Many of you will be aware of the ravages of bird flu this year and there is little doubt it is having a profound and worrying effect on birds across the UK. One of our Wardens recently returned from a holiday to Shetland dismayed at the number of dead seabirds there were. Indeed, currently the biggest impact at the moment across Europe appears to be on sea bird colonies with great skuas, Sandwich terns and common terns badly affected. The Coquet Island Sandwich tern colony lost 100% of its chicks this year. Roseate terns are badly affected too. At the time of writing (early July) updates are still coming out as the islands are closed to visitors to help deal with the outbreak. One colony in the Netherlands suffered the loss of 400 common terns, putting back conservation efforts many years. This first closely monitored outbreak in the Netherlands has seen its cumulative deaths slow to a near stop after about 5 weeks, so hopefully this may be a trend we see mirrored in our own outbreaks in Suffolk. 

The obvious question is why does it appear to be getting worse? In part it might be simply because birds are under so many different pressures now from overfishing, pollution, habitat loss and climate change. Cumulatively all these factors could be creating extra stress on the birds, making them more susceptible to bird flu. Whilst these cumulative factors may have influenced the death toll, there is little doubt that this particular strain demonstrates a high mortality in some of our most vulnerable species. 

Certainly, this year there has been previously unheard-of summer persistence. Historically, outbreaks of bird flu usually occur in the autumn and winter but it now appears to be increasing in strength and becoming less seasonally restricted. This trend may change with time or this could be a one off, it’s still too early to be sure. 

Whilst we believe seabirds are most affected, reporting is difficult and seabirds in colonies are often the most obvious and visible populations. Simply, they are the most noticeable when deaths occur. Would we know if blue tits had it for example? Different species will be affected to varying degrees of severity, some species may carry the virus asymptomatically and others, such as our common and Sandwich terns seem to demonstrate high levels of mortality and morbidity.  

What we do know though is that sadly, this year, a number of birds have died having tested positive on the Suffolk Coast. These included common and Sandwich terns in areas shared with gulls that then also mix with corvids especially on the local pig farms on and around the Blyth estuary, where we were due to release ospreys.  

This presents a possible transmission route. Therefore, we decided along with our partners, the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation, to postpone the planned osprey translocation for this year. We recognise this is extremely disappointing for many people, especially after last year’s delay due to Covid and this was done with a heavy heart. On the positive side, everything is now in place. We have the Natural England license, the release pens have been built and all the supporting equipment is in place, so we hope next year we will finally get lucky, Covid and bird flu permitting!