Oil v wildlife

The other day when I was working in the station, a local fisherman knocked on the door saying there were oiled guillemotes down at Peveril Point.

I popped straight over to see these two birds clearly covered in some form of oil and as most people know if these birds start to ingest the oil it tends to be fatal for them.

Having reported the situation to the Operations room to get some specialist treatment, a check was carried out along the shoreline for further birds or signs of oil on the beach.

Oil is an important commodity to the world, but sometimes to the cost of wildlife, so its important that oiled birds or oil on the beach is always reported to the Coastguard so samples can be taken and traced, leading to prosecution of the offenders.

What happened to the above two......well as I went to get our bird boxes, they decided to go for a swim, however they were caught later and taken up to Durlston Country Park, who passed them on to be cleaned up.