Farne Islands Ready For Another Year Of Battling Avian Flu In Seabird Sanctuary

The Farne Islands were hoping yesterday that this year would not be a repeat of 2022, a horrendous year for one of the UK's most important sanctuaries for breeding seabirds.

- Mark Brown

"It was a very challenging year," Harriet Reid said with considerable understatement, talking of the avian flu crisis that devastated the islands' bird populations.

Reid is the National Trust's area ranger responsible for the islands off the coast of Northumberland, home to an abundance of seabirds, many of them threatened species. By yesterday, most of the different species that come annually to the islands had arrived.

In the sky, arctic terns swooped majestically while puffins bombed along far less elegantly, their panic-stricken wings flapping. On the rocky shores, eider ducks had made their nests and were settled in while drakes were hanging around in gangs. There were also shags, fulmars, kittiwakes and guillemots, often mistaken for little penguins, which had tightly packed themselves on to awkward ledges and cliffs.