Published: 07 January, 2010 IN the last few years, there have been several serious causes for concern as far as wildlife conservations is concerned and perhaps none more so than with seabirds. Around Scotland, including the Highlands, there are many important international colonies of seabirds. These are sometimes in very large numbers such as gannets, puffins and Manx shearwaters. In some ways seabirds have a special place in my scheme of things, perhaps because I have been privileged to see some of the remoter colonies. With some of the islands, for example, I have been even responsible in a small way for their management when I worked for the Nature Conservancy Council and their successors. We have even named all of our miniature Dachshunds after these islands, such as Kilda, Sula, Rona and Heisker. These have long since gone and are now buried under our beech trees but the current ones are Sgeir, Conan, Soay, Monach and Hirta. Readers will hopefully know where all these islands are. So a few years ago when I began to hear disturbing rumours about the state of the seabirds, I really began to worry. In the past it has been so easy to stand on places like the Shiant Isles and hear the calls and whirring wings of the many seabirds, especially auks such as guillemots and razorbills. North Rona, my favourite island, had its fulmars whilst on St. Kilda it was hard to choose between the sheer numbers of puffins and the sky filling gannets. Even on the mainland there were large colonies of seabirds to be seen at places such as Cape Wrath and Duncansby Head, both on the north coast. In many cases it seems there were so many birds that nothing could possibly adversely affect their numbers or breeding success. The drastic declines have been put down to a number of reasons, each with their supporters. The latest is the global warning issue which is in vogue these days. Amongst the many spin-offs, it has been blamed for the absence of sand eels in any numbers. The catastrophe this has caused with puffin chicks, amongst others, starving to death has been one of the more dramatic turn of events. However, there have been, and are, others with whole colonies of kittiwakes unable to produce any young to the flying stage and in many cases not even laying any eggs at all. …
Seabird decline is a disturbing trend via Apocadocs
