The Lincolnshire Bird Club

We spotted the Great Skua at some distance when it dropped onto something beyond the 360 hide and after making the long trek round the sea wall found that the unfortunate victim was a Coot. With a combination of pecking and standing on top of the bird to drown it, the Coot eventually succumbed to the inevitable. Surprisingly, the Great Skua then took to the wing - and attacked another Coot! We made our way round to East Hide and for the next 40 minutes or so watched a second bird fighting for its life. Coots are tough individuals but the Great Skua was strong, determined and merciless so once again the outcome was never in doubt.
Although having captured much of the action on video I have not yet felt like taking a look at the footage.

Roy

Were you one of the people I met?

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Is this the ringed individual from Kirkby or another one ?

Phil

Katherine,
One couple were in the East Hide when we got there & they were unaware of the presence of the Great Skua until I told them. Richard Jackson was the only other person we saw there so I think that Linda & I had gone before you arrived.

Phil,
It is certainly not the Kirkby Pits bird - this one has no leg rings, aside from the differences in plumage colour and missing wing feathers.

Roy

Great Skuas are certainly formidable creatures with not many endearing traits, Roy. In the past I have seen them kill adult Puffin and Kittiwake, but last year I was surprised by the actions of one off Burghead in the Moray Firth. It was hurtling behind an adult Gannet and suddenly seized the Gannet's wing, whereupon both birds crashed into the sea. An untidy flapping scuffle then took place until somehow the skua had hold of the Gannet's neck and was stood on its back. At this point, the skua began violently dunking the Gannet and I was beginning to fear the worst. All at once, the Gannet broke free and pattered for a short distance along the sea's surface, but the skua was straight after it, took hold of its wing again and brought it back into the sea. By this time there were quite a lot of body feathers blowing around and at least two of the Gannet's primaries had been lost. Suddenly, the weakening victim disgorged its stomach contents and the skua released its grip and turned its attention to these. The Gannet again pattered across the surface, then managed to take flight. It flew off in a somewhat dishevelled condition and looked quite the worse for wear. I just hoped that it made a full recovery later.

Regards, Steve.

The Great Skua was still at Frampton at 19:15 hours yesterday evening
also
Whimbrel c20
Black-winged Stilt
Garganey a pr
Barn Owl
A few Sand Martins
Yellow Wagtail 7
White Wagtail 4

An interesting story Steve!

I think Linda's conclusion of ' I think Bonxies are thugs' was about right.

Roy

"Nature, red in tooth and claw" as our Victorian forbears used to say. It was ever thus and will continue to be so.....ie. doing what comes naturally to predators.

However, on the one hand we all delight in seeing a Peregrine bring down a Duck on the marshes and proceed to tear it to bits, but feel 'uneasy' (me included) seeing a Great Skua kill a Coot in front of us or maul a Gannet. (Perhaps the extended, slow-motion effect doesn't help). After all, the Gannet had originally grabbed the (disgorged) fish and swallowed it while it was still alive and 'suffering'; and that fish will have swallowed smaller fish alive and so ad infinitum.

Further, going the other way up the chain, if the Gannet hadn't scoffed its prey, perhaps I might be having the fish for supper tonight.

These days, of course (unlike most previous generations) the vast majority of us (vegetarians apart !) never get to see the killing, the blood, the gore of what we eat...... and out of sight, out of mind. We are now so clinically removed from the act of killing and the death of our 'prey' : seeing it all at another level in action in the field can sometimes be disturbing.

Freddy

Nature is amazing isn't it! Gannets often cough up the goods pretty quickly when attacked by a Bonxie, so maybe this individual had never been attacked before, or was suffering from delusions of physical grandeur!

I've seen Greater Black-backed Gulls face down Bonxies (about the only bird that can!), and they can be just as mean. I once saw one toss a Puffin inside out, and another one used to wolf down baby rabbitts whole on a regular basis.

Still, when you consider the cruelty that some people inflict on animals and don't even eat them, the Bonxies and GBBG's look positively angelic.

A bonxie flew into the Humber, over the saltmarsh, past Pyes Hall and Horseshoe Point last evening (2/5) at around 18:15.