Great Skua suffers disastrous breeding season in Shetland
Great Skua has suffered a dire breeding season across Shetland, with bird flu thought to be one of the factors behind the difficult season.
As reported by Mike Pennington on his blog, the nesting season on Unst seemed to be proceeding as usual but, by mid-July, it was clear there were very few birds in breeding habitat. Further visits confirmed there were barely any chicks or any corpses (the colony had cannibalised itself last year during a low season of productivity). Dead skuas were found elsewhere on Unst.
Great Skua seems to have had a poor breeding season on Unst (Andrew Jordan).
There have been further reports of deceased adult Great Skuas from other parts of the archipelago. Results from the autopsies of corpses recovered on Fair Isle were recently published and three of the four birds had avian influenza.
Fair Isle's Great Skua colony also suffered a very poor success rate this summer. From the 535 pairs present, the number of fledged chicks only just numbered into double figures.
Meanwhile, reports from Orkney suggest that the situation was not as dire there. Although some colonies had little or no breeding success across the Orcadian archipelago, initial figures from RSPB Scotland are suggested to be within the expected fluctuations. Furthermore, there have been no confirmed cases of bird flu from Orkney, including at the isles' main Great Skua colony on Hoy.
More information and updates on avian influenza in Scotland, as well as information on what to do if you find a dead bird, can be found at the Scottish Government website.