Bathers rescue unusual feathered visitor from a beach in Torremolinos

Bathers on a beach in La Carihuela, Torremolinos, have rescued an unusual feathered visitor to the coast after spotting it in an exhausted state on the shore. The common murre or guillemot is very rarely seen on the Costa del Sol, usually being found in the low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. It normally spends most of its time at sea, only coming to land to breed on rocky cliff shores or islands. In Spain, it is included in the National Catalogue of Threatened Species in the category of endangered species due to its reduced breeding population.

The beach-goers alerted the Local Police of Torremolinos who then recovered the bird and transferred it to the Town Hall's environmental department. After verifying that it was a young bird, which appeared to be exhausted or ill, it was transferred to the Molino de Inca Botanical Garden, where it was examined and given water.

After 24 hours the bird showed notable signs of improvement so the Environmental delegation then notified the Centre for the Recovery of Threatened Species (CREA), which rescues specimens of threatened and protected species and releases them back into the wild.