Its about this time of year that the first hard evidence of how the season has been for our priority bird species begins to arrive in our offices. Warden staff on our reserves across Scotland are updating this year’s breeding season data, and off our reserves the conservation staff are now beginning to get a snapshot of what’s been happening in wider areas. This is always something I await with keen interest, because its ‘bums on nests’ and successful fledging we are after! Birds are amazingly resilient and are adapted to withstand bad weather, predation or other causes of nest failure. But prolonged cold wet weather is about as challenging as it gets for most of our birds. So at best 2012 is going to be a mixed picture.
Early in the season cold, drying winds from the high latitudes swept the North and West and kept grass growth in check, and this delayed the arrival of corncrakes. We now know these birds winter in West Africa, and migrate back across the Sahara and up the western seaboard of Europe to reach their breeding grounds in the Hebrides. On arrival the cold conditions and late grass growth on Tiree, Coll, Islay and Colonsay meant that corncrakes struggled. I anticipate 2012 will not be their best year – but it’s certainly not a disaster. In contrast – and somewhat surprisingly perhaps, Lapwings have done well. Many of the early broods of waders survived and fledgling rates on places as diverse as Loch Leven, Loch Gruinart on Islay and the reef on Tiree have seen plenty of chicks fledge, including this very cute ringed plover with it’s chicks. My visit to Alastair Robb’s farm in June confirmed this as he had plenty of lapwing and redshank broods.
Photo: John Bowler
Seabirds have had a mixed season. Once again Arctic terns on Shetland have struggled, with sandeels so scarce many did not bother to even lay eggs. In contrast reports from Argyll indicate healthy and active colonies. On Tiree our warden John Bowler was delighted to find over 50 pairs of Little terns nesting, producing plenty of young. This scarce species is now a rare breeder in Scotland and elsewhere, and Tiree is a stronghold.
Choughs seem to be faring well with 11 fledged chicks on our Oa reserve on Islay, with a further 3 pairs (up 1) on Smaull farm which we also manage with a local grazier.
On Shetland the beautiful red-necked phalaropes on Fetlar and nearby islands have increased this year – especially on areas we are managing for them. The totals are not yet in but it would look to be over 25 breeding males –the best for a while.
But the bad weather has had serious impacts. Red grouse across Scotland lost eggs or young broods to the cold wet weather, so there are fewer fledged broods at Abernethy this year. Similarly we anticipate Black grouse in the Highlands will have suffered. Reports of Capercaillie broods are also few and far between – hit by the heavy rains in early June which is a critical time for them. At our reserve at Loch Leven great crested grebes had their nests flooded out, as did many coots and other species on the Loch shore.
At home in Edinburgh I have seen fledged Song thrushes in the garden, family parties of Long tailed tits and even saw a roving family group of Crossbills (which are early breeders), so some of our passerines are doing better than expected. At our offices in the Gyle Edinburgh a pair of Pied wagtails fledged two young in a flower pot! A small brood – and late - perhaps a second attempt?
Birds of prey have had mixed fortunes too. In the North and far West, where it has been drier things have gone well. But the cold wet weather in the East and South has made life tough. Broods are small, or nests have failed. At Loch Garten one Osprey chick succumbed early on, though two healthy chicks remain. At the RBGE our Sparrowhawks only have two young left with a bigger bird eating its smaller sibling! A sign these dashing hawks are finding hunting difficult.
The Red kite monitoring indicates early broods have done fairly well, but brood size seems down on past years. Watch the Aberdeen Red kite web cam here.
So that’s an early taster – hard work managing habitats, working with farmers and graziers, guarding sensitive nest sites and liaising with land owners can all be swept away, literally in an instant, by the weather. But our job is to give birds and all the species we care for their best shot.