Islandmagee guillemot rescue attempt after oil incident ends in sadness

The bird was looked after by an Islandmagee couple and then taken care of at a sanctuary, but unfortunately did not survive.

Hilary Bailey spoke of her sadness that the bird, which she and her husband Eric nursed for 24 hours, had died.

Hilary received a call from a friend in Whitehead, where the bird had been washed up, very obviously suffering from oil pollution on the belly, tail and wing tips, and she took the gull home to look after it and try to find professional help.

“It was last year’s chick, fully grown and a feisty wee bird,” she said.

She and husband Eric looked after the guillemot, feeding him sardines and giving him water from an outside barrel, and keeping him on an old fleece to avoid the bird having to be on a hard surface. For the duration the bird lived on a fleece in their lounge, to ensure it had a good level of heat.

Through a friend, Hilary was put in touch with Debbie Doolittle’s Wildlife in Co Antrim and she came to get the bird. It is believed that the incident has been reported to the Northern Ireland Environment Agency as four birds had been found in a worse condition, two of which died.

One of the gulls was washed up at Ballywalter on the Co Down coast.

“Two of the birds were found alive and two dead. Our one seems to have been the youngest bird. Those are the ones that are known, but it is likely others have suffered oil pollution as well,” Hilary said.

It is not clear how the pollution occurred, although it is believed a vessel washing tanks in the channel or discharging surplus oil may be a possibility.

While the guillemot was with the Baileys, every effort was made to ensure it was not stressed, with stress being one of the reasons a bird can die. Meanwhile, Eric had to be careful when feeding the sardines to the gull as it would not have differentiated between the fish and his fingers.

Hilary said the incident had highlighted to her that there was no designated wildlife rescue resource in Northern Ireland, unlike other parts of the UK.

“There is no designated person and while vets will help they do not have the resource either,” she said.

“It does highlight how fragile wildlife is and how mankind can inadvertently impact on all creatures. There is a fine balance. We had hoped he would recover and be returned to his own environment, but sadly that was not to be.”

Click here to read: Nesting habitat created in Glenarm for charismatic bird

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