Another bad year for seabirds
ONLINE birdwatchers have been saddened again at the failure of the world famous Puffincam egg in Shetland to hatch.
Thousands of people have been clicking on to the webcam pictures of a pair of puffins tending to their egg in a burrow at the RSPB Sumburgh Head bird reserve.
However last weekend they saw that the egg had been cracked open, after which the parents pushed it out of the burrow.
This is the fourth year Puffincam watchers have been frustrated by the lack of a fully fledged chick to watch online. Last year a chick did hatch, only to be killed by an adult.
The failure reflects the wider scenario for seabirds on Shetland, which are facing up to yet another very poor season.
Ornithologists are blaming climate change for the absence of sandeels around the islands’ shores, forcing birds to forage hundreds of miles away for food to bring home to their chicks.
On Fair Isle, local bird warden David Parnaby said the puffins were one of the few species that were showing signs of success.
“It’s another very bad year for guillemots and razorbills, and shags and kittiwakes are not doing well, but the puffins have been bucking the trend a wee bit,” he said.
The fish that birds were finding tended to be very small, he said, but puffins may be doing better because they are able to carry more of them in their large colourful beaks.
Parnaby affirmed that climate change was the main cause of the lack of food.
“They are starting to produce the evidence that climate change is happening and it’s having an impact close to home,” he said.
“It’s not just polar bears and penguins, we are seeing the seabirds on our doorstep starting to suffer as well.”
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RSPB warden Helen Moncrieff said the failure of the Puffincam egg reflected how bad things were for birds throughout the isles.
“It’s looking like a really poor season and no doubt that is because of the lack of feed available,” she said.
While puffins on Fair Isle have started producing chicks, there is little sign of newborn chicks on the Shetland mainland amongst the thousands of adult birds that are still nesting.
“We still have well over a thousand puffins here at Sumburgh Head,” she said. “So there are still things to see and hopefully we will see them coming in with fish to feed their young.”
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