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Talmine Bay wildlife

One of our readers, Andrew Beveridge, lives on the far north coast of Scotland at Talmine Bay, and over the last couple of years has taken up photography. He has recently sent us a series of images of dolphins that have appeared in the bay, as well as some of the birds that he has seen there. Andrew is worried by the numbers, or lack thereof, of some of the sea birds and suspects that

Dolphins
It is not known where the dolphins of Talmine Bay come from, though the obvious place is that they have made a trip up the coast from the Moray Firth. They display very unusual behaviour, consorting in several groups of three or four. Wildlife Extra has asked Marine Connection if these dolphins match any of those from the Moray Firth that are on their photo ID database.

 

 

Location: Talmine Bay is on the far north coast of Scotland, about 70 miles west of Thurso on the A836, and then turn right after crossing the bridge across the Kyle of Tongue. Talmine is about 5 miles to the north.

Grid reference: NC584630  

Sea birds
By Andrew Beveridge
The most irksome observation of the time I have been here is the sea bird population. In the time I have lived here, apparently a time in which there has been little obvious change, I have noticed a disturbing change in the predominant species. Predatory birds have increased at the expense of the rest. The islands were seagull nesting areas when I arrived here but now I do not seen one herring gull or common gull kittiwake nest on the island.

There were large numbers of eider ducks nesting on the islands and for a long time now I've watched them starting off the year with a dozen or so ducklings following only to see them fall foul of the Blackback gulls and Skuas, and now there are almost no eider ducks left.

Given the life span of birds it takes a while to notice the losses. My personal feeling is that it is a breakdown of the food chain which is at the heart of this. I've been seeing this from an almost unique stand point living in a remote location and being involved in the fishing industry in the North Sea & in the North Atlantic since 1969.

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