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Shetland Isles
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I took my family on holiday here in 2008. We ate every evening meal out on a patio from where we could see puffins.
But the apparent tranquillity of the scene belied the dire events unfolding on the seabird cliffs around us.
This is the bleakest part of our journey. Nowhere else in the UK have seabirds fared so poorly.
On our Sumburgh Head reserve, many guillemots did not breed in 2008, and of those that did, many abandoned their eggs. Nine out of every 10 nests failed. Razorbills had just as disastrous a breeding season.
Kittiwakes were late laying, and many of the birds that started nest-building gave up. Only one kittiwake chick survived to fledge the nest.
We suspect that many birds did not even attempt to nest because there was not enough food for them to get into breeding condition. The evidence is growing that this food shortage is caused by climate change.
Breeding failure on this scale deeply worries me. Scotland's seabird colonies represent 80% of the Great Britain total – and about a third of these are found on the Shetland Isles alone.
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