Black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) nesting on the Farne Islands (Photo By MPF – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59782)

Dear Readers, I haven’t featured a gull in the Red List posts for a while, and having just returned from the Azores it seems fitting to look at a seabird. Kittiwakes spend most of their lives at sea, returning to land only to breed. Probably the most famous colony in the UK is on the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle, where they nest further inland than any other colony of kittiwakes in the world – normally these birds favour sea cliffs, but they are clearly very adaptable. Another colony nests on the battlements of Fort George in Inverness. These are gentle-looking gulls who are rarely seen inland – they haven’t taken to parks like black-headed gulls, or to landfill like so many other species. Hence, summer is the only time that you’re likely to see them, and to hear the distinctive call that  gave them their name. Here’s a recording by Irish Wildlife Sounds, from Wicklow in Ireland.

But why are kittiwakes on the Red List? There has been a substantial decline in the breeding population of the birds, and research suggests that this is largely due to the decline in their main food, the sand eel. These tiny fish are harvested for their oils and flesh, which are used in a variety of foods for human and animal consumption, and recent legislation has  banned fishing for them in the North Sea, a rare example of policy actually changing to protect a habitat rather than bowing to commercial interests.

However, the fish are very reliant on a smooth sandy seabed for their habitat (they burrow into it), and so dredging can disrupt this. Sand eels are also very sensitive to temperature changes, and so the warming seas might present another problem for them. Furthermore, a lot of birds that feed close to the surface, where the sand eels swim (including that perennial favourite, the puffin) are also affected by the lack of sand eels – often they have to fly much further to get the food to feed their nestlings. Everything is interconnected, and the loss of the habitat of one fish can have devastating knock-on effects.

Puffin with a beak full of sand eels (Photo By Charles J. Sharp – Own work, from Sharp Photography, sharpphotography.co.uk, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=106949394)

One threat that the kittiwakes no longer have to face, thank goodness, is being killed so that their wings can be used to decorate lady’s hats. At one point birds were being ‘harvested’ in their thousands, especially the young birds with their interesting markings, and, much as is done with sharks who are used for shark’s fin soup, the wingless birds would often be thrown over the side of the boat, to drown at their leisure. So horrified was Victorian activist Emily Williamson by this wanton slaughter (along with similar massacres of great-crested grebes) that she founded the forerunner of the RSPB, the Plumage League. Members promised :

“That Members shall discourage the wanton destruction of Birds, and interest themselves generally in their protection 

That Lady-Members shall refrain from wearing the feathers of any bird not killed for purposes of food, the ostrich only excepted.’ (1889)

Poor old ostrich, but still it was a step in the right direction – you can read the whole story of the Victorians and their hats at The Victorianist blog here.

Hats with birds on them. Ugh.

And so, it will be interesting to see how kittiwakes get on over the next few years. Our cliffs would be quieter without their elegant presence.

First winter kittiwake