Birdwatch: colonies hit by avian flu on Farne Islands sound warning

At first nothing seems to have changed among the puffins, shags and guillemots, but then the corpses appear on the cliffsBritain?s seabird colonies are, in the words of the veteran conservationist Roy Dennis, "our Serengeti?. Few other places on the planet make such an assault on the senses: the sight, sound and smell of tens of thousands of birds, gathered together each summer to breed.Of all our seabird sites, none is more special than the Farne Islands, off the coast of Northumberland. Here, you can wander within feet of nesting puffins, shags, razorbills and guillemots, listen to the haunting cries of kittiwakes, and be dive-bombed by the greatest global traveller of all, the Arctic tern. Continue reading...