A BIRD that goes north towards the end of summer instead of south is the Balearic shearwater. Visitors to Devon and Cornwall just now may see parties of these small, fast-flying seabirds passing along some way off the coast.
Balearic shearwaters nest on Majorca and other islands in the western Mediterranean. Like our own Manx shearwaters along the western coasts of Britain, they make their nests in burrows, and each pair brings up a single youngster.
When they have finished breeding, they go out into the Bay of Biscay for their autumn moult, and some of these birds reach our waters. Later on they will all go south to catch shrimps and plankton off the West Coast of Africa. They can best be distinguished from Manx shearwaters by their brownish look. The Manx shearwater, which stays in the North Atlantic, is much more distinctly black above and white below.
Gannets are also coming towards the end of their nesting season and starting to spread out around our shores. These large white birds with dagger-like beaks fold their long wings and dive for fish in spectacular style. They eat herring, sprats and mackerel. DJM