When Storm Dudley arrived three weeks ago, the guillemots living on the island of Skomer, just off the western tip of Wales, sat on the sea surface to ride out the rough weather. But barely had Dudley departed when Storm Eustace barrelled in, swiftly followed by Storm Franklin. And three storms in one week is likely to have been too much for many of Britain’s seabirds, including the guillemots of Skomer.
Tim Birkhead, a zoologist at the University of Sheffield, and his colleagues have been monitoring the Skomer guillemots since 1972. Writing in the Conversation, he explains that while seabirds can normally ride out one storm relatively unscathed, a succession of storms like we saw at the end of February often results in “wrecks”, when weak and starving seabirds wash up on the shoreline. Birds in the auk family, such as puffins, guillemots and razorbills, seem to be especially vulnerable.
Exactly why back-to-back storms are so lethal isn’t clear, but Birkhead suspects that the churning of the waters disperse fish and plankton, and after weathering multiple storms the exhausted birds simply can’t find enough food. The impact of Dudley, Eustace and Franklin on Britain’s seabirds isn’t yet clear, but sadly multiple storms like this are anticipated to become more common as climate change progresses.
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