As expected, there were corpses of
Guillemots on the beach this morning. I covered three of them up, to prevent scavenging crows from ingesting the oil.
Looking at reports of oiled birds in Dorset, the Isle of Wight and Sussex recently, they seem to follow the progress of the timber from the sunk ship - however, the oil is apparently not the same as in that ship, and there are suggestions that other ships have taken the opportunity to clean out their tanks near the wreck to avoid blame - good grief.
There was only one auk visible on the sea (flapping its wings, as if oiled unfortunately), but there were six Great Crested Grebes and a passage south of divers, including at least one Great Northern.
The Black-Headed Gulls are developing their dark heads, as shown by the three models below:
Coltsfoot flowers shone brightly in the sunshine, and are starting to grow leaves - the plant is also known as
Son-before-Father, because the flowers are followed by the leaves.
The umbiliferae are sprouting fast on the verges, with Wild Carrot and Hogweed flower stems shooting up.
Yes, still the sun shines - all but one day in the last two weeks has been sunny (if not particularly warm). Good for walking.
An early morning trip to the beach confirmed the continuing bad news - more corpses and two Razorbills coming onshore to rest.
Despite our previous failures, the sight of the corpses reinforced the need to catch and treat the birds, so I dragged the daughter from her half-term rest and togged up to try again.
Needless to say, the wellies were unhelpful, as the first wave washed over them and the lower part of my body, but after an undignified scramble we had the Razorbill wrapped in the towel. And then, to add insult to injury, we drove it in a cat box to Beryl of the Wildlife Careline in Dover (alan@hedgies.fsnet.co.uk). 
Beryl gave the bird first aid, pumping oil from its stomach, and it was then put in a box to await the next visit from the RSPCA.
As we had seen another bird on the beach, we returned and were again successful. This Razorbill was given directly to the RSPCA collector, who was returning to Mallydams Wood centre near Hastings, for treatment, recuperation and release.
