The State of Scotland's Waterbirds

It's always an uplifting moment when one steps out onto a wide beach washed clean by the tide but Saturday's walk along Golspie's south beach became an increasingly depressing affair. Although some of the sand which has been absent for so many months has been returned by the sea, it was almost bare of both life and death. We saw more pipits and pied wagtails than waders, not surprising when the only waders were a pair of oystercatchers.

Then, in one fifty metre stretch of the beach, we came across....

....a dead fulmar and....

....two dead guillemots.

Offshore, other than a few gulls, all we could find was a lone guillemot.

This follows a report of a conversation a friend had with two local fishermen who said that the fishing in the Moray Firth at present is very poor. If the bait fish, and particularly the sand eels, aren't there - and the absence of gannets suggest this - then the birds which depend on them will move away.

NatureScot has just published a report into the state of Scotland's wintering waterbirds which doesn't make happy reading. Waders have suffered the worst, with declines of 58% since 1975. While oystercatchers are highlighted as having suffered badly we were pleased to note that the little sanderlings are holding their own. A link to the report is here.

The only cheerful note from our walk - other than the collection of five golf balls which will go to the local charity shop - was the presence of a flock of some twenty redshanks on the mudflats below the village.