Mum!

Haar engulfed the village this morning but eventually it disappeared and the sun shone brightly for the rest of the day.  I headed over to the Bullers of Buchan for the first time in over a month.

There were very few seabirds on the cliffs.  The razorbills have already departed as have the guillemots.  Kittiwake numbers are at an all time low.  While it is was encouraging to see this chick and several others, many kittiwakes have been washed up on the beach having succumbed to avian flu.

The next most common group of  birds stranded on the beach are the guillemots.  Many of them are tiny birds which have been born earlier in the season.  

On our beach walks Mrs CBL and I no longer count the dead birds as it is depressing to do so but, alas, official figures show that over one hundred seabirds have been removed from Cruden Bay beach on each of the past three weeks.  Close to two thousand seabirds have been removed from the beaches in Aberdeenshire, which doesn’t bode well for the future of some species.  Once again the gannet colony at Troup Head near Fraserburgh has been very hard hit. Sad, so sad.