Auks go for the record

Nov 13 2007 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

GALE force winds have blown away a British birding record off the Northumberland coast.

A new record for the number of Little Auks in British waters was broken twice in three days on the Farne Islands.

The first record was set last Thursday when 18,000 Little Auks – a small seabird – were recorded around the Farnes, easily beating the UK’s previous best sighting of 11,000 recorded at Flamborough Head on the Yorkshire coast in January 1995.

But three days later the new record was smashed with 29,000 Little Auks recorded around the islands last Sunday.

Farne Islands National Trust head warden David Steel said: “It was a staggering sight to see so many of these small Auks bravely battling north against the strong head wind.

“For the record to be broken twice in three days is remarkable and will take some beating.”

The closest breeding populations to the UK are centred around the Arctic Circle in Greenland and Spitsbergen.

Despite the lack of any breeding birds in Britain, large numbers can be driven into the North Sea during the late autumn and early winter period usually after gale force winds.

Following a series of strong northerly winds in mid-week, the Farne Island wardens set about the task of counting the birds as they re-orientated themselves and headed north past the islands.

Mark Grantham, BirdTrack organiser at the British Trust for Ornithology, said: “These mass displacements of Little Auks do seem to be quite a modern phenomenon, and we can only wonder why. It may be changing weather patterns or changes in food supply, but there’s no denying something is happening. To start to understand what might be driving this, we need to accurately document and monitor these movements.”

Over the past 20 years changes have been recorded in the breeding patterns of Atlantic Grey Seals on the Farne Islands. In the 1980s, the first pup was usually spotted at the end of October,

Now pups are being born from the end of September. Climate change may also be responsible for the severe storms which devastated the Farne Islands in June, flooding around 800 puffin burrows, drowning chicks and washing away eggs.

Many disorientated Little Auks will also have headed off inland, and any sightings can be recorded online at www.birdtrack.net

The Little Auk is a relative of the puffin, but it is only the size of a starling.