Seal invasion threatens returning puffins at Coquet Island! Can RSPB's white elephant save nesting birds from jaws of death?
As if that's not bad enough, lazy reserve management hasn't finished essential nest work in time, with terns and other species expected back any day now...
(UPDATE 27/03/2025 at the bottom of the page)
Someone at RSPB has written a press release about puffins returning to waters around the Coquet Island reserve in Northumberland and their finger is hovering over the ‘publish‘ button, ready to announce the news to the world. The arrival of the birds signals the start of the season and - usually - an end to all outside work by staff.
However, the story is delayed because Coquet is not ready for the thousands of birds heading there. The last thing the charity wants is boatloads of birdwatchers taking photos of the unrepaired nesting terraces.
Despite having months to prepare for this, staff hadn’t put out a single nest box by the end of last week. Paving stones were still stacked up and the retaining wall not even half finished. This comes after Northumberland coast site manager Stephen Westerberg boasted in the local press about having more than 50 staff and volunteers.
While he has reportedly been busy birdwatching and ringing, the rest of the team have had since August to get everything done. What have they been doing? Isn’t money from donors supposed to be paying for this? In the above photo, there’s a clue to where some of the donations have gone.
The reserve splashed out £77,000 or so on a shiny new ‘amphibious‘ craft that can - supposedly - deliver staff, supplies and equipment right up onto the beach. It’s been parked beneath the roseate tern terraces, but once the birds return, it won’t be allowed on the beach, which is vital for roosting, courtship and nesting.
Landing the ‘rib‘ on the beach any time between the birds returning and leaving will amount to wilful reckless disturbance - a wildlife crime against schedule one species.
Promotional material for the boat shows armed men in balaclavas on a covert op somewhere exotic - probably not the use RSPB CEO Beccy Speight had in mind. But it could be deployed to the South Atlantic, where the charity is carrying out a donor and grant-funded genocide of mice threatening an albatross colony.
Knowing the sea and restrictions around the reserve, Amble locals have nicknamed the craft ‘white elephant‘. It’s said to be too big to turn around at the Coquet jetty and can only reach the island at high tide because of rocks.
Nor can it use the slipway at Amble harbour, so is kept at the yacht club, adding to the expenses. More money will be wasted on berthing fees for the old boat at the marina. It’s OK though, as the charity is swimming in cash from generous bird lovers’ legacies and ‘partnership‘ corporations.
One reason Amble locals are not fond of RSPB, is it spends thousands of pounds on fixing up the island every year, yet insists on bringing in contractors from elsewhere, ignoring the towns plumbers, boat businesses and other essential services. It has undone all the local employment links created by the previous management to make Coquet part of the Amble community. Ouside workers travelling to the area adds to their costs. Even the site manager lives miles away - beyond Hexham.
While the charity has been busy showing off the new boat, seals have been piling up on the beach. They’re not new to the island, but the video below shows the size of the latest colony, which is considerably bigger than usual.
The video was taken about two weeks ago. The seals will crush any puffin burrows in the island’s soft sandy soil. The RSPB has been warned about the need to keep the seals off the beach, as it is the only one on the island.
The warning came after a seal invasion of Brownsman Island in the Farnes devastated the local puffin population. Seals destroyed their habitat and burrows over winter, leaving nothing to help the returning birds establish the new season’s colony.
It’s not just seals that are a threat to the protected birds. The RSPB has abandoned gull management that has been in place and carefully monitored since 2000.
The new boat won’t be able to scare seals off the beach, so it’s unclear what Westerberg or warden Janet Fairclough will do about them. In the earlier video, Fairclough is seen struggling to get a lawnmower started - eventually giving up - while a puffin can be seen frolicking in the sea, enticing seals on the nearby beach.
Fairclough’s boyfriend is Iain Robson, manager of the Northumberland Coast National Landscape. In a blog post on Saturday 22nd March, he wrote about the puffins returning - beating the RSPB by a mile - after a boat tour he and Fairclough joined on Friday evening. Besides puffins, the group saw “seals and roseate terns while aboard the aptly named Puffin Cruises boat“, he joked. However, the photo in the blog seemed to be from last year, with not a seal in sight.
Robson was not impressed by coverage of RSPB fabricating evidence so it could fire former Coquet reserve manager and one of its longest-serving employees Paul Morrison and replace him with a Syrian refugee. After the articles appeared in The Telegraph and Daily Mail, he complained about the “poor journalism“ on a WhatsApp group for birders and suggested RSPB COO James Robinson’s angry rant about diversity may be a more balanced critique of the outrageous saga. It isn’t.
It’s not surprising Robson complained, as one of the key RSPB staff behind the scandal and subsequent attempts to cover it up, was his pal David Morris, operations manager for northern England who is rumoured to be on his way out of the charity.
When Jenny Shelton - or anyone else at RSPB’s propaganda department - finally pushes the button to publish their news release, it’s unlikely to contain any of the above information. Donors should ask why. With the seal population explosion and lack of large gull management, the future looks grim for Coquet’s birds.
UPDATE 27/03/2025
A big shed is being built at Amble yacht club to house the new boat - more donor money spent on something other than protecting birds. It’s likely the RSPB will try to argue that splashing out on an expensive boat is proof of its commitment to Coquet.
Meanwhile, the island’s jetty is in dire condition, as the bird charity hasn’t bothered to maintain it. Three years ago, the blacksmith in Amble made a huge stainless steel cleat to replace the old one after the jetty was damaged in a 2021 winter storm. It still hasn’t been fitted and cracks along the jetty wall are getting bigger.
The only positive is the puffins don’t seem to care.
Holy shit…that’s a lot of seals!