Little Auk

Little Auk's are tiny and vulnerable to being wrecked in stormy weather and getting eaten by the large gulls, especially Great Black-backed Gulls, Larus marinus, so they usually winter well out at sea to avoid these perils. They tend to be driven towards the coast by strong north and north-easterly winds in late October-November. The Atlas reported a wreck of over 200 birds picked up dead in Lincolnshire in February 1983 and a day count of over 1000 birds on November 2nd 1986 (see 'The Auk wreck, February 1983' on the Razorbill web page). Two bigger influxes occurred October 29th-November 4th 1995, when over 2000 birds were counted along the coast, and on November 9th 2007, when 2200 birds were counted moving south along the coast and the month total was 3400. An analysis of annual totals 1979-2018 revealed the huge year-to-year variation in numbers. In the 5 years to 2018 numbers were modest ranging from a sum of monthly peak counts of 13 in 2017 to 222 in 2014. The best single day was November 4th 2014 when 94 were counted at Gibraltar Point with 98 more along the coast. There were few reports from December-February and none at all from March-August.  Over the period as a whole though there were three years (1986, 1995, 2007) in which more than 1000 birds were recorded, and another three which saw more than 500 birds (1983, 1991 and 2006). In between these huge influxes though there were 33 years when there were less than 250 birds, indeed the majority of these saw fewer than 25.

(Account as per new Birds of Lincolnshire (2021), included September 2022)