Welcome to the thirty-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 Scottish Natural Heritage (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 can confirm that we submitted the funding bid to HLF yesterday along with more than 50 supporting documents. So please keep your fingers crossed.
Carmen and Rebecca have been out on Shapinsay this week meeting folk to get permissions to access land to put out more traps and cameras. A big thank you to everyone who has been supportive so far. They are back on Shapinsay today to check the Incursion Response traps (see below).
The results of the trapping trial that was conducted during the development phase of the project were released this week and nearly all the traps for the continued trial have been reopened. You can read more about that here. We’d also like to once again thank all the landowners that have helped with the trials.
Orkney Mainland Predator Invasion Biosecurity Project
The next checks of these traps are due later this month.
Incursion responses
Shapinsay: Carmen and Rebecca will finish checking the Shapinsay traps today. So we will have another update soon.
We have been making great progress to work out who owns other land on Shapinsay with landowner permissions, with Carmen and Rebecca going door-to-door. We’d like to say a big thanks to everyone on Shapinsay and also Graemsay where Amy has been knocking doors and we think we have met nearly all landowners. A member of the team will be out on Hoy and Rousay in the next few weeks looking to meet landowners there.
If you own land on Hoy, Rousay, Flotta and Wyre please get in touch.
Hoy: We have started the full check of all traps and cameras on Hoy and have completed them in the south of Hoy. We are checking more traps on Hoy today. We are also looking to meet landowners to get access permissions in place for the next stage in the incursion response which will involve using other methods to seek out signs of stoats. This is because, despite having some cameras out since September and traps since early December, we have only had the one probable stoat sighting on a camera in November and have caught no stoats in the traps.
Please remember, if you think you’ve seen a stoat on Hoy or South Walls please report it immediately by phone or email.
We take all sightings extremely seriously and really need people to be as vigilant as possible and as quick as possible at reporting any potential sightings. Stoats are more active at this time of year, so please keep an eye out when out and about.
Answering your concerns…
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