Hi Everybody
I know it’s not long since I wrote but this is just a reminder about our Local Group Spring Meeting which takes place at the St Magnus Centre, Kirkwall this coming Friday 24th April starting at 7.30 pm. I hope we have a good attendance as Anna Jemmett is travelling up from Forsinard to speak to us. Details as follows: This will feature a talk by the RSPB Forsinard Information Officer, Anna Jemmett, on the RSPB's largest reserve, which comprises over 20,000 hectares of the Flow Country of Caithness and Sutherland and is the single largest area of blanket bog in the world. It is of terrific importance for a host of rare plants, birds and other wildlife. All welcome including non-members. Please stay for refreshments and a chat afterwards. There will be a voluntary collection at the door to help with the cost of room hire. With the exciting news of the white-tailed eagles nesting on Hoy we will have some information leaflets about these birds and how to differentiate from other birds of prey. You will be able to pick one up at the meeting, as well as a copy of the Local Group programme of events. I hope to see you there! Start to the 2015 season
There have been a couple of events already. Graham Brown reports on last Sunday’s Hen Harrier Sky Dancing event as follows:
A dozen folk enjoyed the RSPB Orkney Local Group's first event of the spring season, travelling to the Cottascarth hide and the Lyde Road in West Mainland in search of hen harriers on Sunday. We saw hen harriers perform their sky dancing display, briefly, and both males and ring-tails repeatedly flying across the hillside. We also watched a buzzard, a peregrine, a kestrel and a short-eared owl, as well as ravens, curlews and meadow pipits. We were joined by two holidaymakers and it was good to hear some guests had picked up Local Group programmes from the Kirkwall and Stromness tourist offices.
Drawings by Firth Primary School pupils at new Cottascarth hide (photo: Pauline Wilson)
Opening of Eddie Balfour hen harrier hide at RSPB Scotland's Cottascarth reserve
I was privileged to be asked to the opening of the new hide yesterday and very impressive it is too! It’s a large, roomy building sporting a grass roof – bright green at the moment so it will be interesting to see this in winter. Eddie Balfour was the first RSPB Officer in Orkney, and before that he was the first RSPB “Honorary Watcher” for the county. In 1943 he started the first serious study of hen harriers, a study which is still ongoing through the Orkney Raptor Study Group. Apparently this is the longest-standing continuous bird of prey study in the world (joint equal with the golden eagle study started in the Grampians in the same year). I am sure Eddie would be pleased at how well the species is doing in Orkney and the fact that we are able to transmit webcam pictures of a hen harrier nest each year. The hide was opened by pupils from Firth Primary School, who had a hand in decorating the hide, and their lovely drawings of hen harriers adorning the walls were greatly admired. Also greatly admired was the magnificent mural by Anne Bignall which takes up a whole wall of the building. I have attached a photo of this but I could only capture a small section of the mural so you can use your imagination to picture the whole! Please go along and take a look at the new hide – you won’t be disappointed.
The hide was part of the Enjoy Wild Orkney project, funded by Heritage Lottery Fund, European Regional Development Fund and the RSPB. The hide is just one of numerous elements of the Enjoy Wild Orkney project, all of which contribute to improving the experience of wildlife for local people and visitors in our isles.
Congratulations to all involved in this project! Go along and take a look. The reserve is now much easier to find thanks to new brown signs, and there’s a new reserve car park, up the new tarmac road going up the hill from the Lower Cottascarth Farm yard.
Best wishes
Pauline W/RSPB Local Group Sec