What Impact is Avian Flu Having on Britain’s Iconic Seabird Populations?

Sadly, the UK is currently seeing its largest ever outbreak of avian flu, a disease which normally impacts domestic poultry but this time is hitting our beautiful seabirds the hardest. The rugged British coastline is home to an astonishing number of different seabird species, from diving gannets to our popular puffins, sleek cormorants to endangered seagulls. Many of the populations of seabirds that call our cliffs and islands home are of global significance and therefore the sudden rise in avian flu cases is incredibly worrying for some of our most loved marine species.

First and foremost, what exactly is avian influenza? It is an infectious disease which passes from bird to bird via infected droppings or saliva. It can affect the respiratory, digestive or the nervous system which means the symptoms are wide ranging, whilst they also vary between species. Common symptoms can include loss of co-ordination, trembling, drooping of the wings, twisting of the neck, loss of appetite and diarrhoea. Clearly this is a very confusing, stressful and painful disease which is unfortunately decimating some of our most iconic seabird colonies. There have been several outbreaks of avian flu in Britain over the past few years but most have been confined to domestic poultry farms. In fact, it is believed that the international poultry trade may be to blame for this latest strain which is a new form the disease and more highly mutable than before.

Normally, around 25% of Europe’s seabirds journey to Britain to breed, leading our remote cliff ledges to be filled with squawking chicks attempting to take their first steps and later, their first flight. This year however, the breeding season has turned into a super-spreader event with the famous Bass Rock being one of the hardest hit areas. Bass Rock, just inside the Scottish border, is home to the world’s largest gannet colony with 150,000 residents perched on the rock during the peak months. However, camera footage has shown a different story this year as the tiny island which is normally a feathered white blur now has large patches of slate grey rock exposed, with the usual tussle for space not taking place due to the reduction in the colony’s size.

Gannets are one of the largest seabirds found in the UK with an incredible wingspan of two metres. These birds are often seen fishing further out to sea and are white with distinctive black wingtips and yellow heads. Many gannets arrive on the British Isles in February before leaving in October to head to the warmer climes of the west coast of Africa. One of the most incredible features of gannets is their diving technique which sees them take steep vertical dives into the ocean at an astonishing speed of 60mph in order to catch a tasty morsel. So that their necks don’t break on entry to the water, their muscles lock their vertebrae into place whilst air sacs under their skin are designed to cushion their breast on impact. Another fact about gannets is that they nest very closely together, almost on top of other families and it is believed to be this reason why so many have tragically been found washed up on the East Lothian shores near the island. By living so densely, birds quickly and easily pick up infections from others’ droppings which has allowed avian flu to spread like wildfire. Hundreds of birds have already been picked up from the coastline but many more are thought to remain in remote stretches which are rarely visited by humans. In this area of Scotland, gannets have been the main victim but the odd gull and puffin have also been found. The Scottish Seabird Centre sits in the town of North Berwick which looks out to Bass Rock and the conservationists there have said they feel powerless in the face of this disease. All they can do to help the birds is monitor the situation and track their recovery and they hope new resources, such as drones, will be able to help with this.

It seems that Scotland is the country taking the greatest hit in the UK and even the remote archipelago of St Kilda, lying over 40 miles from the Outer Hebrides, has been affected. This is an enormous tragedy for our seabirds as St Kilda is a very special place, named a UNESCO world heritage site for its natural and cultural significance and now managed by the National Trust for Scotland. Around one million seabirds congregate on this remote outpost, including gannets, storm petrels and shearwaters as well as the UK’s largest colony of Atlantic puffins. However, it is the great skua, also known as bonxie, which are suffering the worst here. These elusive birds are called the pirates of the sea as they are known to steal food from other seabirds, even ones much larger than themselves, such as gannets. These birds also migrate to the UK from the warmer coasts of Spain and Africa but sadly it seems fewer of them will be making the return journey this year due to avian flu. Birds have been displaying strange behaviour on the islands, such as head shaking and digging their bills into the ground, which could be a sign of infection. Some scientists believe that we will see the numbers of birds dying fall as individuals catch the disease, recover and build natural immunity yet others disagree and say they are seeing few individuals catch avian flu and survive; sadly, it seems only time will tell.

Avian flu now seems to be taking a hold on the Isle of Man too but here it is our little guillemots that are the population most at risk as dead birds have been found lying on the beaches. Guillemots are one of the largest populations in our so called ‘seabird cities’ which are cliffs so densely packed with birds you can barely see the rock. This species only comes to land to nest before heading back out to spend the rest of their lives at sea. Their black and white colour and upright stance make them resemble penguins and give them quite an inquisitive look. Their eggs come in different colours and with various patterns and the parents actually use these markings to identify their own eggs. In addition to this, the eggs come to a point at one end which means that if it rolls, it will simply roll in a circle which is believed to stop them falling off the cliff edge. Once the chicks are hatched and have grown over a couple of weeks, they take a daredevil leap of faith off the tall cliffs before they can even fly, giving guillemot chicks the nickname of ‘jumplings’. However, it is the fact that thousands of them can all live together on one island, sea stack or cliff that makes the spread of avian flu that much quicker.

Unfortunately, avian flu is not just restricted to these locations or these species. Birds such as sandwich terns, arctic terns and eider ducks have also been found washed up along the Northumberland coast and Teeside beaches. The Farne islands off this coast, a home of 200,000 seabirds, is also affected and here conservationists are ditching their binoculars and picking up their hazmat suits in a tragic turn of events. So what can conservation organisations really do about this problem? The sad answer is not very much. The RSPB have been working hard in several areas, from testing birds to properly disposing of carcasses so the disease is not spread further and campaigning for better biosecurity on poultry farms. They are also encouraging the Scottish government to work with nature organisation NatureScot to combine their resources and co-ordinate greater surveillance, monitoring and testing to limit the spread and to understand the true impact this disease is having.

Some may be asking, what is so special about seabirds in the UK? Well Scotland is not only home to the world’s largest gannet colony but also 60% of the world’s breeding great skuas as well as a significant portion of Europe’s breeding seabirds. Britain’s seabirds are actually acknowledged as being of global importance, yet their population sizes have already halved since the 1980s. Our seabirds have to face multiple human pressures such as entanglement from fishing nets, plastic pollution, climate change and the fishing industry competing with them for food. Avian flu is yet another stressor limiting these birds’ ability to thrive; will it be the factor which pushes some species over the brink? The fact that seabirds are long living species which often don’t start reproducing until the age of five means that recovery periods can be long. Yet these birds are incredibly important to our ecosystems as they help keep the food chain in balance whilst their droppings wash off rocks into the ocean where they fertilise the growth of aquatic plants such as seaweed which is great at absorbing carbon dioxide. Of course, it would also be unimaginable to visit the British seaside and not see birds swooping and soaring on the horizon and hear their squawk as they fight over a scrap of food.

If you want to help limit the impact of avian flu on our seabird species there are several things you can do. Firstly, if you see more than five dead birds in one area, you should report this to DEFRA, whilst any dead ringed birds should be reported to the British Trust for Ornithology. Sadly, if you see a struggling, dying bird on the coast, please do not take it to an animal shelter as it may pass on the disease to other birds living there. Many vulnerable seabird reserves have already been closed to the public but if you can stop visiting any other seabird colonies on foot, that also helps. Not only does it reduce the stress level of the birds, giving them a better chance of recovery but it also stops you potentially spreading the disease if you get bird droppings on your skin, shoes or clothes. Whilst avian flu has currently not been found in domestic birds or garden birds, it is better to be safe than sorry so make sure you clean any bird feeders frequently whilst also changing bird drinking and bathing water daily. Finally, of course, any donations you can make to seabird charities will be very gratefully received at this time as organisations aim to monitor and test seabirds whilst many are also ramping up their conservation measures to give these species every chance at survival and recovery. Can you imagine our wide open oceans with no seabirds circling in the sky above?

By Neve McCracken-Heywood