Loch Eye

Also within

Ross and Cromarty County

Condition (NatureScot)

Birds & fish recorded

Birds

Description

Loch Eye Loch Eye is a shallow lowland loch located between the Cromarty and Dornoch Firths, approximately 4km east of Tain. The loch is one of only a small number of nutrient-rich (eutrophic) lochs within the Highlands and is the best example of this type in the Moray Firth lowlands. The site is also notified for its wintering birds. The chemistry of the water is such that plant communities characteristic of both nutrient-rich and nutrient-poor conditions are present. The loch has a profuse growth of aquatic plants which cover over 90% of the loch bottom. The loch supports at least twenty-four open water plant species and thirty-four edge species. Most notably ten pondweed species have been recorded, including the nationally rare Shetland pondweed, Potamogeton rutilus, the nationally scarce slender-leaved pondweed, Potamogeton filiformis, and a number of locally scarce species. Other open water species include the near threatened lesser water plantain, Baldellia ranunculoides, whilst edge species include the locally rare greater spearwort, Ranunculus lingua. In winter the loch is also an important roosting site for greylag goose and whooper swan, which move between the loch and the Cromarty and Dornoch Firths. Numbers of these species reach national significance in most winters.

Species mentioned