SOS PUFFIN

On Sunday the 30th of August we helped as volunteers with SOS Puffin, a project to save the puffins on the islands in the Firth of Forth. Launched in 2006 by the Scottish Seabird Centre, with funding from Viridor Credits and Scottish Natural Heritage, the five year project aims to stop the dramatic decline in puffin numbers on the islands of Craigleith and Fidra near North Berwick.

Puffin numbers on Craigleith Island had crashed from 28,000 pairs to just a few thousand, due to an invasive plant, Tree Mallow. The plant which had grown in the area for centuries, introduced by lighthouse keepers, had spread rapidly in recent years, helped by mild winters linked to climate change, choking the puffin burrows and preventing the birds from nesting and rearing their pufflings.

The support for the project has been phenomenal with over 400 volunteers going out in working parties to the islands to cut down the Tree Mallow (Lavatera arborea) and clear the islands to allow the puffins to nest again. Together with the Fife Air Cadets Conservation Group, we formed part of the biggest working group to ever go on the island.

Our journey started at North Berwick Harbour where we got our life jackets on, climbed onto the boat and made our way to Craigleith Island which took about 5 minutes. After arriving on the island we had a brief introductory chat from John Hunt who is in charge of the volunteer groups.

The equipment used to remove the tree mallow was loppers for the big plants and shears for the smaller stuff, we had to be careful not to pull out the plants as this can encourage the germination of the seeds and the dead tree mallow stems are also left to try to avoid soil erosion.

Monitoring last year showed encouragingly that puffins were returning to the islands to re-use old burrows, where the mallow had been removed. To date about half the tree mallow on Craigleith has been cleared and further spread on Fidra has been halted.

The task ahead	the Burrows we were trying to protect

Even though a lot of hard work was involved it was also a lot of fun, we were lucky to get good weather all day and the views from the island make the experience even more special.

Taking a break and enjoying the view	Here you can start to see the difference

Working away	Fruit of our work

In the afternoon we had a break followed by a walk around the island with John as our guide. In the walk we got a chance to appreciate how much tree mallow is found in other areas of the island and why it is important to keep the project going. We had to be careful not to trample on any burrows as they are scattered all over the island.

On our walk around the island	Bass Rock - covered with nesting Gannets

Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)	Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis)

On our breaks throughout the day we got a chance to observe the wildlife around the island which included Cormorants, Fulmars, Gannets on Bass Rock and even a seal payed us a visit near the end.

The Team - minus John who took this photo

Working with a large team meant that at the end of the day we actually got to see a noticeable difference in the part of the island we worked on and it felt like a big achievement for everyone. The whole day went by smoothly with John taking care of everyone and making sure that we all got on and off the island safely so a big thanks to John for all his effort and support.

John topping up the cleaning liquid for the camera	The boat heading back to the Harbour

For more information on the project and if you would like to volunteer please visit the Scottish Seabird Centre web site or click on the link to take you directly to the SOS Puffin page.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Below is some interesting information about Craigleith Island which comes from the Management Plan for the Project. It includes a list of nest counts done by the Forth Seabird Group.

Craigleith Island

Craigleith is an uninhabited island situated in the Firth of Forth, just over 1 km from North Berwick Harbour.  It is 7.67 ha in size, roughly circular in shape, rising to 52m above sea level at the east end and is surrounded by rocky shores and cliffs.

The island is owned by Sir Hew Hamilton-Dalrymple whose family has owned Craigleith and the nearby island of Bass Rock for a very long time.

The island is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) as part of the larger Forth Islands SSSI (22.5 ha) and under EU legislation is designated as a Special Protection Area (SPA) as part of the larger Forth Islands SPA (106 ha).  These designations are primarily because of the important breeding seabird populations.

Wildlife Interest

The breeding seabirds are counted each year by the Forth Seabird Group and other observations come from visits to control tree mallow and from the Seabird Centre cameras.  Main features of interest are given below:

Birds (selected species with most recent numbers given with date) :

Fulmar: 86 apparently occupied nests (2008); declining from peak of 205 AONs in 1997.
Cormorant:  41 nests (2008), a decline from 70 to 110 nests recorded in the years 2000 to 2007.  Some birds roost at the colony site during the winter.
Shag: 133 nests (2008).  Numbers have varied considerably in the past 30 years but were generally much higher in the 1980s and 1990s. 
Eider:  A decline from 182 nests in 1987 to very low numbers in recent years was thought to be partly due to the spread of tree mallow.  However there was a big increase in 2008 to at least 120 nests which may have been caused by unusual weather conditions displacing birds from other sites.  
Greylag Geese:  A flock of over 20 birds use the island throughout the year for feeding and roosting.  At least 1-2 pairs nest.
Mallard:  Small numbers nest each year, perhaps 3-5 pairs.
Peregrine:  After a long absence, nested in 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007.  Did not nest in 2008.
Greater black-backed gull:  Numbers have slowly increased in recent years to about 18 pairs (2007)
Lesser black-backed gull: 647 nests (2002) having declined from the 1990s probably due to tree mallow. 
Herring gull: 823 nests (2002) having declined from much larger numbers in the 1990s and earlier, probably due in part to tree mallow
Kittiwake: 513 apparently occupied nests (2000s) having declined from twice this number in the 1990s.
Razorbill: 147 pairs (2008)
Guillemot: c1550 birds (2008).  Has declined from over 3,000 birds since 2001.
Puffin: numbers built up from a low level after the war, increasing rapidly during the 1990s to 28,000 apparently occupied burrows in 1999 followed by decline to 12,100 burrows in 2003 as a result of tree mallow.  Numbers probably declined further after 2003 as the tree mallow cover extended to almost all the island.
Rock Pigeon / Feral Pigeon:  Nests in moderate numbers.
Passerines:  Small numbers of rock pipit, wren, blackbird, dunnock and linnet nest.  Linnets nest in the tree mallow and elder bushes and small flocks are present for much of the year.
Carrion Crow : At least one pair nest in the elder bushes.
Starling: Occasionally nests.  In the past large numbers roosted in the tree mallow during the winter but no longer.

The Forth Seabird Group website www.forthseabirdgroup.org.uk holds all their seabird records for the island from their visits over the period 1959-2008.

Seals - Common seals are occasionally recorded in the waters around the island but the main species present is the grey seal.  They are present throughout the year and in recent years they have come ashore in late autumn to breed on the south side with about 40 pups recorded in 2007 and 2008.

Most seals pup in the central “glen” area on the south side of the island. The odd one or two may be born further west, a little to the west of the normal landing place.

Status of tree mallow
This bi-annual plant is native to the south-west of the UK where it survived the last glaciation but has been introduced to a wide range of coastal sites from which it has spread.  In the Firth of Forth, tree mallow was reported as far back as the 17th century when it was seen as an asset on the Bass Rock.  The species may be classified as an alien or non-native by ecologists, but most members of the general public see it as a species that “has been here for a long time” (Fischer and Van der Wal 2007). Irrespective of its status, the species is clearly invasive in the Firth of Forth and reaches high abundance on Craigleith and Fidra and also locally on the Bass Rock though here it is prevented from spreading further by the nesting gannets. Smaller populations occur on Inchcolm (further up the Forth) and on the nearby island of the Lamb and scattered plants are found along the mainland shoreline.