Bird buffs risk perils of the Sule
Annual pilgrimage to record puffin population on isolated isle
By Lorraine Shearer
(From The Orcadian dated October 17, 2002)

Some of the thousands of puffins, which litter the rocky crevices and burrows on Sule Skerry, are ringed for monitoring purposes. (All pictures: Bob Anderson)

With the words “Beware the Sule” ringing in your ears, it’s hard to imagine why anyone would want to risk the journey to an isolated island in the middle of what can be treacherous waters off Orkney.

But for a group of bird ringers, it is a pilgrimage that has been made almost every summer since 1975 to Sule Skerry, which lies 45 miles west of Stromness.

They are not paid for their services and don’t get any thanks for their work – least of all from the subjects of their study – so, why is the visit so appealing?

One of the trip’s co-ordinators, Adrian Blackburn, from Retford in Nottinghamshire, explained that their annual visit to ring the island’s puffin population, had become something of a vocation.

“The main purpose of our visit is to monitor the sea birds on the island of Sule Skerry. This year we ringed 5,000 birds, mostly puffins, which means that since we first started we have ringed around 100,000 puffins, which is about half the total ever ringed in the UK,” he said.

Somewhat amazingly, puffins which were ringed on the first visit in 1975, were recaptured this July.

“The record at the moment for the oldest puffin is 32 years, but that is not the norm. We managed to recapture 12 puffins which were ringed 27 years ago, so that is quite something,” Adrian, a retired teacher, said.

The wooden huts on Sule Skerry which provided shelter for cooking and equipment in what can be horrendous weather conditions on the island.

This year’s 12-strong group, who sailed for five hours to reach the Skerry on board the Stromness dive boat Halton, succeeded, for what is believed to have been the first time, in accessing the south hump of the skerry’s neighbouring stack.

Despite the near perfect weather conditions, the journey from the boat’s inflatable onto the skerry and stack was a precarious one. One false move and they risked being engulfed within the large swell.

Once on the stack, three of the group managed to ring almost 100 gannet chicks and adults. However attempts to get on the north hump were abandoned.

Other members of the group included, co-ordinator Dave Budworth, Mike Archer, Stuart Newsome, Mick A’Court, Garry Barker, Candice Smith, Mark Grantham, Kevin Leighton, Roger Taylor, Jackie Savery and Barry Williams.

The group were of different ages and backgrounds – with a common love of the environment.

As well as the puffins, guillemots and razorbills are also ringed, giving a good indication of the condition of the sea and fish population. Using mist nets, the adults are intercepted as they fly around the island, although some can be caught while in their burrows.

Some of the bird ringers catch their first glimpse of the hundreds, maybe even thousands, of gannets which nest on Sule Stack.

Adrian explained: “They did have a problem in Norway where the puffins had several years when they did not produce chicks at all. They thought it was because of over-fishing. The puffins feed on sand eels and people thought the eels had been over-fished for fish meal.”

He first became interested in monitoring Sule Skerry in particular because, he said, Orcadians seemed almost fearful of the island.

“Some presumably had ancestors who drowned in shipwrecks off the skerry and they seem frightened of it – that was certainly the situation on the 1970s. When we tried to get a boat to take us to the island, they would say ‘there’s no way we’re going to that sule’ and ‘beware the Sule’.”

The skerry, which is home to a lighthouse – automated in recent years – measures around three quarters of a mile long and quarter of a mile wide. According to former lighthouse keepers, the seas were so treacherous during the winter months that spray would literally rise over the top of the island.

The peat surface of Sule Skerry is mottled with the thousands of burrows dug by the puffins to lay their eggs.

The Atlantic or common puffin as it is known, has a distinctive striped bill, breeds in the spring in colonies on islands, and spends the winter at sea.

The Stromness dive boat, Halton, is anchored near the Sule Skerry lighthouse during a trip to ring the island's puffin population.

Some of the ringed puffins have reached the far-flung reaches of Newfoundland, the Azores and the Canary Islands, caught up in fishing nets. And there are concerns for the survival of the thousands of puffins on Sule Skerry.

Adrian said: “Because of the dry summers, the soil which they burrow into may gradually become eroded. It is peat soil and not windproof. The Sea Mayweed, the main plant on the island, is not growing as efficiently as in the past, because the rooting system is not going to be so deep and, again the soil is becoming eroded. If that does happen it can lead to the demise of the colony.”

When on the island, the group, who self-fund their trip, usually camp out whatever the weather. But there are wooden huts, erected in the 1890s for the workmen who built the lighthouse, in case of emergencies. They use the huts to cook in and for storing supplies, such as food, water and equipment.

The information gathered throughout the past 27 years has been stored on computer and will be analysed soon, Adrian said.

“From that we will see what the survival is and information on their movements,” he concluded.

It was a new dive boat operator to Stromness, Bob Anderson, who ferried the group to the skerry. Instead of leaving them there isolated for a week, he chose to anchor off the island and stay himself.

“It was a fair old logistical exercise getting them there in the first place,” Bob said. “The weather conditions have to be favourable. It is about half an hour in between the skerry and the stack. It took something like 20 runs to get the bird ringers and all their supplies and equipment ashore in the inflatable.”

While the bird ringers do pay their own costs, they say any sponsorship money would be appreciated from local businesses.

Anyone interested in helping to fund the trip can contact Adrian Blackburn via e.mail on blackburns@suleska.freeserve.co.uk.

A puffin is carefully removed from the mist nets on Sule Skerry prior to being ringed by volunteer Jackie Savery.	Mick A'Court rings one of the puffins.	A successful landing, believed to be the first ever, on the southern hump of the Sule Stack, which lies 45 miles off Stromness.