Invaders blown in on winds across Atlantic

Gulls from North America are invading the western coasts of the British Isles in unusually high numbers after a long succession of westerly winds across the Atlantic.

Gulls from North America are invading the western coasts of the British Isles in unusually high numbers after a long succession of westerly winds across the Atlantic.

Uncommon visitors such as Iceland gulls are being seen in flocks, particularly along the Irish and Scottish coasts.

Iceland gulls are the size of Britain's familiar herring gulls, and are silvery-grey with white tips to the wings (herring gulls have black tips). Despite their name, they breed in Greenland rather than Iceland, and in most winters fewer than 100 birds are thought to reach the European side of the Atlantic as vagrants.

The average bird watcher is lucky to see any of the species. But this year there may be as many as 850, scattered in flocks from Co Clare in south-west Ireland to the Orkneys. Other, even rarer transatlantic gulls are also being seen, particularly in Ireland - such as two tiny Ross's gulls, normally year-round Arctic residents and a Bonaparte's gull, which ought to be on America's east coast.

Also dotted along the shoreline are a few Kumlien's gulls, a western race of the Iceland gull nesting only on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic.