Welcome to the twenty-eighth stoat snippet!
These snippets are 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.
Invasive Species Week
Last week was Invasive Species Week, and to help raise awareness of invasive species we held an event at RSPB Scotland Brodgar nature reserve for the Easter weekend. RSPB Scotland led a guided walk around the reserve trail. The weather was beautiful, with no wind for a change, and it was a great chance to do a spot of bird watching in the sunshine. Highlights included hearing skylarks singing from up high (playing spot the skylark became a popular game on the walk) as well as curlews, lapwings and oystercatchers displaying. It is finally starting to feel like spring!
We have also installed a self-guided nature trail quiz around the reserve featuring questions about native and non-native species in Orkney. The trail will remain in place until the end of the Easter holidays so pop along and give it a go.
Orkney Mainland Predator Invasion Biosecurity Project
The traps are being checked this week, so we will update you next week on the results of the checks.
Incursion responses
Hoy: Work is continuing to try and determine whether there is an individual or multiple stoats present. The traps and cameras have been checked again this week and there have been no stoats caught and no evidence of any on camera. So overall we’ve caught no stoats but had one confirmed and one potential sighting on camera.
As usual there have been some nice pictures on the trail cameras including a bonny stonechat (see below) and an inquisitive wood pigeon.
We need your help!
We are currently looking for people from Hoy, or anyone who can access Hoy easily, to volunteer to be part of a local team skilled in finding stoat sightings! Suitable volunteers will be trained to use our thermal imaging camera and in other techniques. Do get in touch if you are interested.
And please remember, if anyone thinks they have seen a stoat on Hoy or South Walls please report it immediately by phone or email.
Answering your concerns…
Some of you will have read a letter in the Postbag this week raising concerns about the experts we have consulted and a trap being placed at the side of a road.
We would like to take this opportunity to reassure everyone that we have and continue to take advice and use the knowledge and experience of folk in Scotland and across the UK as well as global experts in stoat eradication.
We can also confirm that the roadside trap that is in the photo at Waulkmill caught one stoat during the trapping trials. And across all of the trapping trial traps, ones along roadsides were just as successful as those positioned in areas similar to those suggested (stoney dykes and quarried areas). As stoats in Orkney have no predators we predicted we might see bolder behaviour from them than would be usually expected in Mainland UK, and so the aim of the trapping trial was to determine if these alternative positions and methods worked.
We hope to be able to share the full results of the trapping trials by the end of the month.
Remember, if you have any comments or concerns please contact north@snh.gov.uk or orkney@rspb.org.uk.
Once again, don't forget to keep reporting any sightings of stoats, 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 to keep up-to-date with the project, please follow our Facebook page