The Orcadian Features - So that's what the birdieman does . . .

So that's what the birdieman does . . .
By Eric Meek
(From The Orcadian dated May 23, 2002)

Sea cliffs at Marwick, Birsay.

In this, the first of a series of short articles, I hope to introduce you to the work of the RSPB in Orkney. Why do the Society have an Orkney presence? What does our day-to-day work involve? What issues do we get involved in? Future articles will concentrate on our individual nature reserves scattered round a dozen localities on eight different islands. But on this occasion, I would like to look back on some history and examine the general philosophy behind the RSPB’s work here in the islands.

When Eddie Balfour became the first paid Orkney Officer of the RSPB in 1954, little could he have imagined how the involvement of the society with the islands would grow. Nor could he have imagined how his first tentative steps towards establishing a reserve for birds (at Cottascarth in Rendall in 1971) would be the start of a process which would protect so much valuable habitat and biodiversity. However, he was in no doubt as to the processes which had been set in train in the Orkney environment, which brought about the need for such reserves for, in 1972, he wrote:

“Everywhere, even in Orkney, bits of natural habitat are being despoiled . . . Now is the time to stop the eroding away of our natural heritage, our fauna and flora, and their habitats whether it be loch, marsh, moorland or sea-shore.”

Through the efforts of Eddie Balfour and, subsequently, his successor David Lea, the foundation for the society’s network of Orkney reserves had already been laid by the time I came to work for the RSPB in January 1981. Four important natural habitats had been identified and efforts made to represent each of these in the reserves network. Sea-cliffs, with their teeming colonies of sea-birds, especially Guillemots and Kittiwakes, were represented by the Noup Cliffs on Westray, Copinsay (acquired as a memorial to the seabird aficionado, the late James Fisher) and Marwick Head in the West Mainland. Although not under threat as a habitat, the cliffs did hold species that were perceived to be at risk from the then burgeoning North Sea oil industry. The acquisition of these sites as reserves allowed them to act as showcases, directing the attention of the public to the issues involved.

Orkney’s maritime heaths represent a habitat found, in this form, only along the archipelago’s western and southern seaboards and at a few sites along the northern coast of mainland Scotland. Their vegetation is dominated by dwarf shrubs such as Heather, Crowberry and Creeping Willow admixed with lots of sedges and flowering herbs including the famous Scottish Primrose. Most folk will probably know such areas best from visits to Yesnaby and, indeed, that whole area has more recently been proposed as a Special Area of Conservation under European legislation. However, the RSPB reserve representing this habitat type is the North Hill of Papay where, since 1976, the RSPB has had an agreement with the shareholders of the common grazings that the site should be managed as a nature reserve. Each summer we employ a warden to reside on the island, monitoring the breeding birds, which include Orkney’s largest Arctic Tern colony and up to 100 pairs of Arctic Skuas, and having a major input into showing visitors around the reserve.

A hill lochan on the Birsay moors.

The marshes and wetlands of the islands are renowned for their numbers and variety of ducks and waders., In the late 1970s, the society had the foresight to begin acquiring parts of The Loons in Birsay, the most outstanding wetland site to have survived the post-war era of drainage. Perhaps the most famous denizen of this site is the Pintail, a beautiful duck with no more than 40 pairs nesting in the whole of Britain; five pairs regularly nest on The Loons, a quarter of all those in Britain!

Hill ground or moorland formed by far the largest part of the land managed by the society when I inherited the post of Orkney Officer from David Lea and will continue to do so. Moorland birds, especially birds of prey, require large home ranges in which to hunt and therefore large areas of protected land are a prerequisite for their conservation. By 1981, extensive areas in Birsay and in Orphir had been added to Cottascarth in Rendall to form a core area of hill ground that could not be lost to the then still ongoing process of agricultural improvement under which so many thousands of acres of this habitat had already disappeared. Birds such as the Hen Harrier, whose Orkney population was made world-famous by the work and writings of Eddie Balfour, the Merlin and the Short-eared Owl could continue to find suitable areas in which to nest and feed.

Shortly after I came to the islands, negotiations for the acquisition of a large area of mountain, moorland and sea-cliff on Hoy that had been under way for some years finally came to fruition amidst a degree of understandable controversy as this one reserve more than doubled the society’s land holding in Orkney. Since then, the amount of new land acquired as reserves has been relatively modest, at least in terms of its overall acreage. No new sea-cliff or maritime heath sites have been added. We are, however, very proud of a fabulous wetland site at the Mill Dam on Shapinsay, while we have begun to piece together other wetland reserves at the Loch of Banks in Birsay and at the Stromness Loons. Perhaps, more than any other habitat in the islands, it is wetland that is currently most under threat. Our moorland holdings have been added to by acquiring more ground around the periphery of the existing sites in Birsay and Evie, by extending our interest onto the lower lying mosses of Rendall and Firth and by the purchase of a large block of hill ground from the Trumland estate on Rousay. Perhaps most significant, however, has been a move away from the acquisition of natural habitat to the acquisition of farmland in the form of the Onziebust reserve on Egilsay. Here, we are battling to try to retain the Corncrake as a breeding bird in Orkney by re-creating those essential elements of its habitat needs which have been removed by modern farming methods.

Future articles will look at each of our reserves in turn and examine in more detail just why they have been created and what it is that is special about them. Our wardens will also look at the management techniques we are employing in order to retain and enhance their interest. But apart from our reserves work, what else are we doing in order to try to conserve Orkney’s natural heritage? Having long ago handed over the day to day running of our reserves to my colleague, Keith Fairclough, it is on these other aspects of the society’s work that I now concentrate.

Up-to-date information on our bird populations is an essential tool in their conservation and it is part of my role to organise surveys and research in order that we have such data at our fingertips. In recent years we have, for example, run special surveys of our breeding terns and skuas, our Corncrakes, and the wintering waterfowl in the internationally important site of Scapa Flow, while a three-year research project was set up to look at the reasons behind the decline of our Hen Harrier population. Volunteers provide their services on a monthly basis to survey 30 beaches, monitoring them for the effects of oil pollution, their returns being collated and analysed by our secretary, Morag Wilson.

A red-throated diver.

Another branch of our work is sometimes referred to as ‘conservation planning’. This involves keeping an eye on all the planning applications passing through OIC and making comments on those that we feel might be damaging to the natural heritage interest. Although not yet wholly subject to the planning process, fish-farm applications would come into this category although, at present, it is wind-farm developments that are taking up most time – I am currently dealing with no fewer than eight such proposals! We try our level best not to object to such developments and, in fact, rarely do, preferring to make recommendations to mitigate any damaging effects. Occasionally, however, we feel that we have no alternative but to object. One recent example being to the proposed timing for the replacement of a wind generator on Burgar Hill within 100 metres of a Red-throated Diver breeding site. There, despite a condition of the planning consent for the original development stipulating winter working, the developer insisted on the replacement work taking place in the middle of the breeding season!

Although our resources are limited, we also try to get involved as much as possible in educational work. In the past we have employed various contract workers to have input into Orkney’s schools, and this coming year we are hoping to be able to employ a part-time field teacher to help out with school environmental projects and field trips. We also venture into the field of what might be called ‘adult education’, giving talks and slide shows on the natural history of Orkney and a variety of other subjects to a plethora of groups as diverse as the Papay Camera Club and the Flotta Over 50s! We enjoy that immensely and hope that they do too!

These, then, are the sorts of things with which we are involved. I hope that, in subsequent weeks, you’ll enjoy learning a little more about our reserves and how you can enjoy visiting them.