Early impressions..

I’ve had a great few days settling in and getting to know the island and its residents a bit better – which has meant a lot of exploring in the car, peering through binoculars and drinking tea – it’s a friendly place!

It is also a windy place. Which is great because it blows the rain through quickly. But there’s normally a lot more not far behind. It all seems quite fitting though and definitely adds to the atmosphere of the place, especially in the very south on the Mull of Oa and up here in the north west; both fairly rugged and windswept places. I had a fun little walk on Sunday evening just in front of where I’m staying for now at Kilchoman (islaycottages.com) on the beach at Machir Bay, sand and foam from the stormy sea blowing everywhere and beautifully deserted.

A windy Machir Bay

 

As promised, the wildlife is also spectacular. A peregrine keeping an eye on rock doves above my cottage, a pair of Golden Eagles cruising along, choughs and hen harrier heaven. I’ve seen five in five days so far – going to see how long I can keep that going for. And geese. The barnies are everywhere, literally turning green fields mottled grey, black and white; from afar it looks something like a random pebble beach in the landscape. Which then suddenly takes off, yapping like a pack of terriers, before deciding there was no reason for alarm and back they come to the same spot, slightly sheepishly. There’s even a leucistic one floating around up near here. And then there are little families of white-fronts just quietly minding their own business in boggy field corners and barley stubbles. When there’s often a few thousand barnies in one field even a couple of hundred white-fronts can be easily overlooked.

 It’s not just birds though. I had a great few minutes with a pretty fine red deer stag down at the Oa RSPB reserve, just casually wandering across the moor and then having a good old scratch, first with a hoof and then on an electricity pole – always good when you can’t reach the bits you need to, apparently..

Red deer stag

 

And a scratch..

And a better scratch..

 

 

And so we begin..

Finally getting round to posting what I wrote on Saturday. Better late than never..

The 2 hour ferry crossing from Kennacraig on Kintyre to Port Askaig on the Eastern side of Islay seems as appropriate a place as any to start this blog – which will hopefully give a bit of an insight into the fun, games and interesting places I’ll come across this winter whilst conducting fieldwork on Greenland white-fronted geese upon the Hebridean island of Islay.

I guess the first question is why?! The short answer is that Islay (pronounced eye-la) is very important for geese – and some of those are particularly interesting. Which begs the question..

Islay is renowned for whiskey (definitely the topic of a future blog post or three) and wildlife. In wildlife terms it is perhaps most famous for hosting over 40,000 barnacle geese; who come here for some winter warmth (?!) from their east Greenland breeding grounds. However in mid-late October each year the barnies are joined by Greenland white-fronts – described by a BBC World Service programme in 2008 as one of the “world’s most charismatic birds”! Whilst this may be arguable to all but the most over-enthusiastic goose aficionados, they truly are a remarkable bird. They undertake an arduous migration in the spring and autumn each year between their nesting sites in west Greenland and their wintering areas in Ireland and Scotland, via Iceland.

Rather touchingly, they live in tight-knit family groups; a rare trait in nature and unheard of amongst waterfowl. We know (from studying birds that have been caught and marked with uniquely coded orange neck collars) that some individuals will stay with their parents in a non-breeding capacity for up to nine years – probably foregoing all chance of breeding themselves, but almost certainly benefitting their family members in the process.

Y6H - marked in Iceland this year. We'll be keeping an eye out for him!

 

However the white-fronts are in trouble. They are undergoing a dramatic population crash – 40% in the last 10-15 years – from a high of 35,600 in the spring of 1999 to a current population around 22,000 birds. As such, they are classed as Endangered and in the UK are red-listed as a species of conservation concern. Critically, the Islay population has declined considerably faster than the global average – from around 13,000 to about 5,000 during the same period. The reasons behind this particular decline are what we are trying to establish through this project.  It seems that either the Islay birds aren’t getting the resources through the winter they need to successfully breed later in the year, or, they are simply spending the winter elsewhere.

I’ll save the detail of how we’ll attempt to answer these questions for another time – something to look forward to, maybe?! Meanwhile, the ferry is approaching the jetty and I’m about to set wheels on Islay for the first time. Will let you know how we get on!