The Last Seabird Summer? Loving coast, and the spring spectacle of thousands of seabirds coming to sea-cliffs to breed, I feel forlorn at the prospect of their loss. On the Outer Hebrides in June and July, I sensed a change. Perhaps our visit was a little later in the season than previously, but there were fewer birds. Writer Adam Nicolson spent a summer living with seabirds on the Shiant Islands which his has known since boyhood, when his father bought the islands
The BBC 4 documentary: Last of the Seabirds? Follows his summer studying the breeding colonies. The RSPB has spent £1 million on eradicating the black rat which eats eggs and chicks. The programme visited the island of Grimsey, off the north coast of Iceland, where seabird colonies still thrive. And Marwick Head, those magnificent cliffs on Orkney- once home to thousands and thousands of breeding seabirds. The loss of kittiwake here is stark; some 95% since the 1980s . The next programme will examine the health of the Atlantic, the summer fishing- zones for surface-feeding kittiwake.
Sailing home from the Outer Hebrides in July, we saw the profile of the Shiant Islands and I spied the only puffins of the trip, and gannet fishing.
It is eight years since I last visited Orkney, and the sea cliffs at Marwick Head. Kittiwakes nest on the high cliffs, but there has been a massive drop in numbers.
Sailing home from the Outer Hebrides in July, we saw the profile of the Shiant Islands and I spied the only puffins of the trip, and gannet fishing.
It is eight years since I last visited Orkney, and the sea cliffs at Marwick Head. Kittiwakes nest on the high cliffs, but there has been a massive drop in numbers.
Colonies of breeding guillemot, razorbill, kittiwake and shag at Marwick Head, Orkney 2008
Close to the cliffs at Marwick Head we found puffin on rocks jutting out from the cliff- face. Solitude, with thousands of seabirds. Amongst the pink flowers of thrift there was a shallow ditch where we settled down on puffin watch. Puffin are confiding birds and they seemed entirely unconcerned by our presence. We had a long, leisurely while to observe the birds as strong winds buffeted fulmar about the cliff-face.
Conservation is Adam Nicolson’s focus. He aims to grow the colonies of seabirds on the Shiants as a resource to export to Scottish coast where they are depleted. His next programme will investigate the health of the feeding zones out at sea.
I recommend his book Sea Room, a history and natural history of the Shiant Islands.
My last read was his book Earls of Paradise, England and the Dream of Perfection. A study of the Pembroke family at Wilton House near Salisbury and the concept of Arcadia developed by Philip Sidney and his sister Mary, Countess of Pembroke. My particular interest in rereading was in Lady Anne Clifford, Countess of Pembroke in the mid-17th century. She lived during turbulent times, when Wilton saw Civil War and plague. I had looked into her Great Book of Record to discover what she had to say about life at Pendragon Castle in the Eden Valley: one of the castles of her northern Clifford inheritance. Not a lot, is the short answer. My chamber at Pendragon looks south west. A disappointing lack of detail. She's much better on family members who were born and died in a particular chamber in her castles.
Conservation is Adam Nicolson’s focus. He aims to grow the colonies of seabirds on the Shiants as a resource to export to Scottish coast where they are depleted. His next programme will investigate the health of the feeding zones out at sea.
I recommend his book Sea Room, a history and natural history of the Shiant Islands.
My last read was his book Earls of Paradise, England and the Dream of Perfection. A study of the Pembroke family at Wilton House near Salisbury and the concept of Arcadia developed by Philip Sidney and his sister Mary, Countess of Pembroke. My particular interest in rereading was in Lady Anne Clifford, Countess of Pembroke in the mid-17th century. She lived during turbulent times, when Wilton saw Civil War and plague. I had looked into her Great Book of Record to discover what she had to say about life at Pendragon Castle in the Eden Valley: one of the castles of her northern Clifford inheritance. Not a lot, is the short answer. My chamber at Pendragon looks south west. A disappointing lack of detail. She's much better on family members who were born and died in a particular chamber in her castles.
There has been significant loss of seabirds at Marwick since I took these pictures in 2008. I particularly like the back view of a fulmar buoyed by the wind. The penultimate image shows the breeding colonies on a cliff face, and the rocks where the puffin gathered. When I took these pictures I had only a compact camera, so you can tell how close we were. These days I have a more powerful camera but with the decline in seabirds photographs would be more difficult to find.
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