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From The Times
December 5, 2006

Storm birds pay a flying visit to escape the gales

Lewis Smith
Gale force winds proved too much for more than 250 Leach’s storm-petrels, which were blown to the shores of Britain.

The birds are rarely seen in Britain in December but scores have landed in the past two days and have been found as far inshore as Manchester.

They took shelter at 50 locations, with the biggest count being made near Morecambe Bay in Lancashire, where 80 have been seen.

Gloucestershire became a refuge when many birds moved in to the Severn estuary to escape the storm, according to reports from the BirdGuides Online information service.

Mark Grantham, of the British Trust for Ornithology, said: “It’s very unusual for so many Leach’s storm-petrels to be reported at this time of year and this weekend’s powerful Atlantic winds have clearly affected them.

“They are well adapted to ride out storms but periodically severe weather leads to storm-petrel ‘wrecks’ with birds turning up, not just on the coast, which is unusual enough, but well inland.”

At this time of year the birds, Oceanodroma leucorhoa, are usually found over warmer, southerly areas of the Atlantic.

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