On the beach at Sizewell by the outflow I came across a very confiding Arctic Skua which has been entertaining photographers for the last week or so. The bird spends a great deal of time on the pebble beach allowing quite close approaches before flying out to the outfall to harass the gulls and terns trying to get them to drop or disgorge their fish prey. This is how the bird feeds and it can fly very fast in pursuit of them although it will also scavenge for dead birds and mammals given a chance.
They resemble a medium sized dark gull but with central tail feathers which are longer than the outer ones. As a breeding bird we are at the southern end of its range with only a limited number nesting in the north of Scotland; the vast majority of birds nest in the north of Scandinavia, Siberia, North America and Iceland and mainly spend the winter off the coast of South Africa. They are quite a long lived bird with some managing 25 years or so but their future in the British Isles is entirely dependant on a good food supply (mainly Sand-eels) which is the main food source of the sea birds that the skuas hassle.
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