UKCEHseabirds

@ukceh.bsky.social @theseabirdgroup.bsky.social

Shags have had a tough few years on the Isle of May following a large mortality event in winter 2023/24 and a smaller event earlier this year.

Thankfully both 2024 and 2025 saw above average productivity, so hopefully the population can recover in time. 🐣

#IsleOfMay #seabirds #ornithology

@ukceh.bsky.social
@theseabirdgroup.bsky.social @steelyseabirder.bsky.social

The 2025 #seabird breeding results are in from the Isle of May:

Razorbills fledged 0.63 chicks per pair - right on the long-term average. Even better: 91.2% survival, well above the long-term average of 83.9%

Strong productivity + excellent survival = a really encouraging year for #Razorbills. 💚

Puffins and Shags seem to have been hit hardest by recent storms, with many reports of birds washed ashore. This includes one Isle of May Puffin that was ringed as an adult in 1995, making it at least 34 years old!

#stormChandra #seabirds #winterstorms

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The image contains a header at the top reading "Wanted: Shag resightings". Below this is a picture of a Shag weraing a blue colour ring with the code "UXE" and a text box of the information needed if you see a colour ringed Shag. This information is: date, location, colour of the ring, three letter code, and a photo if possible. All the information can be emailed to shags@ceh.ac.uk

Lots of reports of dead seabirds in the aftermath of recent storms. Please keep an eye out for any dead colour ringed Shags and send details to shags@ceh.ac.uk

#seabirds #ornithology #winterstorm

After 9 days of strong easterlies they will not have been able to feed adequately along the east coast and have made a desperate flight for calm conditions. Suspect these are the lucky ones to have survived so far

As @aberladybirder.bsky.social says if you can report to shags@ceh.ac.uk with any shag colour rings we'll send back a full sightings history.

I'm looking forward to the 2027 conference even more now

I was concerned by the first photo with them upright on their objective lenses. Always gives me the fear when i see them perched like this and that a slight miss-grab will send them tumbling. Glad to see bins posture rectified in second image😰

New Year, new job. Come and join the @ukceh.bsky.social team on the Isle of May
ceh.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-GB/CEH_Ca...

Demographic responses of North Atlantic seabirds to seasonal ocean warming | PNAS Climate-driven ocean warming is profoundly reshaping marine ecosystems, with cascading effects on biodiversity and trophic interactions. For migrat...

Warming oceans are having widespread and often negative effects on migratory seabirds, new research involving UKCEH shows.

The study compared seasonal sea surface temperatures with seabird numbers to quantify effects on reproduction, survival & population trends. doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

🧪1/

A kittiwake ringed as a chick by @ukceh.bsky.social on the Isle of May in 2023 has been reported from Greenland. Our tracking studies over the years have revealed that many of the Isle of May kittiwakes pass Greenland on route to wintering off Newfoundland @theseabirdgroup.bsky.social

Back on the Isle of May for more shag ring reading. Pleasant conditions at roost time

Seabirds are more likely to ‘divorce’ in bad weather Wild seabirds are more likely to split up in windy weather, according to a new study involving the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.

Importantly, birds that remained with the same partner tended to lay eggs earlier, which is strongly tied to how many chicks they rear 🐣.

See our news story: ceh.ac.uk/news-and-med...

Read the full paper: sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#seabirds #ClimateChange 🧪

A European Shag.

🐦‍⬛ | Wild seabirds are more likely to split up in windy weather, according to a newly published study led by #EdNapier.

The paper reveals that environmental conditions before the breeding season appear to have an impact on mate faithfulness.

Full story ➡️ orlo.uk/Zfiqf

#MustBeNapier

Seabird scientists from UKCEH in Montpellier earlier this month, presenting their latest work. Conference on Wind Energy and Wildlife Impacts www.cww2025.org #CW2025 #UKCEH 🪶🌊

spmapper A spatial planning tool to indicate the foraging value of marine areas to breeding seabirds.

Just launched, spmapper is a new marine spatial planning tool from UKCEH! By estimating where and how much seabirds eat, spmapper can help with siting new offshore windfarms and protection areas. nerc-ceh.github.io/spmapper-pkg...

Results are in for the Isle of May seabird breeding season. Fulmar breeding success was 41%. An average season with the long term mean at 40% @theseabirdgroup.bsky.social @smp-seabirds.bsky.social @ukceh.bsky.social

Important progress by @bennett-sophie.bsky.social on the immensely challenging topic of estimating abundance and breeding success in burrow-nesting seabirds using Bioacoustics doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

The post breeding season fieldwork has begun with shag ring resighting on the go. Please send any colour ringed shag sightings from the UK east coast to shags@ceh.ac.uk

We are back on the Isle of May for the final bit of breeding season monitoring. Fulmar checks are now complete. We'll be sharing all the Isle breeding season results very soon. @smp-seabirds.bsky.social @theseabirdgroup.bsky.social

Exploring the intersection of art and marine science with Neil Banas and friends. Check out marvellous oceanic origami, stop-motion animation and more here origamiplankton.org 🧜‍♂️

Screenshot of front page of waterwayscollective.org. White text on black background, along with a digitally fuzzed bluegreen image of leaping salmon (credited to Marie-Chantal Hamrock). "Waterways is a Scotland-based art-science collective following Atlantic sallmon and their migrations into local landscapes, distant seascapes, multi-species histories, and possible futures."

We've got a new website to collect the ventures of the Waterways Collective (waterwayscollective.org), a group of artists and scientists who came together in 2024 to see where we'd get following wild #salmon journeys up into the Scottish #landscape and out into the #Atlantic.

🎉

The final 5am watch of the season

UKCEH researchers Kate Searle and Chris Pollock recently spoke about UKCEH modelling at a workshop in Leiden. Networking and discussing with European researchers on using models to predict offshore windfarm impacts on wildlife, to develop more joined-up solutions across national boundaries

Asymptomatic infection and antibody prevalence to co-occurring avian influenza viruses vary substantially between sympatric seabird species following H5N1 outbreaks - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - Asymptomatic infection and antibody prevalence to co-occurring avian influenza viruses vary substantially between sympatric seabird species following H5N1 outbreaks

New paper on avian flu in seabirds from an Edinburgh Uni PhD student published! Edinburgh University has been working on the Isle of May with UKCEH and other partners to investigate the effects of this virus among seabirds. Read about it here: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

The view today on a kittiwake trip duration watch. The puffins seem curious too

Epic day yesterday with watches, puffin fledgling rescue, puffin chick weighing, kittiwake logger deployment and puffin netting from 5am to 9.30pm. Similar vein today with everyone out for 5am with mire kittiwake watches and concurrent puffin netting. We'll have a fair bit of seabird data by the end