More than 30 seabirds missing from Jersey headland

More than 30 seabirds have gone missing from Jersey's north coast, a conservation group has said.

Birds on the Edge (BOTE) said a pair of puffins, eight razorbills and more than 20 fulmars on the headland near Plemont had disappeared.

The group campaigned to build Europe's first predator-proof seabird reserve in 2023 - designed to restore coastal habitats and protect wildlife from predators with a specialised one mile (1.6km) fence.

Cris Sellares, BOTE project officer, said it believed predators such as rats and ferrets were to blame as they had "easy access" due to the headland's slope.

She said: "If some birds are missing across a colony in different parts, they die sometimes in the winter or in the storms, but the fact that all the birds that have gone missing are from the same place indicates that the problem could be the area."

Ms Sellares said birds in other areas of Jersey had been doing well, including razorbills, puffins, gulls and fulmars.

She said they could be "nesting and tending to their chicks and feeding them sand eels".

"Hopefully they will fletch fine and they will come back next year again."

The group added that three remaining puffin pairs had successfully raised chicks and that hoped remained "for the return of missing seabirds next year".

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