Seabirds including shags, puffins and gulls from one of Scotland’s most important island nature reserves have been found dead following recent storms.
The Isle of May in the Firth of Forth becomes home each year to up to 200,000 seabirds including shags, puffins, guillemots and razorbills.
While some leave at the end of the breeding season and return in spring, others like the European shag remain around the Island during the winter months but struggle to feed in prolonged turbulent seas.
Conservationists became concerned after east winds battered the coast for three weeks, bringing heavy seas and leaving some birds struggling to forage.
Shags from the island National Nature Reserve – already at a 70-year-low following storms in 2023 – as well as puffins and other species have now been found washed up on the east coast of Scotland.
David Steel, NatureScot’s reserve manager, said: “News of Isle of May ringed shags found dead on strandlines have come from several locations along the east coast as well as puffins, various auks, gulls and wildfowl species.
“It’s grim and getting worse. With low temperatures and heavy seas, it’s making feeding difficult and the prolonged nature of the storm is causing above average mortality for the time of year.”
He added: “We’ll not know the full extent of the damage until the spring when we undertake the full breeding census of our birds which will help gauge winter survival.”
Mr Steel said it was hoped a high-pressure weather system would return, “allowing the seas to calm and the birds to be able to feed”, but revealed fears the island’s shag population could fall to a new low.
Shags have also been seen in several inland locations, a rare event for a pelagic species, which highlights their desperation.
He added: “Seabirds are tough, hardy birds, designed for the open sea but they are susceptible to storms.
“Our main concern is for our Shags, as their numbers were decimated in the big storms of October 2023 and as a result thousands perished and the populations on the east coast crashed.”
The Isle of May is due to reopen to the public on 1 April, with boat operators taking thousands of visitors to the island from Anstruther, North Berwick and Dunbar until the end of September.
