Gannets Make Their Return To Alderney

Monday, 20 February 2023 11:20

Gannets have made their 'anxiously awaited' return to Alderney for 2023.

The birds were first sighted on Thursday (16 February), with hundreds making landfall since.

The colony was decimated by bird flu in 2022, with at least 20-25% of the birds killed by the virus, says the Alderney Wildlife Trust:

"Avian Influenza could not have come at a worse time for the Gannets. Since 2015 Alderney’s colony, as with other southern colonies, has seen the first signs of slowing population growth .

This coupled with increasing pressures such as warming sea temperatures, and offshore wind developments, are now compounded by the arrival of the virus."

A range of organisations, including Alderney's General Services Committee, Animal Welfare Society, the Bird Observatory and wildlife and veterinary experts are working on a programme to monitor any new outbreaks of bird flu and how to best contain it.

Two colonies of gannets make Alderney their home, with 6,000 pairs settling on Les Etacs and 2,700 pairs landing on Ortac.

They make up more than 1% of the worlds population of Northern Gannets.

The Alderney Wildlife Trust has set up a livestream of the Gannets on a dedicated Facebook page, which you can watch here.

Volunteers say that the 'GannetCam' will also help monitor for avian flu, and makes Les Etacs 'one of the best monitored Gannetries in the world'.