Birds
Ready food supplies and shelter attract many kinds of birds to sea lochs. Some breed around the sea lochs but many more stay during winter before returning to breeding grounds in colder lands further north. Amongst the most evocative sea loch bird is the grey heron, standing solitary and hunched with spear-like beak ready to strike at fish in the shallows. Herons defend their territories and are often spaced at approximately one kilometre intervals along the shore. The reintroduction of the white-tailed sea eagle means that this magnificent bird can once again be seen soaring above the waters of some of the more remote sea lochs.
Various diving ducks, including eider, goldeneye and merganser are common in some sea lochs. Eider may also breed on offshore islands and feed mainly on mussels, so are attracted to mussel farms.
Sea lochs do not attract the huge numbers of waders found on the extensive mud flats in more open estuaries such as the Moray and Solway Firths. There are a number of typical sea loch species; most often seen are the noisy, red-beaked oystercatchers, curlew with their long, curved beaks, long-legged redshank and small sandpipers.
Herring gulls often feed on sea loch shores dropping sea urchins or whelks from a height onto rocks to break their shells. Other gulls dip and terns plunge dive for shoaling fish near the surface, while shags, cormorants and tysties (black guillemots) swim to the seabed in pursuit of bottom dwelling and shoaling fish.