Poor Kitti's

An update on the Kittiwakes at Dunbar Harbour. A few weeks back I posted some lovely pictures of fluffy little chicks. Unfortunately for them the Danish have been fishing in our waters and have nicked all the sand eels and other small fish that Kittiwakes depend on. As a substitute they have been eating pipefish...a small fish with a long skeleton that is very bendy. When the chicks swallow it, it gets stuck in their digestion system and prevents it from functioning. Consequently they die. The consequences are that at the start of the season there was around 52 nests and 30+ chicks on Dunbar Castle. Last week it was down to around 15 chicks as all the others have snuffed it. I don't know what you can do about it, but thought you should know!