Storm petrels (often known as 'stormies' for short) spend the winter months off the coast of South West Africa and begin their long journey back to their UK breeding grounds in spring. Birds over the age of four are usually paired up and sitting on single eggs by early June. It is thought that the majority of birds ringed on The Leas are under the age of four and spend the summer moving up and down the east coast, feeding rather than breeding.
Years of stormie surveys
The Whitburn Coastal Conservation Group has been monitoring storm petrels on The Leas for 15 years. In that time they’ve had some notable results, including one bird which was caught in 2015 having been ringed off the Portuguese coast in 2004; another bird ringed at Whitburn in 2009 was caught in The Faroe Islands in 2010.
In 2015 the rangers and the Coastal Conservation Group carried out an intensive eight week survey of storm petrels. During that time they ringed 514 storm petrels and two rare Leach’s storm petrels.