Helen Moncrieff drops us a line from Mousa, an RSPB reserve lying about a mile east of the southern mainland of Shetland, famous for it's Iron Age broch, seals and of course seabirds. Unlike Sumburgh Head, there isn't towering sea cliffs. Instead there is a subtle mosaic of tidal pools, maritime heath, machair and moorland. Being free from ground predators (except otters), it provides an ideal breeding site for Arctic terns.
Helen recently visited Mousa with the Shetland Conservation Volunteers and the Ness Under 14s football team. This is her story:
Mousa is an uninhabited island, accessible by boat. On the ferry crossing, we watched hundreds of Arctic terns (or tirricks as they are known in Shetland), feeding on sandeels in Mousa Sound. Every now and then, an awesome aerobatic display would be performed in front of us, as an Arctic skua would chase a tern to try and steal its' fish. This is one of my favourite summer scenes. Sandeels are an important food for many of our breeding seabirds and part of a fragile marine food web. Our researchers are looking at the connection between the warming sea temperatures and impact on sandeel numbers. But judging by the immense numbers of Arctic terns feeding in the Mousa area, and what I've been hearing from local fishermen, it looks like there are good numbers sandeels in our waters at the moment. This makes me optimistic.
However, experience has taught me that just because it looks good at this time of year doesn't mean that we'll see many fledged young. In 2008 for example, after a promising start not a single tern chick fledged on Mousa. This was due to a two week period when the terns couldn't seem to find fish to feed their tiny chicks. Here's hoping that the abundant sandeels remain through the breeding season and I'll keep you up-to-date with their story. Now, what are the local young football team doing on Mousa? THey were undertaking Da Voar Redd Up. Da Voar Redd Up translates as The Spring Clean, and every year in Shetland thousands of volunteers take to the roadsides and beaches to remove the rubbish that has accumulated. Much of the rubbish on Mousa comes from the sea, although there is evidence of visitors who cannot be bothered to take their litter home with them. Naughty naughty! Plastic bottles and containers made up the majority of the pollution, with netting, rope, polystyrene and stuff relating to marine industries making up the rest. It is ever so vexing to see such rubbish, particularly with the knowledge that seabirds and sea mammals can die from being entangled in netting, and also that fulmars eat small pieces of plastic having confused them with plankton. The RSPB is grateful to all who helped, and Mousa looks all the better for it. A tern colony had established at one area, so we will wait til after the breeding season so not to disturb the birds (whose defence strategy is to noisily attack you, dropping the occassional "bomb"), and leave their eggs open to predation by gulls and skuas. We were also accompanied by the Shetland Conservation Volunteers, and our new local volunteer Rebecca. Our job for the day was to measure out potential storm petrel habitat. Storm petrels, known locally as Alamooties, breed in boulder beaches and scree, but also in man made structures such as dry-stone dykes and even the 2000 year old Mousa Broch! Our task was to measure the walls and record the collapsed sections. It was a case of many hands make light work, and we really appreciate the help we get from the Volunteers. I was rather delighted as I heard my first storm petrels of 2009. The late Bobby Tulloch compared their churring call to the sound of "a fairy being sick!" I look forwards immensley to going on a special night trip to Mousa to see Britain's smallest seabird returning to the broch - Britains biggest bird box.
There is never a dull moment at a seabird colony, be it the drama of a skua chasing a tern or the tranquility of watching a kittiwakes in the evening light. Do try and visit a seabird colony as soon as you can - nature is good for you!