Bird flu.

I'd never come across a dead Bonxie before, now I've found two in just over a fortnight, well, one wasn't quite dead. I believe there are quite a few dead on Fair Isle. Yesterday, I found the second one, upside down on the cliff top, still alive. There is a small health risk with bird flu so I left it there, but phoned the SSPCA when I got home and had a signal. I also phoned it in to DEFRA. Today on the news there are apparently a lot of dead birds at Loch Fleet. And Twitter from Shetland indicating that bird flu is in the Noss Gannet colony. Update, Saturday, a further dead Bonxie found, at Yesnaby, none seen flying there, they're being hammered by this

Sad to see such a brilliant bird in such a state.

Some good news, that our Kittiwakes seem to be doing swell. Loads of activity, loads of birds, loads of food. Let's hope it continues. We went to the Skiba Geo Arctic Tern colony today, it wasn't occupied but as we left birds arrived; better late than never.

Yesterday, the Razorbills were on their cliff.

Razorbills.

They seem ok. However, if they were dying it would be in the sea, corpses would be getting washed up. Worth keeping an eye on the shore for casualties.

And Oystercatchers seem to be having a good year, lots of nesting pairs. Although these ones might have failed.

Oystercatchers.