Welcome to the twentieth weekly stoat snippet!
These snippets will be a short update on progress with both the Orkney Native Wildlife Project and the Orkney Mainland Predator Invasion Biosecurity Project, as well as addressing any concerns that folk have raised with SNH and RSPB Scotland.
If you are new to these snippets and want to know more about the project, check out this blog.
Orkney Native Wildlife Project
We held very successful consultation events on Rousay, Eday and Sanday in the last week. On Rousay we had a great session with the local Brownies, who learnt about Orkney’s native wildlife and made a lot of craft masterpieces! The events on Eday and Sanday were really well attended. It was great to meet everyone and get some more new ideas that we can feed in to the plans for the main project later this year.
We would like to encourage everyone to keep contacting us with more ideas or thoughts about the project. So if you haven’t filled in the questionnaire yet, please do as you only have 10 days left to take part. You can find it at www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/ONWP or as a paper version at various locations around Orkney.
We are visiting Flotta today so we hope to see a lot of folk at the talk this evening:
We also had a very productive meeting with the Field Club committee last Thursday to discuss the citizen science plans. The outcomes from this will be fed into the final version of the plans, which we hope will be a successful start to a long-term project.
And remember if you are a teacher in Orkney and want to be consulted about the potential school sessions, please get in touch by emailing amy.king@snh.org.uk.
Six full checks have now been completed of the trapping trial and the initial data is being scrutinised. Remember, if you have any questions and the trapping trial or any other aspects of the project, you can contact us on the email addresses below.
Orkney Mainland Predator Invasion Biosecurity Project
The traps will be checked again next week.
Potential incursion responses
Rousay: We would ask folk who live or visit Rousay to remember to get in touch if there is even the slightest suspicion that they have seen a stoat.
Hoy: This week 58 DOC traps and 19 trail cameras have been checked this week despite high winds and constant rain on Wednesday hampering efforts.
No stoats or stoat signs have been picked up in traps or on camera footage this week. This does not mean no stoats are present as they are incredibly difficult to detect when the population is very low. One piece of footage featured a mystery animal swimming up a burn which has been identified as a rodent, but reminds us how vigilant we need to be when checking fleeting or subtle footage.
Please remember, if anyone thinks they have seen a stoat on Hoy or South Walls please report it immediately by phone or email.
In fact, if you live on any of the islands, and think you have seen a stoat, it is essential that you contact us as soon as you can by calling 01856 886163, by emailing north@snh.gov.uk or through the ‘Stoats in Orkney’ Facebook page.
Answering your concerns…
Remember, if you have any comments or concerns please contact north@snh.gov.uk or orkney@rspb.org.uk.
And, once again, don't forget to keep reporting any sightings of stoats, including those in winter coats, whether on the mainland or outer isles, as soon as possible, to SNH by calling 01856 886163, by emailing north@snh.gov.uk or through the ‘Stoats in Orkney’ Facebook page.
And remember, to keep up-to-date with the project, please follow our Facebook page.