This summer at Fowlsheugh, you may well come across a couple of people catching our seabirds. Don’t be alarmed by this, it’s all part of an important RSPB seabird research project. The most important thing to say, is that the birds are not harmed in anyway and it will not disturb them from their busy breeding season.
Fulmars, kittiwakes, razorbills and guillemots will be subtly removed from their nest sites for just a few minutes and quickly fitted with state of the art tracking devices that will measure two things:
A few days later the birds will be re caught and the tracking device removed to gather the above information.
Research has been carried out for the past two summers on seabirds nesting at a range of colonies along the West coast from the Scillies in the south to Fair Isle in the North. This will continue this summer along with the exciting addition of data collection from a range of East coast colonies including here at Fowlsheugh. The results will be used to help pinpoint important feeding areas for our seabirds. Hopefully the government will then use this scientific information to guide the designation of Marine Protected Areas throughout the UK.
Its fascinating research and very specialised. The tracking device is extremely small, (less than 20grammes) but the information obtained can be potentially enormous. One of the most spectacular tracks from last year was from a Guillemot from Fair Isle that flew to Fraserburgh to fish, there and back in 1 day……..a whopping 211 miles, that’s over three times further than anyone thought they flew to find food!!
We’ll keep you updated.