FOR those who have been wondering where our dolphins have disappeared to this winter – it could be they have gone south on holiday.

A reader who was visiting East Lothian last month heard that a number of dolphins, thought to have come from the Moray Firth, had been spotted in the Firth of Forth.

It seems that an enthusiastic young French student, Marie Sabrases, who is a volunteer at the recently opened Scottish Seabird Centre at the harbour in the holiday resort of North Berwick, first saw the group of six adult bottle-nosed dolphins off the Bass Rock.

 She pointed them out to the Seabird Centre’s expert Bernie Ryan who said, “They appeared to be fishing, because they were weaving in an irregular course.” At one point the dolphins came to within a stone’s throw of the Centre, which has live cameras trained on various islands just off the coast at North Berwick, east of Edinburgh.

Mr Ryan believes that the dolphins came from the Moray Firth rather than from Cornwall where there is also a colony. “It is the best sighting of bottle-nosed dolphins in the Firth of Forth for many years,” he said.

Our reader commented, “Anyone that is in the area of North Berwick and has an interest in wildlife will find the Seabird Centre well worth a visit. I took my grand-daughter and we were both delighted – though we didn’t see the dolphins!”