Eek! Auks hammered by storms need help to survive
THEY are perhaps the most unlikely victims of the storms that have been battering Scotland.
The country’s largest animal welfare charity is caring for more than 100 little auks that were blown off course.
The weakened seabirds have been found throughout Scotland by members of the public.
The black and white birds breed in the Arctic Circle including Greenland and Iceland and winter out at sea, but are thought to have been blown off course.
The young seabirds were all exhausted, starving and unable to take-off when they were rescued by the Scottish SPCA in locations including Glasgow, Caithness and along the east coast.
One was even found seeking refuge in an Aberdeen potting shed.
They are being rehabilitated at the charity’s National Wildlife Rescue Centre in Fishcross, Clackmannanshire, until the strongest can be returned to the water.
Centre manager Colin Seddon said yesterday: ‘We have just over 100 little auks in our care at the moment which have been caught out by the recent storms.
‘Little auks breed in the high arctic areas such as Greenland and Iceland, so it is unusual to see them up close. It is not uncommon for little auks to be found in the North Sea over winter but they are usually found many miles from the coast.
‘These ones have been blown off course during the recent storms and are landing in areas up and down the country, predominately along the east coast. The little auks we have rescued were found weak and thin and would have had great difficulty taking off once grounded.’
Little auks are around half the size of the Atlantic puffin at around eight inches in length, with a 14inch wingspan. They have a finchlike bill and feed on plankton.
The birds produce a variety of twitters and cackling calls in their large cliffside breeding colonies but are silent at sea.