Ocean Sentry
The National Trust for Scotland has warned kittiwakes could disappear from some of the nation”s most important seabird colonies. It says the decline in numbers at its sites around the country was marked. The St Abb”s Head nature reserve in the Borders has seen its kittiwake levels fall from more than 19,000 in 1989 to just more than 5,000 last year.
NTS said numbers had also been in decline at the World Heritage Site, St Kilda and Fair Isle in the Shetlands.
Monitoring on Canna and Mingulay also found kittiwakes struggled to breed successfully last year.
The bird population warning comes on the eve of a Scottish Parliament debate, led by Nanette Milne MSP, on the fate of the nation’s seabirds.
Last year RSPB Scotland warned that a number of species had suffered a terrible breeding season.
NTS said the decline in kittiwake numbers could be down to changes in food supply caused by the changing climate.
Senior nature conservation adviser Dr Richard Luxmoore said it was hard to draw firm conclusions about kittiwake populations.
“Kittiwakes are a much-loved feature of our coastal cliffs but if these trends continue their evocative cries may be consigned to folk memory.”
(From news.bbc.co.uk, Scotland)
