THE article by Jody Harrison last week (“Native birds flock back after feral mink are culled in Western Isles”, The Herald, July 10) raised some interesting points. While there is no doubt that the cull of mink is advantageous to the local wildlife, birds included, to suggest that this has led to a major return of native birds seems to me to be a complete exaggeration.
Could I ask what concrete evidence Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has that “native birds are flocking back” to the Western Isles? To have one local tourist boat operator say that they have changed their routes because of a return of birds to certain areas around the coast seems a bit flimsy to me.
As a local amateur bird watcher on Lewis I would make the following observations;
1. The number of lapwings in the Lochs area of Lewis is still much reduced from 20 years ago. I have only found two places in the area where you can now see lapwings. This scenario is probably true throughout much of the Isle of Lewis and is also the case with regard to several other ground-nesting birds.
2. The number of common terns is also reduced this year and this can be said about several other sea birds.
3. There are very few signs of native birds “flocking” back to the area.
So, if the minks have been mostly killed off and the birds are not actually returning, what are the reasons for that?
I would suggest several possible contributory factors to the fact that numbers of ground-nesting and sea birds in the Western Isles are low and indeed falling, despite the mink eradication scheme:
First, the presence in the islands of hedgehogs that are causing extensive damage to the eggs of ground-nesting birds such as the lapwing. Secondly, the lack of food in the seas for seabirds caused by over-fishing and industrial-style trawling that is destroying the food chain that birds depend on and are a part of. Thirdly, the change of land use in much of the islands which has created an environment in which many birds fail to thrive, and finally the inevitable natural change over time which means there will be losses and gains of species as the centuries move on.
Maybe SNH could provide further evidence to back its claim and substantiate what is a very eye-catching, if questionable, headline.
Duncan Norman Macleod,
49 Leurbost,
Lochs,
Lewis,
Western Isles.
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