Kittiwakes (1 Viewer)

Just got back to Spain from 3 days in Morocco. Not really a birding break, but I always take the optics!
We stayed 2 nights in Moulay Boussalem, and I was a little surprised to see a few Kittiwakes flying up and down the beach in the mornings. I went out with Hassan Kalil for Marsh Owl, and he had seen Kittiwakes in the middle of the Merdja Zerga that day (Tuesday 10th) - he has never seen Kittiwakes before in all his years birdwatching.
Earlier in the day we had walked along the beach north of the town for a few hundred metres, and in that space I found 7 dead Kittiwakes, 2 dead Fulmars and 4 dead Storm Petrels. All fairly recently dead, and all extremely thin (in bird ringing terms, they would have scored zero for muscle) There was also a Kittiwake being washed around in the waves lapping onto the shore. I don't think it lasted long. On our drive around the Merdja Zerga earlier in the morning, a flooded field had a number of Cattle Egrets, a Little Egret and 2 swimming Kittiwakes picking food from the water surface. This was about 2 miles from the sea, near the motorway!
I wonder if this is just the wreck from some of the severe weather in the area recently, or a more serious problem with lack of food out at sea?
Jon

ps Marsh Owl very accommodating!:t:

Just got back from a week around Agadir and was surprised to see several Kittiwakes in the marina at the north end of the town.

I believe that these Kittiwakes are part of the unusual southward surge of birds pushed down western Portugal (and across the Algarve and southern Spain) before - during and after the wave of storms and cold in January. We still have unusually large numbers here.

Simon

WE have had Kittiwake, Great Northern Diver and Ross's Gull here on the back of the same weather front, well over 200km from the sea !!!