News / Largest ever influx of Icelandic gulls
MEMBERS of Shetland Bird Club were out in force on Saturday for a coordinated island-wide count of Icelandic gulls, a regular winter visitor which this year have appeared in unusually large numbers.
By Sunday more than 150 were counted between Unst and Fair Isle with most Iceland gulls found in Lerwick in the vicinity of the Shetland Catch processing factory.
This time of the year the gulls should be feeding in the much colder waters off Greenland.
Writing on the Nature of Shetland website (http://natureinshetland.blogspot.com), local ornithologist Rob Fray said that most birds appeared to be very hungry, and could be seen near fish factories or salmon cages.
“Observers were dispatched far and wide to locate as many birds as possible, in order to try and record the influx as best as possible.
“It is fairly safe to say that the January 2012 influx is the largest ever to be recorded in Shetland.
“The previous biggest arrival was in January/February 1983, which saw at least 120 birds. In addition, the record site count has also been broken this year – the previous highest count at one individual site was 31 in Lerwick in January 1993.
“An interesting aspect of the arrival in January 2012 is the make-up of the ages of the birds involved, with much larger numbers of ‘older’ birds than would normally be expected, and a strange dearth of 1st-winter individuals.”
The unusual influx of Icelandic gulls, and glaucous gulls, to Scotland’s west coast from Argyll up to Shetland has also prompted bird charity RSPB to comment on the phenomenon.
Its conservation officer Martin Scott said: “Unusually we are seeing more Iceland gulls than glaucous gulls this year. I imagine the recent windy weather must be having an effect and is pushing the birds into Scottish waters from the Atlantic.”
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