Observations from Helgoland 2024: Northern Gannets (Morus bassanus), Common Guillemots (Uria aalge) and Black-legged Kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) struggle with the consequences of avian influenza and the threat posed by dolly ropes. The populations show worrying declines. They can be smelled and heard from afar: Helgoland's Northern Gannets.
As always, at the beginning of June, the plateaus and cliffs of the island are fully occupied once again. Northern Gannets, Common Guillemots, Razorbills (Alca torda) and Black-legged Kittiwakes share the nesting sites. Up to this point, it is just like all the years before when we made our observations on site.
Yet some things are different this year. In 2022, avian influenza ravaged the Northern Gannets. In 2023 (according to the latest counts), only 887 breeding pairs returned to the "Lummenfelsen" and the "Lange Anna", a third fewer than the previous year. In 2024, many of the Northern Gannets also exhibit the altered dark eye colour, which indicates a survived avian influenza infection. The number of Northern Gannets returning to the cliffs still does not appear to be increasing.
For the Common Guillemots and the Black-legged Kittiwakes, 2023 was particularly severe: volunteers collected 700 dead Common Guillemot chicks from beneath the cliffs, having died from avian influenza. The parent birds fled to the sea – and remained there. Apparently, many Common Guillemots returned to the cliffs this spring, but according to initial estimates, we lost a third of the original population in 2023. The figures for 2024 are not yet available; the counts are only just beginning.
And once again in 2024, dead Common Guillemots are hanging from the cliffs, strangled in dolly ropes. In the nests of the Northern Gannets, there is an encouragingly high amount of natural material, grass and seaweed. Grass seems to be currently very popular on the plateaus, fortunately for the animals. Nevertheless, some Northern Gannet chicks are again hanging in the dolly ropes. It is to be hoped that they can free themselves and do not die in them, as is so often the case.
In the current year, the colony has so far been spared from avian influenza. Thus, we hope for the best for Germany's largest seabird and its relatives.
