Stories from Orkney

The RSPB has a tradition of organising annual Council weekends: opportunities for trustees and their spouses to visit a part of the UK to find out more about our work, get to know staff, explore some of the issues and compete with one another to predict the number of birds we see over a weekend (the result of this year's competition is at the end of this blog).

RSPB directors participate in these trips and since I joined the RSPB's Board we have visited south Wales, the English Midlands and Cumbria. This year, we were lucky enough to go to Orkney - the first such visit for over 40 years.

In just three days it is impossible to properly get to know a place.  And although we visited 8 sites in 72 hours we barely scratched the surface of what these islands offer.  Here are three short stories which illustrate some of the conservation challenges and opportunities...

1. The plight of the kittiwake

At our Marwick Head nature reserve on the west of Mainland, it was easy to be depressed and then angered by the 87% decline in kittiwakes since 2000.  It is a complex story but the bottom line is that there has been major disruption to the marine food web. Warming seas have led to changes in the distribution and timing of tiny plants - phytoplankton - which has affected the small animals - zooplankton - that feed on them.  In turn, this affects sand eels, the availability of which has an impact on the productivity of kittiwakes.  As a result, a cliff which would have been home to 10,000 kittiwakes a few years ago has now nearly fallen silent.

Marwick Head

Nationally, kittiwake numbers are plummeting as are other seabirds such as Arctic terns and Arctic skuas. Given the importance of Orkney, Scotland and the UK for seabirds, we need to step up our efforts to get to grips with the problem. Yes, we need to do what we can to improve our understanding of changing food supply, but we also need to press ahead with some no regrets options: designating Marine Protected Areas, ensuring development such as offshore windfarms avoid the most sensitive sites and doing what we can to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

2. Renewable energy in harmony with nature?

It is impossible to ignore the energy revolution that has taken place on Orkney.  Small windfarms are dotted over the islands and Mainland is also home to EMEC, champions of testing new marine energy devices such as Pelamis wave energy  technology.  Orkney is now a net exporter of energy (producing 103% of the energy it needs), is also home to 12.5% of all micro renewables. I think that there are important lessons to be learnt from the Orkney experience.  While there have been battles over location of windfarms and concerns do exist about overall environmental impact, my sense is that the revolution has taken place more or less in harmony with nature which is what we need if we want to wean ourselves of fossil fuels and get out the climate change mess we are in.

3. Hen harriers flourishing

It is a pleasant surprise to go to a moor and 'expect' to see hen harrier.  And we did see a male and a female on or close to our Birsay Moors reserve.  As the UK population of hen harriers declines (catastrophically in the case of England with no successful breeding attempts last year), the importance of the Orkney population grows - today it holds 25% of the UK population.  The success is down to hard work in getting the habitat management right. We'll continue to do what we can on the Orkney stronghold but will, as I plan to outline soon, step up efforts elsewhere.

4. Protecting the special

We saw one but dipped on the other.  Orkney is home to a decent population of the endemic Scottish primrose - a delightful plant that we saw at Yesnaby and one of our specialities at our North Hill nature reserve.  But we failed to see great yellow bumblebee near the Ring of Brogda (part of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site) where we are working hard with Historic Scotland to provide decent habitat.  With c15,000 species now found on our 210 nature reserves (14 of which are on Orkney), it was a great reminder of the responsibility we have to do what we can to help all wildlife on our land.

These stories simply reinforce the scale of the challenge facing our generation and the responsibility we have in working together to do what we can to make the difference. 

It was a privilege to be able to visit Orkney, meet dedicated colleagues and hear about the work we are doing in partnership across the island. While I may have been distracted for two hours by good things happening at Wembley between 5 and 7pm on Saturday, it was easy to absorb the wonder of these islands. 

And who won the prize for predicting the right number of species?

The Chairman, Professor Steve Ormerod - 85 (which this year included mammals of which we had four).  

Oh well, there is always next year when we visit SE England.