British Sea Birds

RED-NECKED GREBE

This Grebe, the Podicipes griseigena of Boddaert, and the P. rubricollis of most modern naturalists, is a fairly common winter visitor to the seas off our eastern and southern coasts, from the Orkneys to Cornwall. The range of the Red-necked Grebe outside our limits is a wide one, and embraces during summer the sub-Arctic portions of Europe, Asia, and America, becoming much more southerly in winter. During winter this Grebe may be met with close inshore, yet it seldom or never visits the land, living exclusively on the sea. Its habits at this season do not differ in any marked degree from those of its congeners. It may be seen swimming to and fro, sometimes just outside the fringe of rough surf, diving from time to time in quest of its food, which at this season is composed of fish principally. The nuptial ornaments of this Grebe are not so conspicuous as those of the preceding species, the dark crests are shorter, the tippet is scarcely perceptible, and the lower neck and upper breast are rich chestnut. In winter plumage this Grebe is best distinguished by its large size – next in this respect to the Great Crested Grebe – and by the absence of the white streak over the eye, which characterises that bird then. In April the Red-necked Grebe returns to its accustomed inland summer haunts to breed. These are reed and rush-fringed lakes and ponds. Here in the shallows a floating nest of rotten vegetation is formed, smaller than that of the preceding species, but otherwise closely resembling it. Many pairs may be found breeding close together – in colonies, so to speak. The four or five elliptical shaped eggs are laid in May or June, dirty white in colour, chalky in texture. The same habit of covering the eggs with weeds, previous to leaving them, may also be noted.

BLACK-NECKED GREBE

This bird, the Podicipes nigricollis of systematists, is so rarely met with in the British area, that it scarcely requires more than a passing allusion. Examples occasionally occur on our eastern and southern coasts especially, but the bird is too rare to form any feature in the ornithology of the British seaboard. It may be readily distinguished from the other European Grebes by its decidedly up-curved bill, and by the large amount of white on the primaries and secondaries. In the nuptial plumage the head and neck are black. In its habits generally it differs little from the other species.

SCLAVONIAN GREBE

Along the eastern coasts of England, and round most of the Scottish littoral, as well as off Ireland, this species, the Podicipes cornutus of most naturalists, is of tolerably frequent occurrence during winter. It requires all the skill of an expert ornithologist to distinguish this Grebe in winter plumage, so closely does it resemble the Red-necked species. It is a shorter winged bird, and has the three outermost secondaries dusky brown, instead of white, as in that bird, whilst the previous species is always distinguishable by its up-curved bill. There is nothing in the habits of this Grebe to call for special remark: it keeps exclusively to the water, dives to escape danger and to capture prey, and swims beneath the surface as adroitly as a frog. The Sclavonian Grebe is a wide ranging species, inhabiting during summer the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and America, retiring southwards in winter. This Grebe is exceptionally remarkable for its nuptial ornaments, but which, as usual, are confined to the head and upper neck. Two chestnut or bay-coloured crests start backwards over the eyes, whilst the tippet is black. This ornament, when extended to its utmost, looks very beautiful, and gives the head an appearance of being surrounded by a glittering aureole. This Grebe is a late breeder, the eggs not being laid before June. It retires to fresh-water pools for the purpose of nesting, and resembles the other species closely in its habits at this season, making a slovenly floating nest, and laying four or five dull white eggs.

LITTLE GREBE

This species is the smallest of the European Grebes, and certainly by far the best known member of the family found in the British Islands. It is rather remarkable that the Little Grebe was unknown as a distinct species to Linnæus. It was known to Brisson as Colymbus minor, and to most modern ornithologists as Podicipes minor, although some few writers speak of this bird as P. fluviatilis. Outside the British Islands it has a very wide distribution in Europe, Asia, and Africa, but the Little Grebe of America is a distinct species. The Little Grebe is found more or less frequently on the coast during winter, driven thereto when frosts seal up its inland haunts. On the coast this bird is more partial to the brackish back-waters, dykes, and estuaries, than to the open sea. The food of this bird consists not only of fish, but small crustaceans and molluscs, aquatic insects, young frogs, and various vegetable fragments. Its habits are very similar to those of the other Grebes; its swimming and diving powers are wonderful; its flight on occasion is rapid and strong, whilst its note is a shrill but not very loud weet. In its nesting economy the Little Grebe closely resembles its congeners. It quits the coast in spring, resorting to inland pools, often of very small size, making its usually floating or water-surrounded nest amongst the vegetation fringing the shallows, on which it deposits five or six eggs, dull white in colour. The parents often dive with their young from the nest to carry them out of impending danger – a habit common to all species in this genus.

CORMORANTS

The Grebes are so little in evidence to the seaside naturalist that an account of them seems more like a digression in our narrative, than a continuation of our observations concerning the bird life of the sea. We now, however, reach another pelagic group, consisting of birds that form an important and seldom absent feature in marine ornithology. And yet, so great is the adaptability of some species, the Cormorant is by no means exclusively confined to the sea, has many inland breeding stations, and repeatedly wanders from the coast to fresh waters, where an abundant supply of fish offers a solace to its great voracity. The Cormorants and the Gannet are members of the family Phalacrocoracidæ, although generically distinct from each other. Their principal external characteristics are the webbed feet, each toe, including the hind one, being connected by a membrane, the long and powerful wings, and the strong beak. The young birds in this family are hatched naked and blind, but soon become clothed with down. The first plumage differs considerably from that of maturity, and the latter is not rarely attained for several years. These birds have but one actual moult in the year, in autumn, but just previous to the pairing season in winter, crests in some species, and ornamental filaments and tufts in others, are assumed, but are lost by abrasion during the ensuing breeding period. Three members of this family are British, and breed abundantly within our limits. Cormorants and Gannets are widely dispersed species; the former are almost cosmopolitan, only being absent from the polar regions and Polynesia; the latter are most abundant in the tropics and the southern seas. A detailed account of the three British species will now be given.

CORMORANT

From the autumn onwards to the following spring, there are few parts of the coast, indeed, where this bird, the Phalacrocorax carbo of ornithologists, may not be seen; whilst even in summer it is sufficiently widely dispersed to merit us classing it as common. It is, however, seldom seen off low-lying coasts, save after the breeding season, or except such individuals as have not yet reached maturity. There is but one other British species with which the Cormorant may be confused, and that is the Shag; but even then the difference in size is sufficiently great for the much larger Cormorant to be readily identified. Very black, very heavy, and very clumsy the Cormorant looks, as he rises in slow cumbersome flight from the sea, or unfolds his big, bronzed-green wings, and flutters into the air from a rock shelf, or sea-girdled pinnacle; but very soon one’s opinion of him undergoes a change, as, when once fairly on his way, he passes swiftly enough over the sea to a distant resting place, or after flying some distance, pitches down into the water. The colours of the Cormorant are not seen to best advantage at a distance. Certainly the prevailing colour is black, but this is richly loricated with green and purple tints, whilst most of the upper plumage of the body is a beautiful bronzy-brown, the feathers being margined with soft velvety-black, shot with green; the throat is white, as are also the sides of the head; whilst the bright yellow gape and bare portions of the throat form a pleasing contrast to the more sombre hues. As the breeding season approaches the Cormorant increases in beauty; large white patches of silky feathers spring out from the thighs, and the dark head and neck become covered by feathery filaments of white. Perhaps the Cormorant is most interesting when engaged searching for food. This bird obtains its food in various ways. Most frequently of all, it swims to and fro, diving with a headlong plunge at intervals; sometimes it swims with its body low in the water, and the head and neck below the surface peering about in quest of fish. Less frequently it takes up its station on a rock, or even on a tree, from which it flies from time to time, Kingfisher-like, to capture a fish near the surface; or occasionally it dives from such a situation, and pursues its finny food far down into the crystal depths. The Cormorant, however, never fishes like the Gannets and the Terns, by a headlong plunge from the sky. This bird may often be met with fishing in fresh-water some distance inland. Waterton records how it used to visit his lake at Walton Hall; but the habits of the bird on sea and shore shall exclusively claim our attention here. After a meal the Cormorant is very fond of resorting to a rock to rest, and to dry its plumage, standing perfectly motionless with its wings uplifted and outspread. Few, if any, birds can excel the Cormorant in diving: it vies with the very fish themselves, and seems as much at home beneath the surface of the water as in the air. The Cormorant when taken young is easily tamed, and from the earliest recorded times it has been trained to capture fish for its owner. To this day the Chinese and Japanese train Cormorants for this purpose. In England this sport was once a regal pleasure, the Master of the Cormorants finding a place in the Royal household. According to Professor Newton, the sport still lingers amongst a few. Willughby asserts that the trained Cormorant was carried hooded until cast off, but nowadays its bearer protects his eyes from a stroke from the bird’s beak, with a wire mask. A strap or a ring is fastened round the Cormorant’s neck, to prevent it swallowing its captures, just as we muzzle a ferret to prevent it lying up. All who have witnessed this novel way of fishing testify to the bird’s marvellous skill in catching fish after fish, until the gular pouch will hold no more, when the Cormorant is taken, and the fish removed. The food of this bird is composed almost entirely of fish. In winter Cormorants become even more gregarious, often associating in large flocks which wander far in quest of food. This bird is not so completely pelagic in its habits as the Auks, the Divers, and the Grebes. It generally retires to the caves and shelves of the cliffs to sleep, whilst stormy weather will drive it shorewards soon, where it will sit and mope on the rocks, or shelter in the quiet creeks, or under the lee of cliffs, as if waiting for the sea to subside, and allow of its labours being renewed.

As the Cormorant returns for years in succession to one particular spot to breed, there can be little doubt that it pairs for life. The birds begin to associate closely in pairs somewhat early in spring; but actual nesting duties do not commence for a little time after that event. In most places the Cormorant breeds in colonies, the size apparently varying according to the amount of accommodation. For the present purpose we need not describe in detail any of the inland nesting places of this species, beyond remarking that the bird often breeds in trees like Rooks, making a huge nest of sticks and twigs, lined with grass. Upon the coast the favourite breeding resorts of the Cormorant are ranges of lofty cliffs, and small low islands and reefs. The nest may thus either be on the ground – as at the Farne Islands, for instance – or on a ledge of the cliffs. When in the former situation it is generally composed of masses of seaweed, stalks of marine plants, and lined with green grass or other herbage. A Cormorant’s nesting place is by no means a pleasant one for persons whose olfactory nerves are sensitive, the smell from the decaying fish, and from the droppings of the birds, that literally whitewash the whole vicinity, being sickening in the extreme. Other sea fowl usually give these colonies a wide birth. The eggs are from three to six in number, of a delicate bluish-green – where the colour can be detected through the abundant coating of lime – small for the size of the bird, and long and oval in shape. When disturbed the sitting Cormorants make little demonstration, but fly out to sea at once. But one brood is reared in the season, and the eggs are deposited during April or May, in the British Islands. The Cormorant is a silent bird: the only note I have ever heard it utter has been a croaking one at the nest.

SHAG

This species, the Pelecanus graculus of Linnæus and Latham, and the Phalacrocorax graculus of most modern writers, is readily distinguished from the Cormorant by its smaller size, more glossy appearance, and much greener general colouration. The Shag differs structurally from the Cormorant in possessing only twelve tail feathers, the latter bird having fourteen. The nuptial ornaments are also very different, for just previous to the pairing season, in early spring, a nodding plume or frontal crest of recurved feathers is assumed. The Shag is a much more marine bird than the Cormorant, and its appearance inland is exceptional. Of the two species the Shag is certainly the commonest and most widely dispersed, being met with off almost all parts of the British coasts, but preference is shown for such as are rocky, and where the ranges of cliffs are full of hollows and caves. Outside our islands the range of the Shag is restricted to the coasts of western Europe, and the Mediterranean basin. As a rule the Shag keeps well into the coast, seeking for its food in the somewhat deep water below the rocks, and retiring to some fissure or cave to sleep. Its habits in most respects are very similar to the larger species. It flies well and rapidly, if in a somewhat laboured manner, dives as skilfully as its ally, and often indulges in the habit of sitting on the rocks with wings extended, basking in the sun. It is equally gregarious during the non-breeding season, and it is no uncommon thing to see a hundred or more birds of this species sitting in solemn statuesque rows on some sea-encircled rock, gorged with fish and digesting their food. At these gatherings many birds may be noticed still fishing in the sea around, or flying up to or leaving the rocky resting place. The young birds congregate indiscriminately with the adults. A fishing Shag is a very interesting object. He may be watched quietly swimming along, and every now and then springing half out of the water, arching his long neck, and then diving head first into the sea. Soon he reappears again, the body coming into view all at once, it may be close to where he dived, or it may be fifty or a hundred yards away from the spot where he descended. The Shag feeds almost exclusively on fishes, and these are chased through the water with incredible skill. The bird may thus be watched by the hour together swimming and diving, propelling itself by its feet, and bringing the captured fish to the surface to swallow them. At the approach of night the Shag almost invariably betakes itself to the shelter of some cave or fissure; and it is no uncommon sight along the rock-bound shore to see a dozen of these birds hurrying along close to the sea in silence towards the rocks where they sleep.

The Shag breeds in May. Its favourite nesting haunts are the caves and fissures in the cliffs, but where such are wanting, or not available, the bird will content itself with a cranny amongst the rocks of a low island. If plenty of accommodation exists many pairs of Shags will nest in company; where suitable sites are scarce the birds breed in scattered pairs along the coast. It is more than probable that the Shag pairs for life: it returns season by season to its old nesting-place. The nest of this species is either wedged into some crevice of the sides or roof, or made upon a ledge in a cave; sometimes a hole in the face of a wall-like cliff is chosen; less frequently a site is selected amongst the rough boulders on a reef; or even on a ledge of the cliffs where they overhang considerably. In most cases the nest is bulky and made of sticks, stalks of plants, and sea-weed, lined with straws, coarse grass, and turf, all more or less matted together with droppings, decaying fish, and slime, and smelling most unpleasantly. Many nests are enlarged and patched up year by year. The two, three, or four eggs are a little smaller than those of the Cormorant, of a delicate bluish-green where the thick coating of lime does not conceal it. The Shag shows more reluctance to leave its nest than the Cormorant does. The effect is most startling as the big birds dash out of the gloomy sea caves one after the other. The only note I have heard this species utter has been a low croak.

GANNET

This remarkable bird differs in many important respects from all other pelagic species inhabiting the temperate portions of the northern hemisphere. Outside the limits of the British Islands its only other breeding places in Europe are on Iceland and the Faröes. The Gannet or Solan Goose, the Sula bassana of Brisson and modern naturalists, is one of the most pelagic of birds. Except during the breeding season it is rarely seen near land, the thousands of birds that congregate in a few chosen spots round the British coasts dispersing themselves far out to sea as soon as the duties of the year are over. Like the Albatross, the Gannet may almost be said to live in the air. Its powers of flight are simply magnificent. Occasionally a few odd birds may be observed here and there fishing in the bays, during autumn and winter; but the person who would study its habits and movements thoroughly must visit one of its breeding places. There are many colonies of Gannets round the British coasts, one of the most accessible, and perhaps the most famous, being on the Bass Rock, in the Firth of Forth. There are small ones on Lundy Island and Grassholm; large ones on Suleskerry, Sulisker, St. Kilda, Ailsa Craig, and Little Skellig. The adult plumage of the Gannet is white, tinged with buff on the head and neck, except the primaries, which are black. The bare skin round the base of the bill is blue. The bird probably does not attain its white plumage until nearly four years old, passing through a series of mottled stages of black, brown, and white. The young are hatched blind and naked, but eventually become clothed in dense white down. Other structural peculiarities are the closed nostrils, and the subcutaneous air cells almost covering the body, which the bird can fill with air at will, as they communicate with the lungs. Whether seen at its nest, or when fishing at sea, the Gannet is a remarkably interesting bird. As may naturally be inferred, a bird so light and buoyant as the Gannet does not obtain its food by diving. It is incapable of submerging itself even for a little distance, except by gaining sufficient momentum from a plunge headlong from some distance in the air. Nevertheless, the Gannet feeds exclusively on fishes, which it catches almost like a Tern, by dropping from a great height and seizing or impaling them with its strong bill. The Gannets follow the shoals of fish as they swim near the surface. First one bird, and then another, will be seen to poise itself, and then, with closed wings, to dash downwards, glinting like a piece of white marble in the sun, into the sea, disappearing for a moment, then rising again into the air to prepare for another descent. Many Gannets at these times may, perhaps, be seen swimming, but they are merely resting, not fishing. The captured fish is invariably swallowed at once. The sitting birds are kept well supplied with fish by their mates. These fish, however, are not conveyed to them in the beak, but in the gullet, from which they are disgorged, and left by the nest side to be eaten as required. Very often a Gannet will disgorge several large fish before leaving its nest, whilst many more fish are brought to the rocks than are actually eaten. The Gannet is a voracious eater, and often so gorges itself with food as to be incapable of flight. The power of wing of this beautiful bird is wonderful in the extreme. I have seen the Gannet repeatedly keep the air for hours together, apparently without effort, wheeling in graceful curves, and ascending to vast heights, just as Vultures are wont to do.

Although the Gannet is a resident in British waters, it seldom comes near land except to breed. During the nesting season it is very gregarious, and some of its stations contain many thousands of pairs. Early in the spring Gannets begin to assemble at the breeding places, and towards the end of April nest building commences. The nests are made either on the ledges of the cliffs, amongst the broken rock fragments at the summit, or on the flat table-like tops of pinnacles and stacks. Where the birds are numerous and the accommodation limited, great numbers of nests are crowded together; and as may readily be inferred, such close companionship leads to not a few battles between the birds themselves. Indeed, a sort of guerrilla warfare is being waged constantly, and is by no means one of the least interesting features of the never-to-be-forgotten scene. The nest of the Gannet possesses little architectural beauty, and is generally so trodden out of shape as to resemble a mere heaped mass of rubbish, caked together with droppings, and slime, and filth, giving off an almost unbearable stench, especially on a calm hot day in May or June. Seaweed, masses of turf, straws, moss, and stalks of marine plants are the principal materials. The nest is shaped like a flattened cone, the cavity at the top being shallow. It is no unusual thing to see the birds adding to their nests, even when incubation is in progress. The Gannet lays but a single egg, but if this be taken – as it often is, especially in colonies easily accessible to man – the bird will replace it several times in succession. It is pale bluish-green, but generally so thickly coated with chalky matter – and later with stains – as to hide all trace of this colour. There are few more noisy animated scenes in bird life than a Gannet colony, during the height of the breeding season. The stirring sight once witnessed can never be forgotten. The air, for many yards from the face of the cliffs and high above it, is filled with thousands of flying Gannets; every available spot, on the edges and face of the rock itself, is occupied by a Gannet, the standing birds vieing with each other in uttering harsh cries, the flying birds silently drifting to and fro in a mazy bewildering throng. Many of the flying birds are carrying nest materials; many of the birds standing on the rocks are fast asleep! On every side the Gannets are eyeing you suspiciously, some disgorging fish previous to taking wing, others barking defiance as you approach them, and stubbornly remaining upon their egg until absolutely pushed from it. Rock, sea, and air teem with birds. It will, however, be remarked that none of the birds fly over the land; all keep to the face of the cliffs. At the Bass Rock, numbers of young Gannets used to be taken for food, the proprietor baking quantities, and selling them to the country people round about. The taste for baked Solan Geese, however, is not so prevalent as formerly, and the custom seems likely to die out. At St. Kilda, however, the Gannet harvest still continues to be gathered, and the young birds form a welcome article of food.

CHAPTER V.

DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS