Today, as well as seeing the hundreds of people off of a MASSIVE cruise ship, you may have spotted a small group of eager schoolbairns. The older children from Hamnavoe Primary School were visiting the reserve as a part of the "Bird Friendly School" project. Our Field Teacher, Rebeca, led the children around the reserve, helping them learn about seabirds and the marine environment.
The fundamental objective of field teaching is to inspire young people about the wonders of the natural world and birds in particular. We aim to spark an interest and concern which can be developed on their own, with their families, through RSPB Wildlife Explorers and through their studies.
Many children do not get the opportunity to connect with nature, and the RSPB consider field teaching of great importance. I cannot remember much from my primary school days, but do still remember the Shetland Field Studies Trust taking my class out rockpooling when I was around eight or nine years old. I hope that the bairns who visited today will return in the future, remembering their visit with the RSPB.
Quick update on Puffincam
Our puffin egg is due to hatch on 16June ish. We've been a bit concerned with the lack of change overs (male and female have shared parerntal duties - equality roolz!). This time last year, we frequently saw parents swapping over to incubate the egg, but this year we think the absent bird has been spending longer periods of time out to sea foraging (there's some really interesting work being done by RSPB on our FAME project, tracking seabirds, but I'll blog about that another day). Stay tuned to puffincam to watch the action. We'd be interested to hear if you see any behaviour (other than sleeping!!). Thanks to our partners at Promote Shetland, you can follow puffincam on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/puffincam.
Guillemots - a chick!
Many of the eggs of Martin's guillemots were lost on 8th May due to a large swell. The eggs which survived were due to hatch on 2nd of June. The first chick was seen chipping on time but died before hatching. The first chick to successfully hatch did so on the morning of the 5th June. Martin (from SOTEAG/Aberdeen University) expects to see a flurry of hatching between the 10th and 17th of June, from eggs laid in the week after the 8th May gale. Fingers crossed that things will improve for our seabirds and that some desperately needed sandeels become available.
Remember, we love seeing your pictures on the RSPB community. If you have any from Shetland, get 'em up!