Tuesday brings us some sad news in the form of bird flu having apparently reached our shores. We had a barnacle goose with a positive result back in February but no suspicious deaths since. However, today was a report of a number of guilliemot washed up dead on Machir Bay, and apparently Kintra too.
Mark Shields writes: I had a couple of reports of dead birds at Machir Bay, two estimates between 10 and 15 on the southern half of the beach. I went this morning and found 4 pretty quickly, so have reported to DEFRA. All were adult guillemots and all were fairly recently dead. It’s not uncommon to find guillemot ‘wrecks’, and there’s a variety of possible reasons, but with the current bird flu spread it’s worth reporting anything similar to DEFRA on 03459 335577. More info at the link below. Advice remains to not touch any sick or dying birds, and to keep dogs on leads.
Sadly there wasn't much other sightings reported today were other dead seabirds as a result of this sobering news. Apart from a crossbill over the Dower House, as seen by Mary-Ann and a curlew up at Claddach this evening. First for a while.
Mary
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