20 



Bird Notes and News 



Western Morning News drew attention to the 

 destruction of oyster sprat caused by oil ; 

 and at Cape Cornwall I saw, some months ago, 

 the shingle so covered with oil that it was 

 dangerous to walk on. The oil is heavy fuel oil, 

 probably the scouring of the tanks before 

 taking in fresh fuel." — (St. Keverne, March 

 18th, 1922). 



From Lancashire : 



" In one week recently the coast at Grange- 

 over-Sands was strewn with dead and dying 

 birds, and feathers on breast and abdomen 

 were coated with a viscous substance more like 

 creosote or tar than oil. Over a stretch of 

 about 100 yards I counted nine Scoters and one 

 Guillemot. A local fisherman says he has 

 counted at least 30 Scoters." — (Grange-over- 

 Sands, April, 1921.) 



" The oil nuisance is becoming a feature of 

 the Lancashire coast. I take a typical case 

 sent by an Ansdell (Lytham) correspondent, 

 who, walking along the shore at high tide of 

 March 12th, came across quite twenty Wild 

 Duck covered with oil. They were able to 

 swim, but could not fly, and later a number 

 were found dead on the sands." — Liverpool 

 Daily Dispatch (March 15th, 1921). 



From Norfolk : 



" The nuisance would seem to be on the 

 increase as oil-driven vessels multiply. Oil is 

 dropped, and waste is poured out, until patches 

 of it float about in the ocean routes. Its 

 effects are cumulative. It looks as if our sea- 

 birds must decrease, and if the evil increases, 

 species may be wiped out." — A. H. Patterson, 

 Great Yarmouth (January 28th, 1921). 



From Yorkshire : 



" The trouble dates locally from the con- 

 clusion of the war, when fishing boats were very 

 generally fitted with petrol motors. Large 

 quantities of the oil are allowed to escape into 

 the sea, and at times the inshore waters are 

 covered with it. This is worst in the autumn, 

 when the herring boats are congregated here 

 in large numbers. The birds I have seen here 

 are Herring Gulls, Black-headed Gulls, Razor- 

 biUs, and Guillemots, the two latter species 

 naturally suffering more than the Gulls. 

 But many Black-headed Gulls have been found 

 so saturated with oil as to be incapable of flight. 

 . . . At Whitby I am told the same thing 

 is taking place, the birds noticed there in diffi- 

 culties being Common Gull, many Guillemots 

 and Razorbills, and odd specimens of Gannet, 



Golden-eye Duck, and Redthroated Diver. 

 I also hear similar accounts of oiled birds dead 

 and dying at Bridlington, and at various places 

 on the Norfolk coast— Cley, Friskney and 

 Yarmouth."— W. J. Clarke, F.Z.S., Scarborough 

 (March 13th, 1921). 



From Dorset : 



" I have just returned from spending a few 

 days in Dorsetshire, during which I have visited 

 most of the little bays and accessible parts of the 

 foreshore from Studland and Swanage to Lyme 

 Regis. At frequent intervals the golden sands 

 are littered with round, black spots from the 

 size of a penny to that of a small saucer. 

 These are drops of heavy black oil left behind 

 by the tide. I heard several complaints from 

 ladies whose white shoes and dresses had been 

 ruined by this filth. Later on, when the bath- 

 ing season sets in, and when children begin 

 to play on the beach, these complaints will 

 multiply, as many of the pleasantest nooks 

 have acquired some of the characteristics of 

 the floor of a motor garage. 



" I never went down to a stretch of beach 

 without finding dead sea-birds, their feathers 

 soaked in the thick oil. On a single afternoon, 

 along a few hundred yards of sand, I saw no 

 fewer than five birds struggling in from the 

 sea. There were two Puffins, one Gull, and two 

 Guillemots. They came in, partly rolled over by 

 the waves, in the shallow water, sometimes 

 rising and trying to flap their wings, making 

 little inefiective dashes and then collapsing 

 again. When they reached the sand, they 

 made desperate efforts to clean themselves, 

 but the tail feathers and the flight feathers 

 were so clogged that their sure fate was death 

 by starvation or by drowning. Nothing could 

 have been more pitiful, and I do not doubt 

 but that sunilar tragedies are taking place 

 daily and nightly in very large numbers. . . . 

 Apart from actual destruction of the birds by 

 the oil, and from their deserting localities which 

 they find unpleasant, it may be surmised that 

 their inshore fishing is less productive. 



"It is admitted that pelagic fish would 

 desert waters where there was contamination. 

 It is probable, moreover, that the oil-film 

 dissolved out of the heavier oil would form a 

 scum poisonous to the minute Crustacea which 

 abound in surface water and form the chief 

 food of young fishes. The effect of the pollu- 

 tion will be heavy, not only on sea-birds, but 

 on the inshore fisheries generally." — Times 

 (May 17th, 1922). 



