‘Mega rare’ Brünnich's Guillemot photographed in Scrabster harbour
A mega rare visitor - which holds the record as the deepest-diving seabird - has turned up in Caithness.
A Brünnich's Guillemot was recorded in Scrabster harbour on Thursday. It is one of only a "handful" of live sightings ever recorded in Scotland, according to the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club.
The bird was photographed in the harbour by Chris Griffin of Griffin Wildlife. He posted on X: “It doesn't happen too often, but last night I was in the right place when the mega alert went off to say there was a Brünnich's Guillemot in Scrabster harbour! Ten minutes later I was watching this little Arctic wanderer!”
The bird is a larger relative of the Common Guillemot and holds the record as the deepest-diving seabird and is a very occasional visitor from its breeding colonies in Iceland and northern Norway.
Chris explained: “Brünnich’s Guillemots are a high Arctic breeder that doesn't come further south as a breeding bird than Iceland and northern Norway. In the winter it can occasionally come slightly further south, but usually only to central Norway.
“They have turned up in Britain before, but mostly during the winter months and mostly on the northern isles, northern and eastern Scotland, but have been recorded off the coast in eastern and southern England too.
“There have been roughly 50 accepted records of Brünnich’s Guillemot in the UK to date, with several seen in 2021 after northerly storms pushed an unprecedented number down the east coast.
“So this bird, being a summer individual too, is certainly an unusual visitor to Scrabster!”
The bird is named after the Danish zoologist Morten Thrane Brünnich.
Adult birds are black on the head, neck, back and wings with white underparts. The bill is long and pointed. They have a small rounded black tail. The lower face becomes white in winter. This species produces a variety of harsh cackling calls at the breeding colonies, but is silent at sea.
Birds will make long trips to get to favourite feeding grounds; while they usually forage several dozen kilometres from their nest sites, they often travel more than 100 km to fish.
Brünnich's guillemot is a rare vagrant in European countries south of the breeding range. In Britain, over 30 individuals have been recorded, but according to the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club, over half of these were tideline corpses. Of those that were seen alive, only a few have remained long enough to be seen by large numbers of observers.
