Auk-cellent!

Little Auk on the sea

One from last year; in the hand!

Wednesday 5th November comments: Little Auks are brilliant. These birds, a member of the Auk family, are incredible and as the name suggest, are little. These birds are smaller than Puffins and are so small they actually feed on plankton rather than fish! So there you go, fact of the day!

These small birds don’t breed in Britain but if we get big northerly winds, huge numbers can be pushed down from the high arctic before readjusting and flying back north. Simple! Its at this moment birds are recorded along the east coast and there is no better place for seeing them than the Farne Islands; after all we stick four miles out to sea!

Today we recorded a plethora of these little fella’s as the day produced a total of 2,921 counted flying north. Other highlights included a good array of wildfowl and an impressive thirteen Pomarine Skua’s (all juveniles).

The Farnes is an impressive place for wildlife and don’t we just know it! Bring on tomorrow…

Today’s highlights:
Sooty Shearwater 1N
Red-throated Diver 26N, 10S
Great Northern Diver 2N, 5S
Brent Goose 5S dark-bellied
Shelduck 1N
Teal 93N
Wigeon 34N
Common Scoter 27N, 34S
**Velvet Scoter 9N, 2S
Goldeneye 23N
Red-breasted Merganser 4N
Long-tailed Duck 1N
Tufted Duck 1N
**Pomarine Skua 12N 1S
Arctic Skua 3N
Great Skua 10N, 5S
**Little Auks 2,921 north
**Black Guillemot 1 lingering