What’s been top in 2017 – nature highlights from the year
With the end of 2017 rapidly approaching we thought we’d take a look back at some of our nature highlights over the past year. There’s been so much happening this year you can’t help but be inspired to get out exploring Scotland and seeing some incredible wildlife!
Winter thrills
The start of the year kicked off with some great news about the Galloway Kite Trail; a new report found that people visiting Dumfries and Galloway to see the region's red kites had contributed over £8.2m to the local economy. The trail, a partnership project between RSPB Scotland, Forestry Commission Scotland and Bellymack Hill Farm, has been running since 2003 and is a great place to look for these spectacular birds which were reintroduced to this area in 2001. Why not pay it a visit? Details can be found here.
Big Garden Birdwatch returned for its 38th year at the end of January. Over 35,000 people took part in Scotland and counted 626,184 birds – amazing! While house sparrows remained at the top of the results it was some colourful visitors that caught many people’s attention. This year saw an ‘irruption’ of waxwings with these birds seen in around nine times more gardens in 2017 compared to previous years in Scotland due to the berry crop failing in their native Scandinavia. Registration for next year’s Big Garden Birdwatch opens on 13th December so get yourself signed up and ready to count!
Spring is sprung
Springing into the warmer season brought some toad-ly brilliant news about one of Scotland’s rarest species. Natterjack toads are only found in Scotland on the Solway Firth, including at our Mersehead reserve. For three years a project here focused on trying to increase their numbers with new shallow ponds created for them to breed in. And it worked! The numbers of breeding natterjack toads recorded had increased by 400 per cent to 150 toads by the end of the project in 2016.
The Isle of Tiree had some record breaking visitors this April when 2,270 black-tailed godwits arrived, the highest number thought to have ever been counted in Scotland at one time and double the previous record of 1,320 birds in 2013. Typically, a few hundred godwits are seen here each year. They often stop off in the Hebrides in April and May to refuel during their long migration to Iceland, where they breed, and are very distinctive in their brick-red finery.
There were celebrations at RSPB Scotland Abernethy as it was named Nature Reserve of the Year in the BBC Countryfile Magazine Awards Competition 2017. The reserve, which stretches from the woods north of Nethybridge to the summit of Ben Macdui, is home to around 5,000 species of wildlife including capercaillies, eagles and wildcats. Call in for a visit and experience this incredible place for yourself.
Summer spots
It was a summer of discovery for rare insects in the Cairngorms. Rare Invertebrates in the Cairngorms, a three year partnership project between RSPB Scotland, Cairngorms National Park Authority, Buglife, Butterfly Conservation Scotland and Scottish Natural Heritage, launched earlier in the year to save six of Scotland's rarest invertebrates. All of the species were successfully surveyed and located this summer, including for a first for Scotland; footage of a small scabious mining bee entering its burrow was recorded. Discover more about this project and how you can be involved on its Facebook page.
Project Puffin captured the imagination of many of you this spring and summer. This project, supported by a £50,000 award from the Heritage Lottery Fund, sought to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing puffin conservation. A number of these colourful seabirds were tracked to find out where they were going to feed, and a census on Shetland also took place. The Puffarazzi part of the project received an overwhelming response – our call for snaps of puffins with fish in their bills resulted in more than 600 people sending in over 1400 photos from around the UK! These will help scientists discover more about what food sources are available for puffins. Find out more on the project here.
News of an old friend brought a smile to many of us – Shelly, a white-tailed eagle, was tagged as a chick in 2010 on Mull. Her movements were followed online by people around the world but in 2013 her tag came off bringing our ability to track her travels to an end. No more was heard of her until this summer when Iain Paterson photographed an eagle fishing in a remote sea loch in Sutherland. The leg rings in the photo identified her as Shelly and it was wonderful to learn that she and her mate, who had hatched on Lewis in 2010, were raising two chicks! Find out more about Shelly’s story.
Autumn days
A study by researchers from RSPB Scotland and the Scottish Raptor Study Group revealed that city sparrowhawks in Scotland are more successful than their country cousins. Populations of the hawks in Edinburgh and in the Ayrshire countryside were studied over four years from 2009 to 2012, and found that the urban territories were occupied far more frequently than those in the rural area and that the city hawks also had significantly higher breeding success.
The cooler weather saw the welcome return of some very special visitors in record numbers. In October 11,070 barnacle geese were recorded at our Mersehead reserve, higher than last year’s peak count of 10,035. It’s great news for a species that had only 400 birds 70 years ago. The Solway Firth is one of the most important wintering sites for these geese from Svalbard, and earlier this year, thanks to public generosity, more of this area was secured for nature; back in October 2016 we launched an urgent appeal to raise £285,000 in just one month to expand Mersehead by 112 hectares. This autumn it was great to see so many geese making a winter home for themselves back at the now bigger reserve. Come and see them for yourself!
Back into winter
Although the cold may now be creeping in and the days getting even shorter there’s still plenty of wildlife to be seen. In the last few weeks hawfinches have been spotted in a variety of places in Scotland. There are less than 1000 pairs of these birds in the UK and the upsurge in sightings across the country is down to birds that have travelled here from the continent in search of food. A rich chestnut head, rose-pink breast and huge parrot like bill make hawfinches very distinctive – have you seen any?
With 2017’s nature highlights fresh in your mind be sure to keep your eyes and ears alert – who knows what wildlife you might spot before we welcome in 2018!