North Ronaldsay Bird Observatory

Here in Orkney we are fortunate to have a comprehensive, quality weekly newspaper – unlike many places in the UK. It is The Orcadian, published every Thursday, and required reading if you live here.

This week The Orcadian published, on 10 April 2014, a short article I had written reporting the RSPB Orkney Local Group spring meeting, a talk by Alison Duncan about the North Ronaldsay Bird Observatory.

North Ronaldsay is the most northerly of the Orkney islands, and I urge you to visit if you get the chance.

Bluethroat at North Ronaldsay Bird Observatory (photo: Kevin Woodbridge)

Here is my article:

The vital work of North Ronaldsay Bird Observatory in monitoring and recording bird movement was the subject of the Spring Meeting of the RSPB Orkney Local Group.

Introducing the event at the St Magnus Centre, Kirkwall, Local Group Chairman Dick Matson described the observatory as a “fantastic resource”.

He welcomed Alison Duncan, Warden at the observatory for more than 25 years, who took the audience through a wonderful, colourful and sometimes surprising year in the island’s birdlife. Typically, 200 species are recorded in a year.

North Ronaldsay is one of a network of observatories around the UK, and is also part of The Bird Observatories Council.

The island, four miles long and up to two miles wide, attracts many migrating birds looking to make landfall for rest and food.

Alison described how the observatory, established in 1987, counts all birds over the whole island, not just rarities, to build up a picture of long-term monitoring. The island is divided into six zones in order to collect data.

Birds are also caught in traps and nets to allow for ringing and further research.

North Ronaldsay’s habitat includes croft land, grassland and scattered homes with small gardens, each with one or two bushes which prove attractive to birds, and the laird’s house with its large garden which is a magnet for them.

Wild flower crop is planted to encourage birds – it is particularly good for twite – and other cover such as New Zealand flax is grown. Willow cuttings and even old wooden pallets are used to create more shelter.

There are several areas of wetland on North Ronaldsay which is great for wildfowl such as shoveler, pintail and gadwall.

The geese population is increasing, like elsewhere in Orkney. But Arctic terns, once one of the most common breeding birds on the island, are now in decline as are corncrakes. 

Another problem is feral cats which predate tystie (black guillemot) chicks.

The observatory also looks out for other wildlife including moths and butterflies, and sea life such as grey and common seals or basking sharks. Orcas are sometimes seen in large groups and, famously, a walrus visited the island in 2013.

Among the birds which might be seen on North Ronaldsay at different times of the year are white-tailed eagle, great tit, hawfinch, sparrowhawk, bluethroat, golden oriole, red-backed shrike, spoonbill, cuckoo, pied flycatcher, Arctic warbler, nightjar, yellow-browed warbler, lesser kestrel, great spotted woodpecker (which often work on fence posts), grey phalarope, firecrest, Iceland gull and, just recently, a glossy ibis.

Alison said everyone from bird experts to beginners comes to North Ronaldsay where they can take advantage of the accommodation provided at the observatory – guest house, hostel and camping. Many visitors come to see the North Ronaldsay sheep grazing on the seaweed on the foreshore.

At the end of the meeting a vote of thanks to Alison Duncan was proposed by Jim Williams.

North Ronaldsay Bird Observatory publishes its own bird report, and has a blog and Facebook and Twitter presence. For more information, go to the website: http://www.nrbo.co.uk.

+ The meeting was also told by RSPB Local Group Chairman Dick Matson that £460 had recently been donated to the work of the RSPB in Orkney. This money, from collections and raffles, was in addition to £1672.33 that the Local Group raised bag collecting last year at Tesco and Co-op in Kirkwall.

To find out more

North Ronaldsay Bird Observatory

Wikipedia: North Ronaldsay

The Bird Observatories Council

The Orcadian

Discover Orkney

What, no badgers?

Hooded crow chicks in Rousay, Orkney (photo: Kathie Touin)

One of the big UK environmental controversies of 2013 was the badger cull in parts of England. But there was no fuss here in Orkney – we do not have badgers.

Orcadian wildlife is very different to what we experienced when we lived in England and many of our visitors, while delighted with what they see, are surprised to discover what is not here.

For new readers to this blog, Orkney is made up of about 70 islands situated off the north coast of Scotland – beyond Land’s End but before you get to the UK’s last outpost, Shetland. We are not in the Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland as some imagine.

I should also say that I am passionate about the natural world, and I work for the RSPB as a volunteer and occasional part-timer, but I am not an expert. So if you are an expert you might want to read a different blog to this one. And, for clarity, I do not write on behalf of the RSPB.

Orkney is rightly celebrated for its wildlife and visitors come here to see, amongst others, grey seals, harbour (or common) seals, puffins, great skuas, hen harriers and wide open scenery with no trees.

But what do we not have? As I said, no badgers. And no deer, or foxes. We don’t even have squirrels, grey or red.

Our biggest wild mammals on land are hedgehogs (a fairly recent introduction), rats (sorry), and various mice and voles. We also have some stoats, a very recent introduction, and because of the danger to Orkney’s ground-nesting birds they are trapped where possible.

Of these land mammals the most celebrated is the Orkney vole which, we are now told, originated in Belgium – though long before the land there was known as Belgium. These lovely little critters, found nowhere else in the UK, probably arrived with early farmers or traders more than 5,000 years ago.

If you move into the seas around Orkney there are some bigger, in fact, much bigger, mammals. As well as seals you might be lucky enough to see dolphins, porpoises, or, for the really lucky, whales – of which perhaps the most regularly seen are orcas, or killer whales.

When we lived in London we, of course, did not see whales. They were not common in Ealing.

But we regularly saw foxes, sometimes quite close by in the street as we staggered back from an evening in the pub and the Indian restaurant. Once I was woken in the early hours by a commotion outside – it was a group of fox cubs chasing a large empty plastic bottle down the street and under the parked cars.

One of the most familiar birds in England is the magpie. Despite the 21st century gloss that we wear, many people are still very superstitious of these birds. Folk also wrongly blame them for a decline in song birds. I always thought magpies stunning in appearance and very clever. I love them. But magpies are so rare in Orkney that if one is seen it is worthy of note. Now when we visit England it is exciting to see these sharp-suited black-and-white characters.

Another regular bird in Ealing, and gradually spreading out from south-east England, is the ring-necked parakeet. These Indian migrants have colonised large areas of London. My wife Kathie Touin and I loved to see them. In fact, when we were watching the Antiques Roadshow from Richmond Park on TV recently, Kathie realised the noises in the background were ring-necked parakeets.

Instead here in Orkney we regularly see, depending on the time of year, great skuas, hen harriers, lapwings, short-eared owls, hooded crows, curlew, eider ducks and fulmars, to name just a few. And there are many other beautiful, exciting species to be found if you have a little time and patience.

We have large numbers of greylag geese – in fact, Orkney now has so large a resident population of these birds that in the past two summers there has been a cull to reduce numbers because of the damage they can cause.

Our visitors are also surprised to discover there are trees in Orkney. We do not have large numbers of trees, certainly no forests, but there are some significant if small woods. I understand Orkney was once covered in trees but, once man had largely removed them, it was not easy for them to grow back.

In the small field we own next to our house we have a number of trees planted by the previous owners to which we have added more. Many are very small, the wind stops them growing quickly, and some varieties do better than others, but I guess we have perhaps 40 or 50 trees. I must count them.

Given good health I hope to see these trees grow to a reasonable size in my life-time but planting trees is very much a commitment to other people’s futures. I wonder if we can phrase our will in a way that will stop the field becoming a housing site, placed as it is between our house and a new one being built on the other side?

To find out more

RSPB Orkney Facebook –
https://www.facebook.com/RspbOrkney

RSPB Orkney blog –
http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/placestovisit/orkney/b/orkney-blog/default.aspx

RSPB: Birds by name –
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/

BBC Radio 4 Tweet Of The Day: podcasts –
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/totd

BBC Radio 4 Tweet Of The Day: Ring-necked parakeet –
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03mztpj

Orkney vole ‘came from Belgium with farmers 5,000 years ago’ –
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-23942934

Kathie Touin blog on seal spotting –
http://kathietouin.wordpress.com/2013/11/18/invasion-of-cute-fluffy-things/

Gloucestershire badger cull pilot fails to hit 70% target –
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-25183258