From the edge of the world 2024 – part 3

After just over three weeks on the island I’m now into my final week here, and it’s probably the wildest weather I’ve seen so far – continuous rain and gusts of up to 50 miles per hour all day. So, a good opportunity to sit indoors and write a blog post about what I’ve been up to!

I came to do the biosecurity volunteer role on St Kilda as a four-week sabbatical and a break from my regular job as an RSPB Warden at Conwy Nature Reserve in North Wales. The role is mostly concerned with preventing any non-native invasive species, particularly rats and other predatory mammals, from being accidentally introduced to the island, which could have a devastating impact on many of the breeding seabirds here. Any landing crafts bringing supplies to the island need to have a system of checks in place to ensure there are no stowaways, and boats have to be closely monitored during the loading and unloading of cargo on the slipway.

Read more about the biosecurity processes on St Kilda

This would normally be the responsibility of the biosecurity volunteer. However, while today’s weather may be the worst seen in several weeks here, it has generally been an exceptionally windy August, and the rough seas have meant we’ve seen very little in the way of visitor boats, let alone any landing craft. There has still been some biosecurity monitoring and recording to do though. Bait stations are positioned all around the village, and more sparsely around the rest of the island, which are monitored monthly for any signs of invasive mammals. The bait stations contain harmless wax blocks; bite marks on the blocks can be used to identify any animals present. Fortunately, the only marks so far have been from the resident St Kilda fieldmice, which were probably brought to the islands thousands of years ago and do not pose any known threat to the seabirds.

Aside from the biosecurity role, I’ve also been assisting Craig, the Seabird and Marine Ranger, with ongoing monitoring of St Kilda’s internationally important population of breeding seabirds, including puffins, Leach’s storm petrels and great skuas. There has been particular concern for St Kilda’s great skua population since an outbreak of avian influenza in 2021 and 2022 led to a decline of two thirds. The National Trust for Scotland has increased monitoring efforts for this species, while ensuring that disturbance is kept to a minimum, or avoided where possible.

Concern over slow start to seabird breeding season

There has been plenty of opportunity to see a variety of other bird species when out and about around the island, while also recording any rarities and anything else of interest. It’s been wonderful to encounter so many seabirds on a daily basis, with great skuas seen all over the islands, and Arctic skuas often flying around the village. Fulmars are also present just about everywhere around the coastline; I’ve probably never been anywhere else where they can be seen in such high numbers. Puffins were still present around their breeding colonies earlier in August but have now largely dispersed out to sea along with most of the other auks, apart from one or two black guillemots which have often been present in the bay. Gannets are often seen close in as well, while sea-watching has revealed Manx shearwaters further offshore, and several sooty shearwaters.