Herdlevær 12 April 2022 - Mass Common Gull death

Calm and mild, light cloud cover.

In attempt to save time I aimed for a quick walk at Herdlevær. This went according to plan without any sightings of great interest, a newly arrived Wheatear steinskvett, increased numbers of Meadow Pipit heiplerke, a feeding Red-throated Diver smålom and my first local Wigeon brunnakke of the year.

One of a few White-tailed Eagles havørn seen at Herdlevær

Red-throated Diver smålom

A couple of hundred metres after I set off for home to get on with things I caught sight of a White-tailed Eagle havørn actually diving down to catch something - a relatively rare sight in itself despite seeing many every day. I stopped to see what was going on - it had caught a Common Gull fiskemåke. It is not often I see the eagles do anything other that scavenge or rob other creatures of their food. It was then I noticed several dead Common Gulls floating in the sea and more being eaten by Hooded Crows kråke and Raven ravn on the shore.

Fearing that Easter vistiors had shot the birds I went down to investigate. There was one badly injured bird still alive, several that had been dragged onto the shore and were well on the way to being eaten up and more floated, seemingly intact, close to shore. I managed to wade out and secure one which I put in my freezer for later investigation.

The cable which I suspect the unfortunate gulls flew into can just be seen crossing the sound here

at least the local scavengers are not going hungry anytime soon....

The dead birds floating in the sea seemed relatively unscathed

Whereas this poor individual surely had not much longer to live

The bird that got my attention to the whole thing - a Whitr-tailed Eagle havørn flying off with one of the gulls

Here several dead birds can be seen both on the shore and in the sea

Although very puzzling the only theory that makes any kind of sense is that a flock of migrating Common Gulls were spooked by something, a raptor or the sudden flaring of the Kollsnes gas flare and panicked - colliding en masse with a cable that crossed the sound. I have never experienced so many birds dying in this manner - normally it is just one of a flock that hits a cable. Very strange indeed.

Later in the afternoon a couple of newspapers contacted me (though goodness knows how they knew I had been there) and bang went the afternoon sorting out pictures and answering calls and emails.

A pod of Porpoises nise showed up off my terrace in the evening and later on a very quick trip out to investigate the earliest ever Greylag grågås chicks I have ever seen or heard about also produced roding Woodcock rugde and the usual evening birdsong.