Today has turned a bit miserable, but yesterday was a stunning day here at St Abb's Head. Large numbers of seabirds, including guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and fulmar were back on the cliffs, and the sun was shining. We even spotted our first bumblebee queens on the reserve, a tree bumblebee and a buff-tailed bumblebee, busy looking for nests sites. Lizy

I came across a sad sight today while I was carrying out a survey on one of our beaches. This is the remains of an auk, tangled up in ribbons which had been tied onto the bottom of a balloon. This is the 4th balloon I have found littering the reserve in the last two days.

It is tragic to think that a balloon, which probably amused a human for only a few minutes or hours before being forgotten, can go on to have such serious consequences for wildlife. It's not only birds like this auk which have been entangled and starved/drowned, turtles, whales and dolphins can eat balloons, mistaking them for jellyfish, blocking their digestive systems and causing them to starve to death.

If you like balloons all is not lost though. Check out the link below to a leaflet from the Marine Conservation Society, it outlines the dangers that balloons pose to marine wildlife and then gives some excellent ideas of how to minimise the damage, such as using latex balloons which will eventually biodegrade, and not filling them with helium, so they won't float away and become litter. They also have some great ideas if you are planning to use balloons as part of an event! Lizy

https://www.mcsuk.org/downloads/pollution/dont%20let%20go.pdf

Auk entangled in balloon ribbon

The weather has been impressive here today at St Abb's Head. Luckily this morning was bright and I managed to get out and get a few pictures of the reserve covered in snow, a rare sight! Lizy.

Snowy view of the Mire Loch

View from the Lighthouse Road