Sir, The Manx Shearwater is a very special seabird, rarely seen unless you are in a boat or visiting an island where they live. They are migrating to Brazil from the West Coast of Scotland. When we have strong SW winds, the young birds, who migrate later than the adults, get blown off their route. Because shearwaters cannot fly up from the ground in the way in which pigeons and other birds do, if they land in the road or hide under a car, they get run over. They are also attacked by other animals. They have no defence except to flap their wings and make a little shriek. They have to 'take off' from the sea or from a cliff. This they usually do at night, because during the day, for some reason we do not yet understand, the seagulls will kill them. I keep them safe during the day and then release them on the rocks below Castle Hill when the seagulls have gone to bed. Their feathers feel like velvet, and their long narrow wings allow them to 'skim' or 'shear' the waves. They eat from the surface of the wave or dive below the water. In Spring they return to the burrow in which they were born, although the young may not return for the first two or three years of their lives. Even so, when the time comes, they still manage it! The RSPB have proved all this by 'ringing' them in the burrows. If a shearwater sees a basement, he thinks it is a cliff and will topple into it. He is then helpless and will die. So keep looking down basements and under parked cars - just in case! If you should happen to find one of these birds stranded, put it in a cardboard box with air holes and deliver to one of the addresses below: Jean Hains, Oiled Bird Rescue Centre (at Lower House Farm), West Williamston (near Carew), tel. 01646 651236. Jean Bryant, New Quay Bird and Wildlife Hospital, Penfoel, Cross Inn, Llandyssul, tel. 01545 560462.
J. A. Scholfield,
No. 2 Basement Flat, St. Julian's Terrace, Tenby.