These snippets are an update on the Orkney Native Wildlife Project. If you are new to our blog and want to know more about the project do visit our website www.onwp.org

Covid-19

Over recent weeks the project has been continually reviewing and changing work practices to follow government advice concerning Covid-19. This week it has become necessary to close our office premises for three weeks and suspend our wildlife…

Welcome to the 84th Stoat Snippet!

These snippets are an update on the Orkney Native Wildlife Project, as well as addressing any concerns that folk have raised. If you are new to our blog and want to know more about the project, check out this blog and this one too as well as our website www.onwp.org.

Eradication progress

Since the New Year our trap teams have been joined by RSPB wardens helping us lay traps on areas…

These snippets are an update on the Orkney Native Wildlife Project. If you are new to these snippets and want to know more about the project, check out this blog and this one too.

Tracking tunnels

Tracking tunnels – also known as footprint tunnels - are used to detect or monitor the presence of mammals in an area by identifying their footprints. They are very simply constructed, with a long tunnel about 10 cm high and 80…

These snippets are an update on the Orkney Native Wildlife Project as well as addressing any concerns that folk have raised. If you are new to these snippets and want to know more about the project, check out this blog and this one too.

Orkney Native Wildlife Project

We are very grateful to the 700 plus landowners who have given their permission for our team to access their land and lay the trap network across Orkney Mainland…

Curlew and lapwing are two iconic wading birds which feature strongly in the memories of many people who have grown up by farmland or the coast. Along with other waders, they breed on lowland wetland, which makes up a significant portion of the habitat managed by RSPB Orkney. Their numbers have, however, fallen dramatically in the past few decades across the UK, and my MSc project aims to help understand why, by investigating…

Welcome to the 81st stoat snippet!

These snippets are an update on the Orkney Native Wildlife Project as well as addressing any concerns that folk have raised.

If you are new to these snippets and want to know more about the project, check out this blog and this one too.

Orkney Native Wildlife Project

It has been a busy few months here in which we welcomed the first of the hundreds of trap boxes into the workshop to be calibrated…

Staff and volunteers who have spent the summer greeting visitors to Eaglewatch in the Dwarfie Stone car park in Hoy have been very fortunate this year. It’s been full of surprises, some ups and downs, but ultimately ended in success and with thousands of visitors (including one very famous wizard) getting great views of the white-tailed eagles. Catch up on all the action below.

 The Hoy eagles

The white-tailed eagles…

Orkney is home to the most northerly nesting colony of little terns in Britain.

This colony nests on the beach at Churchill Barrier 4 between the islands of Burray and South Ronaldsay.

We (the local RSPB Scotland team) were increasingly concerned about their future because little terns had struggled to breed successfully on the beach for many years. Little terns are site faithful which means they will continue to return…

These snippets are an update on the Orkney Native Wildlife Project as well as addressing any concerns that folk have raised.

If you are new to these snippets and want to know more about the project, check out this blog and this one too.

Orkney Native Wildlife Project

We were delighted to welcome the local Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate (SGRPID) to our Kirkwall…

Welcome to the 79th stoat snippet!

These snippets are an update on the Orkney Native Wildlife Project as well as addressing any concerns that folk have raised.

If you are new to these snippets and want to know more about the project, check out this blog and this one too.

Orkney Native Wildlife Project

Our trapping team continues to progress land access. To date nearly 500 landowners are supporting the project and the preservation…

Welcome to the 78th stoat snippet!

These snippets are an update on the Orkney Native Wildlife Project as well as addressing any concerns that folk have raised.

If you are new to these snippets and want to know more about the project, check out this blog and this one too.

Orkney Native Wildlife Project

The trapping team have been progressing land access, as well as checking Mainland biosecurity trap checks.

The first meeting…

Stoat Snippet 77

These snippets are an update on the Orkney Native Wildlife Project as well as addressing any concerns that folk have raised. If you are new to these snippets and want to know more about the project, check out this blog and this one too.

Orkney Native Wildlife Project

Since the last Stoat Snippet we welcomed three new members to the trapping team. Martyn Bell, James Winter and Charlotte Cooper joined us dedicated…

Welcome to the 76th stoat snippet!

These snippets are an update on the Orkney Native Wildlife Project as well as addressing any concerns that folk have raised. If you are new to these snippets and want to know more about the project, check out this blog and this one too.

Orkney Native Wildlife Project

Apologies that we haven’t had a snippet for a while. We have been busy welcoming new members to the extended team and settling…

Orkney’s only pair of nesting white-tailed eagles have again taken up residence above the Dwarfie Stone and have been drawing the crowds over Easter, with more than 500 people calling past the Dwarfie Stone car park for their chance to spot the birds already! 

The resident pair were seen on the island through the winter and although they put in a lot of effort to rebuild last year’s nest, they suddenly decided it…

Welcome to the seventy-fifth stoat snippet!

These snippets are a short update on the Orkney Native Wildlife Project as well as addressing any concerns that folk have raised.

If you are new to these snippets and want to know more about the project, check out this blog and this one too.

Orkney Native Wildlife Project

Apologies that we haven’t had a snippet for a few weeks, many of the team have been full of cold and we’ve…

Welcome to the seventy-fourth stoat snippet!

These snippets are a short update on the Orkney Native Wildlife Project as well as addressing any concerns that folk have raised.

If you are new to these snippets and want to know more about the project, check out this blog and this one too.

Orkney Native Wildlife Project

There were no new starts this week, but the Senior Research Assistant, Thomas, and the three Research Assistants…

Welcome to the seventy-third stoat snippet!

These snippets are a short update on the Orkney Native Wildlife Project and the Orkney Mainland Predator Invasion Biosecurity Project, as well as addressing any concerns that folk have raised.

If you are new to these snippets and want to know more about the project, check out this blog and this one too.

Orkney Native Wildlife Project

We have now appointed the Senior Research…

Welcome to the seventy-second stoat snippet!

These snippets are a short update on the Orkney Native Wildlife Project and the Orkney Mainland Predator Invasion Biosecurity Project, as well as addressing any concerns that folk have raised.

If you are new to these snippets and want to know more about the project, check out this blog and this one too.

Orkney Native Wildlife Project

We have now finished our interviews for the…

Last Thursday's work group found us out in Hoy with a bunch of enthusiastic volunteers. Hoy is home to the most northerly native woodland in Britain, Berriedale, which is a precious remnant of the woodland that once covered most of Orkney. Considering the generally treeless landscape that Orkney is now famous for, this is something we’re very proud of. The woodland can be found off the post road, sheltered in between…

Welcome to the seventy-first stoat snippet!

These snippets are a short update on the Orkney Native Wildlife Project and the Orkney Mainland Predator Invasion Biosecurity Project, as well as addressing any concerns that folk have raised.

If you are new to these snippets and want to know more about the project, check out this blog and this one too.

Orkney Native Wildlife Project

Today we have been interviewing for the Senior…

Welcome to the seventieth stoat snippet!

These snippets are a short update on the Orkney Native Wildlife Project and the Orkney Mainland Predator Invasion Biosecurity Project, as well as addressing any concerns that folk have raised.

If you are new to these snippets and want to know more about the project, check out this blog and this one too.

Orkney Native Wildlife Project

The closing date is now passed for the four seasonal…

Welcome to the sixty-ninth stoat snippet!

These snippets are a short update on the Orkney Native Wildlife Project and the Orkney Mainland Predator Invasion Biosecurity Project, as well as addressing any concerns that folk have raised.

If you are new to these snippets and want to know more about the project, check out this blog and this one too.

Orkney Native Wildlife Project

The four seasonal research jobs – one senior research…

Welcome to the sixty-eighth stoat snippet!

These snippets are a short update on the Orkney Native Wildlife Project and the Orkney Mainland Predator Invasion Biosecurity Project, as well as addressing any concerns that folk have raised.

If you are new to these snippets and want to know more about the project, check out this blog and this one too.

Orkney Native Wildlife Project

We are continuing to finalise the paperwork…

It's been a great month for otter sighting on Orkney. With otters seen at Brig O'Waithe, Harry Loch, from the Barnhouse hide and on Wednesday morning in Stennes Loch opposite the Stones of Stennes! I had been out to see if I could do the winter passerine survey, at our Brodgar nature reserve, but the weather conditions were not right. Fair to say I was feeling very disappointed, it' had been a very office based…

The cliffs and seas around Orkney are nationally important for a range of seabirds, but unfortunately seabirds in the UK have generally been having a difficult time of it in recent years, with a host of increasing pressures on them. Around the coasts of the UK, these include the effects of climate change on their food supply, activities associated with some fishing practices (such as overfishing of seabird prey and seabirds…