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Skuas
Love them or loathe them, this is a fascinating group. Frequently described as the 'pirates of the sea', which is exactly what they are in the bird world. Rather than find their own food they chase and bully others into giving up their hard earned catch.
An Arctic Skua attacking a young Kittiwake, forcing it to give up it's catch of fish.
Arctic Skua - An exciting bird to watch, powerful yet fast and acrobatic. A medium sized skua. Always looking to mug other seabirds, especially terns and small gulls, for their catch. Sadly they are in decline here. Perhaps being pushed out on their breeding grounds in Shetland by the Great Skuas. Arctic Skua have two different colour forms, light and a dark. Both can be seen opposite.
Photos 1&3 taken in Fetlar, Shetland in June. 2&4 were off Bridlington in Sept. 3 shows both colour forms.
Great Skua 'Bonxie' - Our largest skua. A thug of a bird. Rough, tough and ruthless. They will attack almost anything for food. Taking live prey if they get an easy chance, or bullying other seabirds to surrender their catch, as in pic 4. Shetland is a stronghold for them with good numbers breeding there. That is where images 1,2 & 4 were captured. You can get very close to them in certain breeding areas and they don't seem too bothered. Females are larger, as with raptors. Photo 3 taken off Scilly in August.
Pomarine Skua - A large, chunky skua. This is a migrant that can be seen on our waters on passage to and from its breeding grounds. The birds photo'd here are all juveniles seen during the autumn migration. The top two were seen off Flamborough Head in September and the bottom two off Scilly in August. Fortunately I was with experts on both occasions to help with identification.
Yet to capture: Long-tailed Skua
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