In 1952, Aberlady Bay was the first site to be designated a Nature Reserve in the UK. Its great variety of habitats, from low water to salt marsh and sand dunes, makes it an important breeding site for the local bird life, as well as migrants. As in most of the sites covered in this tour, the birds that you may be able to spot differ according to the season. In autumn, Aberlady Bay is the wintering ground of over 30,000 pink-footed geese migrating from Iceland up to the coasts of South Europe and North Africa. Passerines such as Wheatears, Whitethroats, and Blackcaps also nest on site, along with species of waders like the Redshank or the Lapwing.
The Waterston House is the headquarters of the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club (SOC). The SOC was created in March 1936 after a meeting between Scottish ornithologists in the Royal Scottish Geographical Society with the goal to coordinate bird conservation actions and policies in Scotland. The Club promotes systematic recording and study of birds across gardens and nature reserves, and forms a network of local ornithologists all around the country. The Waterston House contains the Donal Watson Gallery, specializing in wildlife art, and the George Waterston Library and Archives collection, containing ornithological books, journals and bird reports since 1948. It also houses ornithological artefacts such as notebooks, correspondence and photographs from members of the SOC and of eminent Scottish ornithologists like Evelyn V. Baxter, Leonora J. Rintoul, and George Waterston.
The Scottish Ornithologists’ Club; Pioneers in Scottish Ornithology, chapter in Bob McGowann and David Clugston, The Birds of Scotland (2007), edited by the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club
The Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick is a conservation charity and visitor centre, dedicated to the research and protection of seabird wildlife on The Bass Rock, as well as across the Firth of Forth, and further afield. The most iconic are the local colonies of puffins, pelagic seabirds with brightly coloured beaks that feed primarily by diving in the water. These unique birds can be found on many of the uninhabited islands in the Firth of Forth.
The Scottish Seabird Centre was opened by a team of local ornithologists in May 2000. Their goal was to use technologies, such as webcams, to enable locals to witness life on the surrounding seabird colonies in the Firth of Forth without disturbing the wildlife. The Centre not only has a role in sharing knowledge and interest for the marine wildlife, but also participates in its conservation by running several projects like recruiting volunteers to protect the puffins from invasive plant species on the island of Craigleith and cleaning the North Berwick beaches.
The webcams in the Seabird Centre facilitate viewing from afar a kittiwake colony in Dunbar, the gannets of Bass Rock, and the puffins of Craigleith Island and the Isle of May. The Centre is also the departure point for boat trips to some islands of the Firth of Forth which are home to many seabird species (Bass Rock, Craigleith, the Lamb and the Isle of May).
Bass Rock is an uninhabited island which lies in the Firth of Forth off North Berwick. Despite its rocky landscape, it was a royal jail in the 17th century, nicknamed the ‘Scottish Alcatraz’. Sold to the Hamilton-Dalrymple family, it was then used as a seabird hunting ground, a sheep grazing area, and a site to collect eggs or fish.
It is now a nature reserve, home to more than 150,000 birds and the world’s largest colony of Northern Gannets. The scientific name of gannets Morus Bassanus derives from the Bass Rock and its key role for gannet populations. In fact, the Gannets of Bass Rock faced a dramatic decline in 2022 due to the highly pathogenic avian influenza which killed more than 5,000 birds on the island.
The Bass Rock’ distinctive shape and interesting past inspired many works of fiction, from Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Lion Is Rampant by Ross Laidlaw, Tge New Confessions by William Boyd and the 2021 Stella Prize-winning The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld. Though access is restricted as not to disturb the nesting birds, the Bass Rock can be visited by a number of boat tours from North Berwick.
Sources:
Individual Researcher Walk; Scottish Seabird Centre; The Scotsman
As of 1956, the Isle of May is one of Scotland’s 45 National Nature Reserves and belongs to NatureScot. The island is only accessible by boats which depart from each side of the Firth of Forth (North Berwick or Anstruther) and visitors can stay only 2.5 hours on land in order to minimize disturbance to the colony. A warden, assistant warden, volunteers and several researchers monitoring many aspects of the local wildlife live for up to 9 months a year on the island.
Notably, the island is home to the biggest Scottish puffin colony! From cliff-breeding seabirds such as guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes, fulmars to cormorants, Arctic terns or sea ducks such as Eiders, the island boasts many observable species. The island is also famous for its lighthouses. One was built in 1816 by Robert Stevenson, architect of many Scottish lighthouses and grandfather of the writer Robert Louis Stevenson; the other was built in 1843 and has now converted into a bird observatory.
Founded in 1934 in one of the two lighthouses of the island, the Isle of May Bird Observatory is Scotland’s oldest bird observatory. The Isle of May was and still is a key location for the study of birds, particularly the understanding of bird migration. It is notably where the two ornithologists and founders of the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club, Evelyn V. Baxter and Leonora J. Rintoul, conducted fundamental work in the early 20th century to study birds’ migration. You can learn more about their findings in the 1918 publication ‘The Birds of the Isle of May: a migration study’ in the journal from the British Ornithologists’ Union. The observatory is still running today and contributes to the monitoring of birds migrating over Scotland.
Sources:
Individual Researcher Walk; Isle of May Bird Observatory; Scottish Seabird Centre; Scottish Ornithologists’ Club
