’s most important conservation centres has been denuded of its wildlife, a victim – according to scientists – of climate change, which has disrupted food chains in the North Sea and North Atlantic and left many seabirds without a source of sustenance. The result has been an apocalyptic drop in numbers of Arctic terns, kittiwakes and many other birds.

“In the past, Sumburgh Head was brimming with birds, and the air was thick with the smell of guano. The place was covered with colonies of puffins, kittiwakes, fulmars, and guillemots,” said Helen Moncrieff, manager of RSPB Scotland’s office in Shetland.

 “There were thousands and thousands of birds and visitors were guaranteed a sight of puffins. Today they have to be very patient. At the same time, guillemots have halved in numbers. It is utterly tragic.”

This grim description is backed by figures that reveal the staggering decreases in seabird numbers in Shetland, the most northerly part of the British Isles. In 2000, there were more than 33,000 puffins on the island in early spring. That figure dropped to 570 last year and there are no signs of any recovery this year, although it is still early in the season.

Continued  

Dummy birds deployed to tempt rare terns back to the Solent

DECOY bird models are being used in a bid to tempt a rare species back to the Solent. Dummy birds are among the new techniques being used by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust to boost local tern populations. 

Common, sandwich, little, and roseate terns used to nest widely in the region, but their numbers have declined in recent years. Experts suggest the birds lack suitable safe space to nest – because of human disturbances, rising sea levels and shrinking beaches, overfishing, pollution and stormy weather.


Read more at:

Terns face challenges when they fly south for winter

Date:  April 4, 2018

Source:  American Ornithological Society Publications Office

The common tern is most widespread tern species in North America, but its breeding colonies in interior North America have been on the decline for decades despite conservation efforts. The problem, at least in part, must lie elsewhere -- and a new study presents some of the best information to date on where these birds go when they leave their nesting lakes each fall.

Continued  

Plans for Welsh nuclear power plant delayed by concerns over seabirds

Next stage of planning process for Anglesey site postponed as effect on tern colonies is assessed

Adam Vaughan

Mon 9 Apr 2018 13.57 BSTLast modified on Mon 9 Apr 2018 22.00 BST

Plans for a nuclear power station on the Welsh island of Anglesey have been delayed by concerns over the plant’s impact on colonies of protected seabirds.

The proposed twin reactors at Wylfa were given the green light by the UK’s nuclear regulator in December, with backers hoping to win financial support from the government.

The Welsh plant would have a capacity of 3GW, similar to the 3.2GW of the nuclear power station being built at Hinkley Point in Somerset.

Horizon Nuclear Power, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Hitachi, told planning authorities it would submit its planning application for the Wylfa plant by the end of March, which it called a “major milestone”.

But the company postponed submitting the development consent order because it needs to thrash out the impact building the power station will have on colonies of sandwich, Arctic and common terns.

The species are protected under the EU birds and habitats directive.

Nearby Cemlyn nature reserve is home to thousands of sandwich terns, which account for about fifth of the birds’ UK population and is the biggest on the country’s west coast.

Wildlife groups are concerned about the effect of noise and light from the power station’s construction, as well as a reduction in food for the birds to forage on. Land clearance for the vast site is also expected to displace potential predators, such as rats and foxes.

Chris Wynne, a senior reserve officer at North Wales Wildlife Trust, said: “We are looking at a range of ecological impacts at one of the most significant tern colonies in the UK.”

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