We review the occurrence of vagrant Brünnich’s Guillemots Uria lomvia in Europe. The 104 records of 109 individual birds that could be traced showed a distinct seasonal pattern. There were no September records, but a small autumn peak was apparent in late October and early November. Numbers increased again in early December, peaked in late January and early February, and declined through spring, with only seven records in summer. Autumn records were mostly of first-winter birds, whereas relatively more adults were recorded in winter, in line with expectations based on timing of migration for these different age classes. We speculate that vagrant birds to western Europe have strayed from the wintering grounds and migration routes south of Iceland and along the Norwegian coast, while overland movements from the Barents Sea may explain inland records from northern Scandinavia, and some from the Baltic Sea. Two spatial clusters of records were evident, one in Scotland and the other in the Skagerrak, Kattegat and southern Baltic Sea. Between 1975/76 and 2005/06, the number of records declined in the former region but increased in the latter, which may represent a real decrease in occurrence, and increased observer effort, respectively.

Brünnich’s Guillemot Uria lomvia is a circumpolar species, breeding in both the high and low (sub) Arctic (Figure 1a) (Nettleship & Evans 1985). The Atlantic population numbers c. 6.5 million birds, breeding at colonies in eastern Canada, west and east Greenland, Iceland, Jan Mayen, Svalbard, northern Norway, and the western Russian Arctic (CAFF 2004). Ringing recoveries have shown that the breeding populations of Canada and Greenland winter in the northwest Atlantic, where they are joined by a substantial (but unknown) number of birds from colonies in Iceland, Svalbard, Norway and Russia, although many of the latter remain in the Norwegian and Barents Seas throughout the year (Kampp 1988; Nikolaeva et al. 1996; CAFF 2004; Bakken & Mehlum 2005). Thus, a large number of Brünnich’s Guillemots migrate in a southwesterly direction across the North Atlantic each autumn. Occasionally, Brünnich’s Guillemots are recorded further south in Europe than usual (Figure 1b). We review the occurrence of such vagrants, analyse their temporal and geographic distri- bution, and examine differences between age classes. We attempt to relate the patterns found to the normal seasonal distribution of the species in the Atlantic and speculate on possible origins and causes of these extra-limital occurrences. Finally, we discuss whether Brünnich’s Guillemots found in western Europe are truly lost, or whether they winter there in small numbers.

Many people helped us prepare this article and we thank them all. Earlier drafts were improved by comments from Martin Heubeck, who also provided information on some Shetland records. Mardik Leopold encouraged us and helped gather records and forward requests for information. Museum specimens were checked by Bob McGowan (National Museums of Scotland), Joan McLaren (Montrose Museum, UK), Mike Nicoll (Dundee Museum, UK) and Richard Sutcliffe (Glasgow Museum, UK). The following sent lists of national records: Jochen Dierschke (Germany), Roger Riddington (UK), Marnix Vandegehuchte (Belgium) and Georges Olioso (France), while Killian Mullarney commented on the Irish record. John Chardine and Eeva-Liisa Alanen provided useful references, Arnoud van den Berg helped at the Dutch Birding Association library, and we thank the EuroBirdNet community for their help. Finally, we thank two anonymous referees for their comments.

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