Cornish Biodiversity Network - Supporting Wildlife Recording
The descriptive text, below the map, is from the Cornish Red Data Book (2009). The map on this web page depicts the organisms distribution and shows the records made pre-2000 and those made since.
Range & Status
Holarctic; in Britain and Ireland there are 40 breeding pairs (Scotland); 775 in winter.
Regional Distribution
Cornwall: winter visitor and passage migrant in small numbers, 3040 birds annually in recent years, seemingly decreasing. Sites recording ten or more include Falmouth Bay, Gerrans Bay, St. Austell Bay and Seaton. A rare visitor, not annual, in the Isles of Scilly.
Habitat & Ecology
Sheltered coastal bays and estuary mouths, chiefly on south Cornish coast.
Threats
Inshore fishing (monofilament nets) and oil pollution.
Conservation
Monitoring of winter numbers. Listed (long list) as a globally threatened/declining species (BSGR, 1995).
I.J. Bennallick, S. Board, C.N. French, P.A. Gainey, C. Neil, R. Parslow, A. Spalding and P.E. Tompsett. eds. 2009. Red Data Book for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. 2nd Edition.Croceago Press.
The Cornish Red Data Book Project was led by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Federation for Biological Recorders (CISFBR). The full text and species accounts (minus the maps) are available on the CISFBR website.