Arctic invasion
An unprecedented influx of Brünnich’s Guillemots into the North Sea took place in late November, on the back of Storm Arwen.
THE remnants of Storm Arwen meant that a busy period of seawatching was on the cards for North Sea birders during the last few days of November, although not many would have predicted the scale of the Brünnich’s Guillemot influx that was to follow. Unprecedented numbers were logged along the North Sea coastline over the weekend of 27-28th between Whitby, North Yorks, and Fife Ness, Fife, with the coast between Hartlepool Headland, Cleveland, and Newbiggin-by-theSea, Northumberland, especially fruitful.
No fewer than four birds were suspected of being involved between the latter two sites, with high counts of two off Hendon and three off Whitburn Coastal Park, both Co Durham.
A number of these were well photographed and videoed too, silencing the argument that they don’t occur in the southern North Sea.
Harbingers of the impending influx occurred on 26th: an unfortunately moribund bird in Norfolk was followed by one past St Agnes Head, Cornwall.
The Norfolk bird – officially a county first – perished hours after washing up on a sandbank at Wells-next-the-Sea. Expertly picked up off Holkham Beach by local birder Marcus Nash, the alcid drifted east into the harbour mouth at around high tide, beaching on a sandbank early afternoon as the tide dropped. Looking increasingly weak as time wore on, it sadly died there midafternoon.
It is somewhat surprising that
this represents the first county record given Norfolk’s illustrious birding history, large number of observers and its lengthy North Sea coastline. Birds reported off Cley Coastguards on 12 November 2007 and 4 December 2009 were both found Not Proven by the BBRC.
The arrival of these Brünnich’s Guillemots came ahead of and during a spell of strong northerlies from the Arctic, and in an autumn in which an auk wreck is ongoing in the North Sea. A small influx of the species had already occurred in Sweden prior to the British birds.
Although there are an impressive 48 accepted British records, most of these refer to brief fly-pasts for lucky seawatchers, and it can be a tricky species to catch up with – twitchable on just five occasions since 2000. Most notable of these was an incredibly popular individual at Portland Harbour, Dorset, from 19-31 December 2013, with the other three hailing from Scotland – at Bressay, Shetland, in 2005, and Anstruther, Fife, and Scapa Flow, Orkney, in 2016. ■