The Lincolnshire Bird Club

A couple of enjoyable hrs seawatching.

4 red throated divers sth
goldeneyes
teal
common scoters
shelducks
gannets
little auks passing in small numbers all the time 2s,3s etc guestimate around 40 birds in 2 hrs. 2 flew straight up the tideline and flopped down exhausted on the beach right in front of myself and another birder. It was immediately was swooped upon by a g/b/b/gull. the other flew of and escaped and despite a vain attempt by a fellow birder to try to catch the g/b/b/gull to free the little auk it flew out to sea with a now dead bird still in its beak.

The only other thing of note was a small petrel species flying south at around 11.00 hrs but i made a noddies error, in my efforts to get the other birder onto the petrel i took my eyes of it never to be seen again, a stupid mistake , get the id first, but first impression was leach's.

Called at the Saltfleet caravan park on the way home around 12.30 hrs,
little auk was showing well to a few feet but despite several attempts it failed to get airborne. looked very weak, hope it recovers ok, anyway thanks for that Geoff.

You see i can do it !!, a serious birding report !!, i will now retire and contemplate my navel and think what i might have put and think how much i like the naughty step !.

Terry Whalin

[quote="terence whalin"] and despite a vain attempt by a fellow birder to try to catch the g/b/b/gull to free the little auk it flew out to sea with a now dead bird still in its beak.

Is this ethical or right? Surely that is all part of nature and shouldn't be interferred with? You wouldn't try and stop a BOP from feeding but a Gull is OK!

James
the other birder never got within ten yds of the said birds and i don't think ethics came into it, to see this pathetic little auk being hacked to bits in front of you struggling so vainly to stay alive i suspect it was no more than trying to save a bird from the jaws of a cat.

p.s I was only present and had never met this fellow local birder before but i will not condemn his actions.

Terry Whalin

I think thats up to the person involved, i would also have tried to stop the Gull, what about the bloke that carried on Filming the A.Robin when it was attacked, how many would have chased that off, i bet most.

Well I found a Little Auk on the beach at Chapel Pt today that was perky enough but which seemed to be too weak to fly - there was an ad Herring Gull standing about 5 metres away!! My reaction was to save it by getting it to Natureland in Skegness. As I only had my bicycle Angie Elliot kindly took it to Skegness in her mini and left it in Natureland's capable hands. I later saw a GBB Gull swallow a little Auk whole. Personally I feel better.

well said ed,
thats kind of got a ring to it.

None of us likes bullying and seeing GB-b Gulls taking such relatively small birds is an appalling spectacle which I'd stop if I could. I know the photographers on the Big Cat Diaries etc don't get involved but I don't have, nor want, their professional distance.

When my daughter was 6 we were on Shetland during August for a couple of weeks. We saw a bonxie knock an Oystercatcher into the sea, follow it in and try to dispatch it. We were sitting 50m away. My daughter immediately shouted "Nasty bonxie!" and ran into the water, rescued the oik and sat cuddling it until it recovered. The bonxie sat watching her balefully from a nearby rock for 20mins. When it flew away she released its prey. I think her instinctive reaction is what most of us want to express.

John

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Lincolnshire Birds https://www.flickr.com/photos/120340949 ... 8078912016
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Contact: recorder_north@lincsbirdclub.co.uk

I've seen a Bonxie eat an ickle bird before and i certainly didn't loose any sleep over it. As i stated its Nature.

As I suspect i'm out numbered here i'll keep my counsel and just shake my head in disbelief.

Trouble is we as humans are part of Nature as well.

James
everybody has different ethics and though myself i am not vegetarian or anything similar. I am however against killing in any form for sport and not food and if killing for food make as humane as possible.
There was a distinction here, where MOSTLY a bird of prey kills cleanly with its talons this was not the case here.
I am reluctant to describe it so please read no further if you can be easily upset.

The little auk flopped down on the beach exhausted and within 2/3 seconds was set upon by the gbb gull. The first blow i thought broke its wing and it tried to run away to be clubbed 3/4 more times before being picked up and shaken till dead or unconcious. The gbb gulls beak was being used like a meat cleaver, nature yes but whom could not be moved to witness such a scene.
I also understand if the admin guys pull this because of the content and i just feel slightly dismayed that i feel the need to defend an obviously caring person in this manner.

Terry Whalin

Does rarity determine our attitude here? G.b.b. gulls are common and unloved whereas little auks pass by during a brief period around now and create excitement. We are on their side. Is it more acceptable to see a merlin knock down a skylark than kill a Siberian vagrant? We are bound to have different feelings depending on the identity of the victim. Cheers. Rick

I don't doubt the person is caring but my point was that the GBBG needed to feed and wasn't doing it for pleasure. There are many, many more Little Auks than there are GBBGs and the former is a food source for the latter.

I'm more than slightly dismayed that I seem to be on my own on this.

I'm with you.

Ethically, we shouldn't interfere in such matters; (un)fortunately Little Auks invoke a 'cute response' in humans owing to their small size, bill length/head size ratio, amongst other anthropomorphic features. Therefore the sight of them being swallowed (often alive) and whole does engender feelings of social responsibility amongst shocked onlookers.

Gulls don't tend to elicit the 'cute response' but baby Arctic Foxes certainly would - and who would deny them their ration of Little Auks? I once saw a Great Skua kill and eat a 1st winter GBBGull on Fair Isle, as an itinerant youth I thought it was brilliant, I still do. This neatly brings us onto what is a real conservation ethical dilemma; Great Skuas (globally uncommon) are threatening to cause local extinction of population of (globally common) seabirds on Shetland. What do you do?

http://www.birdguides.com/birdnews/docs/OR123824.jpg

Alex

_________________
Dr Alexander C. Lees
Lecturer in tropical ecology
Manchester Metropolitan University

Lab Associate
Cornell Lab of Ornithology,
Cornell University

http://www.freewebs.com/alexlees/index.htm
@Alexander_Lees

No you're not James, i just suspect that the majority of those that agree with you (me included) have had these kind of discussions before and they get you nowhere. Alex makes some very good points, and as soon as something is cute, people tend to lose all kind of realism about it.

As for the Great Skua issue, the only long term solution is to stop the human species from dumping so much plastic into the sea. Until that happens, i fear that all marine bird species are living on borrowed time.

Cheers,

Paul

The following link may be of interest to some.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/7094001.stm