Introducing a new series of blogs from RSPB Scotland Conservation Scientists. First up is Emily Scragg, Senior Research Assistant with the Seabird Tracking And Research team on Colonsay.
Greetings from the STAR (Seabird Tracking And Research) team on Colonsay!
It is our fourth year here on the island (and my first) carrying out seabird tracking work with the previous three years tracking carried out as part of the Future of the Atlantic Marine Environment (FAME) project. This research aims to find out where UK seabirds are foraging in order to help inform the Marine Protected Area (MPA) designation process. Previous years tracking data is freely available to the public, policy makers and renewables companies at webgis.spea.pt/FAME. We encourage everyone to explore our ground-breaking results for themselves.
We are one of four STAR teams collecting data this year, with the others based on Orkney, Fair Isle and Rathlin (in addition to collaborating with people on the Isle of May, Skomer and Puffin Island).
Tessa and I are based on Colonsay for the next three months, a small island in the Southern Hebrides which is home to around 100 people, a general store, a bookshop and a brewery...what more could you want!? The landscape is comprised of a wide range of habitats from heather moorland to dunes, machair, sandy beaches and sea cliffs, and consequently has exceptionally rich biodiversity. Along with Islay it is the only place you can find breeding chough in Scotland.
We arrived here two weeks ago and have spent the time preparing for the field season ahead – this has involved a wide variety of tasks from re-acquainting ourselves with the locals (and the local cakes!) to cleaning and sorting equipment, reccing sites, and preparing the GPS tags we use on the birds.
The tags take quite a bit of sorting before they are ready: each must be charged and discharged at least twice, and then run through a series of tests to check that it is in full working order. We have over 150 tags so this is no mean feat! Fortunately we've been able to intersperse this with trips to the cliffs to re-familiarise ourselves with the sites and find out what the birds are up to – the short answer has so far been 'not much'. Shags are the first species we tag on Colonsay but we have to wait until they are settled on their nests incubating, and this year the onset of breeding for the shags appears to have been delayed. This could be due to the high winds and waves we've been experiencing. When breeding, When breeding, shags forage in shallower waters close to the colony and can find it difficult to feed when high winds cause turbulent waters.
On Monday we visited the local school to talk to them about our project and to try out the 'FAME game'. This involves sending the children to 'forage' for Sandeel fact cards whilst carrying one of the tags. We can then download the tracks from the tags and show them where they've been. With a class size of 3 (2 were off sick) it was a little intense but I think all of them had fun and learnt something about us and about the birds we study.
Aside from preparing for the field season we have been having fun at the island's Spring Festival. There have been a lot of talks and workshops on offer and we have been taking advantage of our relative free time to explore these fully! Spring is well underway on the island – we saw our first Cuckoo of the year last week and a Corncrake was heard yesterday in one of the fields near where we live. There are lambs gambolling everywhere you look and the Primroses are in bloom, as SpringWatch would have it “Spring has sprung”!
Our other teams have also been working hard: Team Rathlin has already tagged 3 birds on Great Saltee, team Orkney has been preparing for their first off-island trip and team Fair Isle have been playing it easy as their equipment only arrived on the ferry a few days ago! The advantage (or disadvantage) of once-a-week post. We will all be keeping you updated throughout the season with our progress.