On Friday night, the RSPB’s Chairman, Professor Steve Ormerod, gave a short talk to colleagues and partners who had gathered in County Antrim for the annual Council weekend timed to coincide with RSPB’s 50th anniversary of our work in Northern Ireland. 

We had just spent a memorable afternoon in the sunshine at Lough Beg in Seamus Heaney country (see below) walking through wet grassland to Church Island where we were greeted by a nesting pair of peregrine falcons and finally a moving visit to Heaney’s grave.

In his talk, Steve alluded to the huge tragedy in Heaney’s writing but also the huge sense of community, of heritage, and enormous celebration of the land and landscape of Northern Ireland.  He concluded by saying,

I re-read Digging this afternoon, one of Heaney’s most famous poems.

He reveres how beautifully his father digs potato drills and, before him, how his grandfather cut turf with skill, and strength and precision.

Heaney concludes he has no spade to follow men like them, but instead he feels how the pen sits snugly in his hand - and decides he'll dig with that.

We all dig with whatever implements we use the best:  therein lies the essence of partnership: of complementarity and synergy.

Working together for the common good of nature and our environment is reason enough to celebrate so I would like to say an enormous thank you to our partners and funders for the part you have played in helping us to dig over the last 50 years – and we would like to be at your side for the next 50.”

That sense of community and partnership was a constant theme throughout our weekend which included a visit to the sumptuous coastal heath and raucous seabird colonies of Rathlin Island (see below), curlew country of Glenwherry and our reserves at Portmore Lough and Belfast Harbour.

Our Council, which last visited in 2008, will have left with a sense that through our relationships with others, we were having real impact.  Thanks to our work with farmers and on our reserves breeding wader numbers are increasing, we have put the foundations in place to boost the recovery of threatened species like corncrake and chough, while the 150,000 seabirds that choose Rathlin as their home continue to inspire those that make the short trip to our new seabird centre which opened last year.

It is easy to think that everything is rosy when you are escorted to some of the best places for wildlife, welcomed with warmth, great stories and wonderful food.  But, wildlife in Northern Ireland, like across the UK, remains in trouble (with some species experiencing declines of up to 80% in my lifetime).   This is why we must continue to find innovate ways to inspire others – politicians, landowners and businesses - to use whatever tools they have to dig for nature.

One final postscript for those that care about these things...

As tradition dictates, we handed out a cup to the person that correctly predicted the number of species (of birds and mammals) seen during the Council visit.  This year, I fell agonisingly short underbidding by just two.  But I was happy that the cup went to safe hands of our Treasurer who correctly predicted that we would see 82 species.  But, there’s always next year when we shall return to Scotland.