Seabirds

Rats have wiped out more than 90% of the seabirds on South Georgia, and the sponsors hope that once the rats are gone, it will regain its former status as home to the greatest concentration of seabirds in the world.

According to the RSPB, due to many seabirds being long-lived and slow to breed they will struggle to bounce back from the effects of avian flu.

As far as St Helena is concerned, the risk is primarily to our poultry flocks and other resident birds of note such as seabirds and the endemic wirebird, although the latter two categories should in theory be little affected.

Claire Smith, Senior Policy Officer for RSPB, said: “RSPB Scotland staff witnessed the devastating effects of bird flu on seabirds across our nature reserves last summer.

Imagine a visit to Rathlin Island with no seabirds to greet us in the summertime.

It focusses on the north, beginning on Rathlin Island, famous for its countless seabirds and, unique to the island, the golden hare.

It has been suggested that seabirds infected the animals on fur farms in the Kaustinen region of Finland, where bird flu is spreading fast.

It is thought that seabirds eat the plastic when fishing and then accidentally feed it directly to their chicks.

People are familiar with seabirds dying from eating or turtles suffocating as a result of mistaking for jellyfish, but there is very little awareness about plastics that harm creatures at a smaller level, Kirby explains.

Previous studies have that around 90% of all seabirds have ingested plastics.

Bird flu killed more than half a tern colony near Port Townsend this year, and 2023 saw the first jump of the disease from seabirds to harbor seals, the first report of marine mammals dying from the disease on the West Coast.

For his entry, David produced a mixed-media painting featuring endangered seabirds, Abbott’s Boobies.

From October 2021, H5N1 began causing an "unprecedented number of outbreaks" and an "alarming" rate of deaths among wild birds, especially seabirds.

Navigating south, as if tracing the path of spawning salmon returning from the open Pacific, we passed through narrow channels where whales, seals, sea lions, and seabirds feasted on the autumn bounty.

On Sunday, October 20, there will be an afternoon walk at 1pm to look at the geology along the Barry Coast and some seabirds.

On Tetiaroa, the soil is nourished by nutrients brought from the ocean by seabirds, creating a rich base for flora and fauna.

San Diego Audubon Society said it first noticed groups of seabirds using West Ski Island in 2020, when beaches were largely closed to humans.

The 2016 study looked not only at that remote past, but at how more recent declines in whales, fish, seabirds and other species have changed and diminished nutrient cycling.

The pollution, which has coated sandy beaches at and around Anapa, a popular summer resort, has caused serious problems for seabirds and everything from dolphins to porpoises and over 10,000 people have been trying to clear it up.

We saw seals and lots of seabirds, and loved the boat ride.